Misfit Markets: Our First Experience

When my husband and I first noticed that fresh fruits and vegetables were becoming scarce and hard to find at our grocery store, I began searching for some other options.  I stumbled upon Misfits Market and thought it might be a good option for us.

Using only organic produce, Misfits Market sends out boxes to their customers filled with fruits and vegetables that are considered unfit for grocery store sales.  Sometimes the fruits have soft spots or they're smaller than they should be.  Sometimes the vegetables are larger than normal or a bit misshapen.

I knew we might not be able (or willing) to use everything that was sent to us.  I knew we'd probably get some new to us fruits and vegetables that I'd have to figure out to prepare.  I thought I was up for the challenge.

Thankfully most of the fruits and vegetables I did not recognize in our first box came with labels on them so I could look them up.

We received our first box Wednesday March 25th and immediately dug in to see what we had received.  Being a large family of 5 and knowing I cook every night (and usually with 2 vegetable side options) we had opted for the larger box delivery.  Here's what was in our box:

• 4 Large onions
• 2 heads romaine
• 5 slightly bruised apples
• a variety of broccoli we had never seen before
• 4 Crespo (which after Googling I found out they're small mangos)
• 5 tiny  clementines
• 2 large bundles of collard greens
• a pummelo (which is like a really large grapefruit)
• 4 turnips
• a bunch of fresh ginger
• 2 large cucmbers
• an assortment of fingerling potatoes
• an assortment of beets
• 2 zucchini 

I immediately pulled out the two zucchinis and sliced them along with a 1/2 diced onion to sauté and serve up with our spaghetti and meatballs.  Since my husband and I are the only ones that eat zucchini we had plenty.

The next morning I watched a video on how to peel the Pummelo and I had a 1/4 of it with my breakfast.  I got each of the younger boys to try some and my husband and I spent a few days snacking off it in the morning while preparing breakfast. 

I peeled the apples and put them in the crock pot to make some homemade applesauce.

I diced up one of the heads of romaine and added it into our salad (later in the week I made another salad using up the last of the romaine). We had not been able to find romaine in the store and so I was happy to have found it in our box.

I also peeled and cut up the mango. I put a few pieces in my iced tea and had a delicious salad for lunch with tuna and fresh mangos.  I enjoyed this lunch so much I ate it two days in a row finishing off the mango.

For dinner I had planned to cook up fish (with chicken fingers for the boys) and I decided to roast turnips with onions and potatoes for my husband and I.  I also mixed in the unusual broccoli with some of our traditional broccoli and steamed it for all of us since my boys really like broccoli.  

One morning as I was making our large salad and prepping some other vegetables for dinner I decided to peel and dice the beets and roast them with a bit of vegetable oil and garlic salt.  I then re-heated them at lunch with some leftover couscous and pork tenderloin;  it was really quite delicious!

So in just a few days we managed to use

• 4 Large onions
• 2 heads romaine
• 5 slightly bruised apples
• a variety of broccoli we had never seen before
• 4 Crespo (which after Googling I found out they're small mangos)
• 5 tiny clementines
• 2 large bundles of collard greens
• a pummelo (which is like a really large grapefruit)
• 4 turnips
• a bunch of fresh ginger
• 2 large cucumbers
• an assortment of fingerling potatoes
• an assortment of beets
• 2 zucchini 

We used 2 of the onions between the turnips, zucchini, and Ian's sandwiches and then diced up the other two to freeze and have onion on hand to flavor soups, casseroles, and dishes.

We ate the cucumbers as snacks with carrot sticks and dip which just left us with collard greens and ginger that we really did not know what to do with.

I am not a fan of cooked spinach because of it's texture and knew collard greens would be like that... in the end they ended up going bad and we threw them away.

All in all though I was very pleased with our box and can't wait to see what the next one brings!  We opted for delivery every other week but I think we'll be changing that to every week.

Have you ever tried a food delivery service like this?  What did you think?

Linking Up With: