Low Tech Kitchen

I'll be honest.  I don't like doing the dishes.  It is my least favorite household chore.  When my children were younger and we were still homeschooling, there was a lot of eating happening at my house.   Way back, Deus Ex Machina worked close enough to home that he was able to have lunch with us.  Three meals a day for five people.  

Even today, for the most part, we eat most of our meals here at home (and our grocery bill shows it!).  I make breakfast for Deus Ex Machina before he goes to work every day; Deus Ex Machina takes lunch (usually leftovers) from home; if my daughters have the day off, they make their own breakfast and lunch here at home, and I make dinner every night for the four adults who still live here.

If I weren't careful, all that eating at home would generate a mountain of dishes, and in the past, it had.  To combat that potentiality, everyone has his/her own plate, bowl, and mug.  We use jars for glasses.  

I used to have a bunch of kitchen appliances, too.  I had a bread maker, but we didn't like the cubes of bread, and so I started making bread by hand.  My favorite was one-hour French bread, which, literally, took an hour and baked on a cookie sheet or the pizza stone - not in a bread pan.  I had a food processor until the motor burned out, and I never replaced it.  I had a pasta maker, which was cool, but then, we went gluten free, and by the time I learned to make gluten free pasta, I no longer had the pasta maker. 

The problem with all of those amazing appliances is that they take up a lot of space.  None of my appliances had a home on my counters, because I only have a very tiny amount of counter space.  So, before I could even use them, I needed to make room for them on the counter, and then, get the appliance out of its hidey-hole.  

Additionally, while they might cut the prep time down, they increase the clean-up time.  It takes a lot less time and effort to wash a bowl and the cutting board than it does to deal with the bread maker - wait for it to cool off, wash and dry the pan and the paddle, and then, put it all away.  I still have to clean the bowl, cutting board (for kneading), and pan when I bake bread by hand, but everything just takes less time, for me, and there's no bulky appliance to deal with.

The other issue, to which I have already alluded, is that I have a very tiny kitchen with no drawers and only a few cabinets.  Space is at a premium, and I just can't afford to have things that only serve a single purpose and are only used intermittently.  

As such, I have learned to do a lot of things with very simple tools.  Like peeling carrots.  In the 20+ years that Deus Ex Machina and I have been married, I have never owned a carrot peeler.  I use a knife.  It works just fine.  Granted a carrot peeler is small and doesn't take up space, but having a few really good, sharp, paring knives work just as well, and I can use them for other things, too.  Like slicing the carrots after I've peeled them.  One tool.  Two jobs.  

I have a hand mixer, but for a lot of things, I've found that mixing with a wood spoon works just as well.  No need to pull out the electric appliance, find the mixer blades, plug it in, whip the potatoes, disassemble the machine, wash the paddles, and put everything away.  Instead, I just get the wooden spoon and whip the potatoes by hand.  Then, I use the same spoon to stir in the butter, and to serve the potatoes.  One tool.  Three jobs.  

The other day I posted a list of last minute, hand-made Christmas gifts.  One of them was a DIY seed sprouter using a repurposed glass jar.  The one I used was a Classico pasta sauce jar. I like those jars, because the jar lid is the same size as a regular mouth mason jar.  In fact, the jars Classico uses are "mason" brand jars.  I reuse the jars for everything from drinking glasses to canning ... and now seed sprouting.

It actually works pretty well for seed sprouting.  I still have my Bioset sprouter, and I will still use it, until it breaks, which it will, and when that happens, it will be nice to know that I have an alternative, that won't take up any more space in my kitchen, and uses something that I already have in abundance.

What are your favorite low-tech kitchen tools for which everyone else has a fancy alternative?

Here's to All You New Preppers

I saw an article this morning.  The headline was "Maine Fireplace Businesses See Boost Amid Pandemic."  Much of the article is focused on the fact that due to the pandemic more homeowners and businesses are investing in outdoor heating.  Here in Maine, heat is necessary, of course, and since there are restrictions regarding indoor gathering, restaurants are trying to adapt to stay in business.

But there was also a section of the article that focused on home heating, with the comment that "more people are staying home and doing projects."

Well ... maybe people are trying to make their homes more pleasant by adding a fireplace.

And maybe, like so many of us in the prepper world have mentioned - a few times ... and then a few more - being prepared to live without electricity and other "modern" conveniences is not a bad idea.  The worst thing that will happen is, there's a nice fire in the fireplace to take the chill off and help save a few dollars in heating costs during the winter.  The best thing is, if the power goes out, there's a way to heat one's home.

The Organic Prepper published an article recently by J.G. Martinez, who survived the economic and social collapse in Venezuela.  Mr. Martinez writes about the four things he wished he had known prior to experiencing that collapse.  The first is about supplies, and it's very much what many preppers have been recommending.  Skills are better than things.  Ingredients are better than items.  For instance, knowing how to source and purify water could, in reality, be a life saver.  Knowing how to make soap from wood ash (to make lye) and animal fat is superior to storing a dozen bars of Ivory soap.  The reason, as Mr. Martinez points out, is that those bars of soap will run out, because the emergency will likely last longer than you anticipated.

So, the fireplace article was interesting, and I wonder how many of those people who have been having fireplaces and woodstoves installed or updated in recent months have done so because they are starting to see something unsettling in what's happening in our world.

 If any of you are new to the prepping scene, welcome!  Please feel free to ask questions.  Either I, or one of my regular readers, probably knows the answer :).  

Five Last Minute Gifts from the Homestead

I am notoriously bad at holiday gift buying.  

The fact is that I don't really like to shop, especially these days.  I get overwhelmed at the store - at all stores, really, especially when I am trying to shop for someone else.  I'm just not very good at it.  There are too many choices, and most of it just costs too much.  

The truth is, I would rather give homemade gifts, anyway.  With a homemade gift, I have to spend time thinking about what I can make for THAT person, and price is never the final consideration, because a lot of the time - most of the time, really - when I'm making a homemade gift, it will be from things I have here at my house already.

I am actually quite thankful that I never fell into the Marie Kondo lifestyle.  While I do appreciate the idea of clutter-free, I also value the ability to make what I need from what I have.  The ability to do so is the basis of preparedness.

Sometimes, though, I need inspiration.  I need ideas on things I could make.  One of the problems, for me, with most of the articles featuring homemade gift ideas is that the gifts are usually food centric, personal hygiene items, or are tchotchke-kinds of gifts - especially the ones that upcycle or repurpose materials.  Those are all great things, except ...

These days, giving food is challenging.  Everyone has some dietary restriction or choice that limits what can be made for them. In just my family, we have vegans, locavores, several gluten-free folks, and a couple of people who don't eat sugar.  

It's the same deal for personal hygiene items.  Bath bombs would be great ... if I took baths.  I don't.  Most of the people I know don't.  Most of us shower.  I also have very sensitive skin, and I'm particular about the soap I use.  So, fancy soaps or bath additives just don't work.  

As for trinkets, honestly, I have absolutely no use for a snow globe made out of a baby food jar, and while that snowman made from an old pair of socks is wicked cute, for me, it just takes up space on my bookshelves that could be used for books.  

Since I wouldn't give something that I wouldn't use, most of the usual suggestions don't work, for me.  So, I tried to come up with some things that I would use, that I could also make.  Here's my list:

Storage Boxes

I actually adore storage boxes, baskets, and little wooden crates.  What I don't love is how much they cost, especially given that the storage boxes one can get at the craft store these days are made of cardboard.  

Just like a shoebox, right?

I've been keeping shoeboxes, because they're great for storage, and I thought, what a fun gift to cover the boxes in a snazzy paper.  One could use old maps, sheet music, pages from magazines or old catalogs, construction paper, actual wrapping paper, pages from old books, etc.  I mean, the possibilities are pretty limitless with regard to what one uses to cover the box. 

For my box, I used some fancy scrapbooking paper.  

I used regular old Elmer's glue and a paint brush.  Worked great.  Here are a couple of finished boxes.  These are mine.  If I were doing it for someone else, I would probably take a little more care to smooth everything out and take care where I put the seams.

Tin Can Safe

Back on my old blog, I wrote an article about hiding valuables in plain sight.  The idea is that most people take things at face value.  That's the idea behind this gift.  It's just another can in the pantry, right? 

Making this item requires a can opener that slices open the side of the lid rather than opening the top.  The lid will, then, fit back down on the can, and depending on how often one opens it, it could be sealed with a little bit of glue or rubber cement.  

Book Safe

In keeping with the hide-in-plain-sight theme, this gift can be a good place to store valuables.  Most people don't even look at the books on the shelf.  

Making the book safe takes a bit longer than the others, because it takes time for the glue to dry.  For this project, just find an old hard cover book, glue all of the pages together (for this book, I used a spray on glue, but regular white glue brushed on with a paint brush or even a glue stick would also work really well), cut out the center, et, voila!  Book safe.  

For a really special gift, it might be fun to find an ironic title, like Treasure Island or The Hiding Place.  

Seed Sprouter

I love sprouts, especially during the winter when I don't have fresh greens in the garden.  Sure, I can purchase lettuce at the store for salads, and I do, occasionally, but it's also nice to be able to make a salad with sprouts from my own kitchen. 

I have this sprouter from Johnny Seed, but just a jar with a lid would work just as well. 


This jar was from marinara sauce.  I just punched holes in the lid using a finishing nail.  One could also drill holes in the lid.  Then, I put a piece of cheese cloth over the jar and attached the lid.  The cheese cloth will keep the small seeds from dropping out of the openings in the lid.  

I added a tablespoon of seeds and filled the jar about halfway with water.  I probably added too much water, but it doesn't really matter.  What matters is: 1.  the seeds get wet; 2. the water is completely drained.   I had to shake the the jar to get the water out, and then, I laid the jar on its side on the counter.  I will add water to the jar, and then, drain the water every day.  I should have sprouts big enough to eat in three days.

If one were to add some seed packets (radish, broccoli, alfalfa, clover, kale, mung bean), it would be a lovely gift for a friend who wants to get into sprouting, but isn't 100% committed to the idea.  It will give him/her a chance to see if he/she likes sprouting before investing in a fancy (read: expensive) set up.

Oven Mitt/Pot Holder

I taught a sewing class at my homeschool co-op one tri-mester.  The first project we tackled was oven mitts.  It couldn't be simpler.  I used an old pair of blue jeans and an old towel.  I traced around my hand in a mitten shape.  I cut out two of each material for one mitt.  The blue jeans are on the outside and the towel serves as an extra insulative layer inside the mitt.    

I sewed each towel layer to the blue jean layer.  With right sides together, I sewed the blue jean layers together, and then, turned the whole thing inside out.  I used one of the belt loops for the loop to hang up the mitt.

Including stopping to take pictures, the whole project took about an hour.  

One could make a set with a pot holder, too, using the same technique, except with only one inside towel layer sandwiched between the blue jean layers.  

I love to give gifts, and I really love to make things, too.  It's nice when I get to be creative and give someone something that is useful and homemade - but also didn't take six months of planning and preparation to get done.  Nothing on this list would take more than a day - from start to finish - except, maybe, the book safe.  

What are some of your favorite last minute gifts to make?

If Poverty is a Disease, Prepping is the Antidote

I was a very poor college student - married with kids and never, quite, making those ends meet, no matter how hard I pulled at the strings. I don't really know where I fell in the economic spectrum, but income-wise I was probably well below the mark that divides people who are (supposedly) financially independent and those who aren't making enough money to subsist at any level. It was, literally, a matter of shuffling the bills and paying the one that was most urgent (like paying the past due rent so that we wouldn't get evicted and letting some other bill lag).

As a full-time college student with children and a job, I didn't have to time to sit at the social security office waiting for a case worker who would scowl at me, ask me a lot of very personal questions, and then, decide if I was worthy (or unworthy) enough for assistance, and frankly, I didn't want to. It was bad enough applying for food stamps, which I did, once, as a graduate student, when a promised summer job fell through and I was unemployed for a few months.

Being poor is demoralizing, because, as a culture, we tend to take a pretty negative view of those who can't seem to take care of themselves or their families. We always assume that they're poor through some lack of moral fortitude that enables the rest of us to hold down a well-paying job.

Over the past decade (starting with the 2008 housing market crash with a huge exacerbation created by the 2020 Pandemic), the face of the poor has been changing. Our middle-class perceptions of who and what poor people are were never entirely fair, but what's happening now, as discussed in this article, entitled The Growing Problem of Suburban Poverty is that previously middle class people, those who formerly had steady jobs and incomes, some savings, and a 401K plan, are the new poor.

Sadly, however, unlike those who were living just above the poverty line, the average middle-class suburbanite is woefully ill-equipped to handle poverty-level incomes. Perhaps the worse is their own perceptions of poverty that don't allow them to seek the help they need early enough for that help to be useful, but rather begin to draw on their personal resources (which prove to be woefully inadequate), including a positive credit rating that allows them to try to borrow their way out of poverty. Of course, when we're thinking logically the notion that incurring more debt will somehow, magically, help us get out of debt, is ridiculous, but when faced with mounting financial issues and no income ... we do what we feel we have to do.

For many years my daughters and I would visit our local library on a weekly basis.  The library is an amazing place with so many incredible resources.  Everyone knows they have books, but there are also music CDs, movies, and magazines, subscriptions to online learning services, access to a computer or just access to the Internet for those with their own computers, and lots of other incredible - FREE - offerings.  

Back in the day, my youngest enjoyed borrowing movies.  One of her favorite finds was the film adaptation of Beverly Cleary's book series Ramona and Beezus about a third grader, her older, high-school aged sister, and their family. 

In the movie, Ramona's family is a typical suburban family living well, but slightly above their means (I am assuming that they live above their means given that there is a mention of how many bills they have and how overwhelming those bills are). The dad, a Vice President of something well-paying and important, loses his job when his company is bought-out by a competitor. Ramona's mother takes a part-time job at a doctor's office to help stem the tide of bills, but her income isn't nearly adequate to cover the standard of living they have come to expect. Couple that with the fact that they've just applied for and been approved a home improvement loan, believing that the dad's job was secure.

It's a kid's story, and so while the whole economic crisis part of the story is downplayed for the audience, the fact is that things aren't good in the Quimby household. We get glimpses of the seriousness of their troubles: a chat with Ramona's friend whose parents are divorced, reportedly because of similar financial problems; the dad sleeping on the pull-out couch; rumors that they might lose their house (and Ramona's ill-fated attempts to earn enough money to keep that from happening); the car breaking down; dad's continued failure to find a job.

The problem with the average suburbanite, and what gets them into so much trouble in situations like this is the idea that things will get better, and that this little problem is a very short-term and temporary problem. Like in the movie. Ramona and her family don't make any real changes to their lifestyle. The dad keeps going on job interviews and keeps not getting the job, and the whole time, their bills keep mounting, and they keep digging further into that hole.

So, what could they have done differently?

Well, for starters, the Mom should never have taken a job. She was the primary care provider for the kids, and while the dad did an adequate job taking over for mom (in his spare time, i.e. when he wasn't actively seeking employment), their family dynamic was to have one, full-time care provider at home. With the loss of his job and the subsequent employment of his wife, the dad became responsible for more of the household responsibilities, which caused a lot of problems. But here's the thing - if that family intended for the dad to be the primary wage earner (which they did), he needed to have the freedom and flexibility to find a job without having to worry about the safety and security of his children. Because his wife was working, he didn't have that freedom or flexibility, and it cost him a few interviews.

Second, they should have canceled the home improvement loan, or at least changed how they were using it. Instead of employing the contractors to do the work, maybe the dad could have enlisted the help of a few friends to do the renovation, and paid for just supplies, rather than supplies and labor. DIY is a lot cheaper than having someone do the work, and that applies across the board - not just in construction.

Third, the dad made the classic blunder of trying to find a comparable job. He should have listened to his eight year old daughter, who had a wisdom no one seemed to notice. She kept suggesting jobs she thought he could do. Perhaps with some training (which can often be paid for through reemployment programs), he would have been eligible for some of her more radical suggestions (like fire fighter, a job the dad, rightly, said he was unqualified to do - but the fact is that EMT training can be completed in a matter of weeks). Or better, he could have taken the opportunity this job loss afforded him to seek employment in a field in which he really wanted to work - like art. To them, this job loss was not an opportunity, but a hurdle. Reframing the problem in a different way would have made their situation a lot different.

Fourth, the family should have started, immediately, cutting back, and the movie didn't show whether or not they did this, but it is common, in similar situations, to try to keep up the ruse that nothing has changed. Too often when faced with a job loss or other economic SNAFUs, the people involved will just keep living as if it will all be better when they wake in the morning. The day the event takes place is the time to sit down and start making changes, cutting everything from the budget that is not, absolutely, essential. The fourth is the hardest, because so many of our day-to-day activities, we see as being very much a part of who we are, and it's hard to give those things up, but it would be imperative.

I think about this possibility all of the time, and it's not that I don't trust Deus Ex Machina's ability to financially support our family, but that I know anything can happen - and it usually does. Given that situation, the only bills we would continue to pay would be ones related to our housing - like a mortgage and property taxes. As I've said dozens of times, as long as we have our house, our basic needs for shelter, food, and water would be met.

If the Quimby family had tightened the belt, immediately, anticipating that there might not be a job for a while, then, they would have been, potentially, better off (although, as a kid's movie, things never really got very bad, and of course, there was the requisite happy ending).

Preppers have become the butt of a lot of jokes. Between the Doomsday Prepper television show and myriad of bloggers and authors speaking on the subject, there is, perhaps, some fuel for the comedy train. If nothing else, preppers are certainly passionate about what they're doing, and the need for it. The problem is that because some preppers (and survivalists) are seen as radical and fringe, and perhaps a bit ... fanatical, the average person, like Ramona's family in the story, aren't listening. They're not listening, because they don't want other people to look at them and laugh. No one wants to be the butt of a joke.

So, most people don't prep, at all, and when they are visited by hard times, they also don't share what's happening - for fear of ridicule.

For many preppers, though, it's not about preparing for Lucifer's Hammer or nuclear war or an EMP strike or the oil running out. It's about preparing for those things that happen every day to ordinary people, like the suburbanites in the article linked above.

There is nothing radical or fringe or fanatical about having food available and in one's home. I can't imagine having only enough food to get me through a day or two. With as busy as my life is most of the time, I can't imagine not being able to whip up something from my cabinets or storage for dinner without having to visit the grocery store first. Other prepper suggestions are similar. There is nothing radical or fringe or fanatical about having a Berkey container of filtered water (and it tastes better, too) on the counter, a few extra blankets (don't you ever have company?), and flashlights with batteries that work.

It's true that a three-day supply of food or a 2 1/2 gallon pitcher of filtered water on the counter won't help if one is unemployed for six months or more, but it's also true that beginning to think in terms of it could happen to me gets us thinking about how to make things less of an emergency when it does happen. It's a difference in mind-set more than a difference in what one has in one's garage.

In 2008, the world went into an economic recession, from which *I believe* we never truly recovered.  From jobs reports, from prices at the grocery store and the gas pump, from listening to my friends and family, even if the Recession did end, we never really got back to "normal."  Then, the Pandemic destroyed any pretense of normal we might have been courting.  Everyone, now, is talking about the new normal, and they don't just mean wearing masks. 

In much of Suburbia, the new normal is called poverty, and it's not a lack of moral fortitude, and it's not a shameful horror that we should hide - because the reality is that friends and neighbors usually know there's trouble a long time before that foreclosure sign ends up on the front lawn.

The antidote to poverty is not more money or better jobs, but rather independence. There's that saying, "Make hay while the sun shines," and the gist is that if we squander the happy days, when the bad days come, it's too late. In real terms, a farmer who does not hay his field while the sun is shining will lose the hay, which could be a devastating blow and result in a loss of livestock.

In the same way as the farmer, if we don't prepare for the possibilities, we stand to lose it all. The sad fact is that we don't have to. 

In the 1930s, those folks who were, even marginally, self-sufficient suffered a great deal less than those who had been living high in the Roaring 20s.  The same was and is true of those who have been prepping this year.  I never ran out of toilet paper or soap.  When the store shelves emptied of pasta and tomato sauce, I went home and made spaghetti for dinner, because I had what I needed in my cabinets.  We spent the summer growing a garden, raising our chickens, and stacking the wood we use to warm our house over the winter.  In short, we did what we normally do.  The only thing that changed for us during this emergency was that we have to wear a mask.

Falling onto hard times happens to all of us at some point.   Being poor doesn't make us bad, and accepting that hard times are a fact of life and preparing for when (not if) they happen could be difference between keeping that suburban home or ending up at the park living in a tent.

Morning Chores

There's something contemplative about putting laundry on the line.

The brisk, autumn air is crisp, clean, fresh, like those sheets will be 

when I take them down later.

The early December sky is iridescent blue, like a child's eyes, full of wonder.

The morning sun presses against my back through the black sweatshirt - warm - like a lover's hand.

Hanging the clothes is slow work.  

You can't rush through it.

You just have to do it.

Fold the cloth over the line;

Pin one side

And, then, the other;

Reach into the basket for another item.

Repeat.

When I want to mix things up, I clip two shirt tails with one pin attaching one corner of each to the line.

These are treasured moments.

Slow and steady.

One sock, one pin.

One shirt, two pins.

Two towels, three pins.

Until I run out of clothes to hang or pins to hold them.

Renewal

 According to my Google Blogger profile, I have been on Blogger since 2005.  That's a long time.  

My original blog was happilyhome.blogspot.com.  I spent over a decade on that blog, and a long the way I met some pretty amazing people, and we shared some pretty amazing stories. 

I guess, that's what social media should be about, isn't it? 

Instead of the rapid-fire, opinion-laced, dehumanizing experience we all end up having on FB, we used to have this, Blogger, where we shared our stories and our lives and supported each other.  It was a different world.

A year or so ago, I deleted my old blog, but Blogger refused to erase my footprint.  I guess I'm thankful for that, because my old blog list is still there.  

I took the opportunity, today, to go down the list and see who's still around.  Most of the folks I knew back in those days are no longer blogging and haven't been for five or more years.  Sad.  But I get it.  

We were part of a movement of people who desired a self-sufficient lifestyle, outside of the norm, on those proverbial fringes, and we didn't find much community or support for what we were doing locally, but many of us found camaraderie here.  Then, Facebook happened, and a lot of people left blogger to go to FB.  It took me five years to jump on the bandwagon. 

I have, indeed, lived to regret that move.  

What's interesting is that FB has become less than what we wanted, and none of what we thought we needed, and many folks are coming back here.

If you're back on blogger, and we knew each other back in the day, please leave me a comment and let me know what you're up to these days.

I would also love for you to share some of your favorite new blogs.  I'm rebuilding my reading list, and I'm looking to make some new connections. 

Do Good; Eat Well

The Pandemic has me trying all sorts of things I never thought I would try.

I'm doing some online shopping, although I have been steering clear of the big A conglomerate website portal-of-all-things-want-inspired, and I go directly to the manufacturer. 

I found some great syrups to go with our Soda Stream from a company in Michigan.  While they aren't "local", they are definitely a better choice (in my opinion) than supporting the Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola Corporations, and I can order my syrups with cane sugar rather than HFCS.  So, there's a bonus.  We don't drink a lot of sugary soft drinks, but using the syrups and our own carbonated water has saved us a lot of cash over purchasing from one of the cola companies.  Plus, we can reduce the amount of syrup, which means we use less syrup (which saves money), and we use less syrup (which means we consume less sugar).  Win/win!

I also just bought soap from Dr. Bonner's.  Ordinarily, I would just buy it at the grocery store, but my local grocery store hasn't had the almond scented bars in a very long time.  The cost was pretty much what I would have paid at the grocery store.  There was no savings ... except that we will have all of that soap in the scent that we want.  Dr. Bonner's bar soap is an all-in-one, which means that Deus Ex Machina and I use it both on our bodies and for our hair.  So, while I spend $4.79 for one bar of soap, I am only buying ONE BAR OF SOAP, and not soap AND shampoo.  So ... savings, right?

I know my above online shopping adventures don't sound like I'm saving any money, but here's the deal, as every prepper knows, that having a store of supplies on hand, IS cost savings, not necessarily, because we got some smoking hot deal when we bought it, but because every visit to the store costs more money than one intended.  No matter how disciplined one is and how well one plans and how careful one is to adhere to one's list, there will always be an impulse buy.  There is also the time spent driving to and fro, and the cost of the gasoline to get to the store.  If I don't go to the store, I don't spend that extra cash.  It's that simple.  

All that aside, the current reality, for me, is that I simply don't want to go to the grocery store any more often than I absolutely have to, and while I do love a bargain, what's more important to me, right now, is not having to mask-up and endure the palpable tension and angst that has become too much a part of today's shopping experience.  The anxiety and fear hang in the air like a fog ... and I swear I can see it.  

Or, it may just be my glasses fogging up, because of the mask.  

Either way, I don't enjoy going to store.

A trusted friend recommended Misfits Market, which is a service that delivers "rescued" organic produce for a per-box fee.  Basically, they find produce items that are not going to be sold in the store for whatever reason.  Sometimes it's too small or too big, or just misshapen, i.e. "ugly."  Sometimes it's at that age when the store wouldn't be able to sell it.  It's still edible, but not as "fresh" as Hannaford is going to require, given that it might spend a week on Hannaford's shelf.  

I have the option of how often I receive a box, how much produce (by weight) is in my box, and what day of the week my produce is delivered.  I am now also able to customize my box and choose produce that I know my family is more likely to use. 

The big question, for Deus Ex Machina, was, does it save us money.  After my last delivery, I made a list of everything that I had received.  When I went to the grocery store, I compared prices.  

We did not save money.   That is, the cost of my box was not less-than what I would have paid, if I had just purchased those items at the grocery store.   But we didn't spend more money either.  The prices were actually comparable.   

Breaking even is not better than saving money, but when one considers all of it, I think we actually did make out ahead of the game.  The convenience of having it delivered to my door, the unintended savings from not shopping as frequently, the savings in gas and time from not going to the grocery store, all mean that there is some passive savings aspect to the experience.

And, we're eating food that might have been thrown away - organic food.  So, that part feels kind great, too.

If  you're looking for some smoking hot savings, and you're accustomed to buying the cheapest whatever it is at the grocery store, Misfits Market is not for you.  

But if you ordinarily buy: local, in season, and organic - in that order - then, you will enjoy what they are offering.  

I started getting boxes in June of this year.  I canceled my subscription after a month, because we wanted to put our cash toward local produce.  I started back up last month.  I think we'll keep it for a while.  

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If you'd like to try it out, you can use this code to get a discount on your first box:  COOKWME-KP2HUH.  

In the interest of full disclosure, if you use the code, I will get a discount on my next box.