Guess who got a ride to a Farmers Market last week! So happy.
I'm lucky in that I can get most of my groceries delivered from WalMart, but one thing I really miss is a steady source of fresh, seasonal, often local, produce.
I signed up for Misfits Market deliveries back when they were first getting started, I think in 2020. I liked a lot of things about the concept, ordered produce and other groceries regularly, and despite not-infrequent quality issues, stuck with them as they grew and experimented with features. I enjoyed the challenge of the delivery day food-prep extravaganza, necessary when a person with a tiny fridge is faced with a whole carton of produce. And I ordered other groceries, like the only commercially produced naan that I really like and have never found anywhere else. When another blogger posted positive reviews of Misfits and celebrated that delivery was getting cheaper, I thought, great, they are rolling this out and soon the reduced cost will reach me here in the hinterlands! Instead, I was suddenly hit with
increased charges for delivery. So...some customers were being charged more to subsidize the free or cheaper services now offered to others? This seemed so counter to the ethos of the company that I stopped ordering from them and wrote to the company president to express my disappointment. He asked me to contact someone else in the company for assistance. Why? Was I going to get a Squeaky Wheel reward of special treatment that other customers would then have to subsidize? Not a solution I wished to participate in. The whole thing left a very bad taste in my mouth.
I later looked at a couple of alternative delivery and CSA plans, but nothing really fit my one-person needs. So I shifted to simply having more frozen and canned vegetables and fruit delivered from WalMart, which has worked out very well. And stocking up when I have the chance to visit an Aldi or other market in person. And of course trading between gardeners when possible. Because there is nothing like fresh.
So getting to a farmers market last Thursday was quite a treat, and I'm just finishing the last of the Silver Queen corn and the strawberries, working my way through the nectarines and apples, and getting ready to tackle the cabbage and cantaloupe. This is more fresh produce than I've had in the house at one time in ages, which is what made me think about Misfits.
And now it's raining again, so I will postpone cleaning a barn and carting the bedding out to one of the garden areas. That's a job for a cool but not rainy day. Maybe I'll bake something instead. With apples. Or nectarines.
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Farmer's markets are a wonderful thing!
ReplyDeleteIt was genuinely thrilling!
DeleteWe have a nice local farmer's market but their prices are beyond outlandish. They charge at least three times as much as you can buy in the stores which rankles the Resident Chef no end. So...we don't go. Mind you, he can't walk it anymore so it's a moot point.
ReplyDeleteOne of the nearby farmers markets was like that, and I only purchased very specific things there once in a while. My own town farmers market has struggled to survive, so I used to drive into town nearly every week and purchase at least one thing from as many vendors as possible to encourage them to keep coming. I hope they are doing better now but I haven't been for a long time because an 8-mile roundtrip walk (including 4 homeward miles with a backpack full of veg) is really not an option for me at the moment. Solidarity, RC!
DeleteI quit Misfits because of rising delivery costs as well. Like you, I love the concept, but realistically it pushed my grocery budget beyond its capabilities. It seems to depend on where one lives.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have worked out a very good option for yourself though. That's so much of what life is all about.
Agreed. I have a lot of experience with workarounds!
DeleteBelatedly - glad you had a chance to stock up on fresh fruit and sweet corn. What a treat!!
ReplyDeleteChris from Boise