Last fall Imperfect Produce came to Indy and and I couldn’t wait to try it! Imperfect Produce allows us to get organic (or conventional) fruits & veggies at a discount delivered to our door every week. It feels great because otherwise this perfectly edible produce would be tossed out due to being too small, too large, lop-sided or overstocked.
I expected to sacrifice quality when going this route, however, we haven’t received one item that isn’t perfectly edible. A crooked carrot is still a delicious carrot! It’s worked so well for us that we kicked up our order from a medium to a large box. (a large 20ish pound all organic box is ~$35/wk and conventional is ~$20/wk)
Every week we get an email telling us it’s time to customize our box. I log in and simply go down a long list of produce (and now non-produce) and select what we want that week. There’s a picture and description of the item as well as the reason it’s considered “imperfect.” If I don’t customize they simply send me an assortment of produce, based on our box size. But I always customize – it’s too fun not to!
Anther plus – we can skip a week any time. On vacation, no problem. I plan to skip a few months while the garden is producing this summer, but I can turn it right back on when we’re ready.
One unexpected benefit is the amount of variety it’s brought into our kitchen. I would have to make a trip to a fancy food store to get this kind of diversity. Here’s just a few things we’ve been able to add to our kitchen:
- Purple potatoes – full of a CRAZY amount of nutrients!
- Fennel – great for salads and roasting
- Sunchokes – these just came yesterday and I can’t wait to roast them
- Poppy seeds – a change of packaging means I got a pound of them for a couple bucks
- Mushrooms – we’ve tried more types of mushrooms than I knew existed
- Daikon radish – a tasty and crunchy snack when sliced into thin rounds
There are a couple downsides to Imperfect Produce. We’ve experienced differences in quality between the two of us in Indy and Houston. The apples Kyle and I receive are super delicious, while the apples Jeff and Lex receive are bland and just meh. There’s also a smaller selection than in grocery stores (which is to be expected). If you’re wanting strawberries but they’re not in season, then you’re out of luck. This is a negative if you’re heart is set on something, but for us it’s been a positive as it forces us to eat in the season and try new produce!
Some of the things I find myself choosing every week are potatoes and sweet potatoes, carrots, grapefruit, grape tomatoes, berries (if available), mushrooms, mushrooms, and more mushrooms, broccoli, oranges, and leafy greens. This is most of the produce I used to buy every week at the grocery stores, therefore my weekly Imperfect Produce boxes have basically replaced the majority of my grocery store trips!
Just this spring they added non-produce items. Some are “imperfect” in that they are going to expire in a few months or they’ve had a change in packaging. Others are simply high-end junk-food, which is annoying to scroll past. I stick to the produce, but if you wanted to get all your groceries from one delivery service, that’s an option.
Imperfect arrived in Houston just a few months ago so Lexie could join in on the fun. Now if we can only get them to open up shop in Fort Wayne by September… ?
Thanks for sharing our post on Pinterest!