Blue Apron and Purple Carrot

I first heard about Blue Apron from a Stuff You Should Know podcast (they’re one of the commercial sponsors) and then decided to try it when I received an invitation from a friend.  I signed up for the vegetarian “3 meals for two people” plan and within a week, I had received my first box of groceries and had started cooking.  All along I imagined it would be like a trial period, and after 4 weeks and 12 meals, I put my subscription on hold.

The meals I made were mostly good (though not great and skewed toward dairy as the protein source), so I searched the web for alternatives.  That’s how I found The Purple Carrot and decided to try their service, which is strictly vegan cooking.  I signed up for the “2 meals for four people” plan and soon received my first box.  I’ve just now completed 6 weeks and 12 meals and have put my subscription on hold in order to evaluate this service.

For people who are unfamiliar with these companies, they are basically meal delivery services without the meal.  Each week you get a box of pre-measured ingredients and an instruction sheet on how to prepare the dish.  Although I’m set in my ways and not necessarily eager to experiment in the kitchen, I’m not a novice cook and did not have any difficulty following the recipes.  The ingredients were always fresh and of good quality, and I did not have any problems with deliveries or with billing or anything like that.

If I were to pick one reason that I’m not going to continue, it would probably be that I didn’t like all of the meals.  It doesn’t matter that I liked most of them; when I’m paying $10 per meal and making it myself, I want all of them to be memorable (that’s probably a lot to ask).  The problem with vegetarian dishes is that often they are bland and tasteless; this was certainly the case with the meals I did not care for, which I’ve marked with “no” below.  I’ll also add that this style of cooking doesn’t really fit with my lifestyle.  I’m a single person cooking only for myself, and during the work week, I often don’t get home until 8 pm or even later, which means I only cook on the weekends and then eat leftovers.  Some meals just don’t work as well when stored in containers and then re-heated.

Blue Apron meals

  • Summer Ratatouille & Parmesan Polenta  – no
  • Summer Squash & Fennel Salad – no
  • Cool Summer Vegetable Ramen
  • Heirloom Tomato & Fontina Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
  • Cool Long Bean & Tofu Salad
  • Rigatoni Puttanesca
  • Heirloom Tomato & Stone Fruit Salad – no
  • Spiced Lentil Stew – no
  • Whole Grain Spaghetti – no
  • Tomato & Goat Cheese Pie
  • Summer Eggplant & Pepper Tostadas
  • Fresh Lemon Linguine – no

Purple Carrot meals

  • Whole Wheat Fusilli with Mushrooms, Fennel, and Pecans – no
  • Aloo Paratha with Mustard Seed-Scented Eggplant
  • Catalan Vegetable Stew with Crisp Fideos – no
  • Slow-Baked Broccoli Frittata with Mesclun Salad
  • Shakshuka with Tofu Dumplings over Kasha
  • Garlicky Greens Curry
  • Spiced Citrus Lentils with Rainbow Chard and Cranberries
  • Kabocha-Apple Shawarma with Cliantro-Parsley Zhoug
  • Winter Nicoise Salad with Cashew-Split Pea Pate – no
  • Miso-Chili Meatballs over Spaghetti and Carrot Noodles
  • Caramelized Onion Crepes with Warm Spinach-Mushroom Salad
  • Potato Korma with Golden Raisin Pilaf

I did enjoy trying new ingredients.  These are some I had never cooked with before:  polenta, freekeh, squash blossoms, fennel, amaranth leaves, Persian cucumber, mizuna, mascarpone, lemon linguine, mustard seeds, fava beans, caper berries, chickpea flour, kasha, curry leaves, mustard greens, oat groats, kabocha squash, jalapeno chiles, basmati rice, turmeric, garam masala, collard greens.

Now that I’m thinking about it: maybe the number one reason I don’t care to continue with either service is the packaging.  Of course I appreciate that these companies source their ingredients locally and a lot of the produce is organic.  However, I think it’s a bit disingenuous for them to claim that the packaging has zero environmental impact.  The cardboard boxes I could handle, as well as the #2 plastic.  But I don’t think there’s anything I can do with the insulated bags and the cold-packs now piled in a heap in the outdoor closet.  The same goes for the plastic bags, of which there are many; I’ve begun using the larger ones for pet waste, because I don’t know of any recycling station that takes them.  At first I washed all of them, intending to use them for something or other, but there’s only so much re-using one can do.  I think each company should address whether the packing materials are recyclable, non-toxic, or biodegradable.  The three concepts are not equivalent.

I also felt that the meals left something to be desired in terms of proportions and nutrition.  In other words, if a recipe structured for two could have served four, or for four could have served eight — that seems wildly disproportionate.  For example, one Blue Apron meal came with 4 oz of goat cheese; the package was clearly labeled “No of servings: 4” but it was meant for two.  Likewise, one Purple Carrot meal included two cans of fava beans; the can was clearly labeled “Servings per container: 3.5” which means that the dish should have served 7 and not 4.  The recipes for both companies included calorie counts; Purple Carrot recipes also listed grams of fat, carbohydrate, and protein.  The Blue Apron average calories/meal was 639; the Purple Carrot average calories/meal was 653 (average fat grams was 33).  These numbers seem high to me, and they are certainly not acceptable for anyone on a weight management program.

Overall, I have to say that I don’t see much difference between the two services, even with respect to price.  In fact, I’m sure that as competitors, they are very aware of what each other is doing.  I also don’t really have any complaints about either company, though for various reasons, I don’t think I’ll continue doing this.  However, I would not discourage anyone from trying either service — you just have to keep in mind what they are.  In other words, if you don’t like to cook and have no interest in doing so, this is not for you.

Farm Values in the North Quabbin

Because I subscribe to Mass Moments, I’m on the mailing list for Mass Humanities and receive a monthly email message announcing Mass Humanities-sponsored events in my area.  That’s how I first heard about a project of the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust called “Farm Values: Civic Agriculture at the Crossroads.”  There was to be a special event to present this project to the public tonight at the Athol Public Library.  Curious about it, I drove to Athol after work.

One of the library rooms held a photo exhibit, commissioned by the Quabbin Harvest Co-op, showing images by Northampton-based photographer Oliver Scott Snure, as he worked over the summer to create portraits of the farms and farmers featured in the Farm Values project.  There were two exhibits set up in the library’s meeting room:  one discussed preliminary findings and major recommendations of a community food system assessment which reviewed food production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste recovery; the second was an agricultural timeline for the North Quabbin region.  Shortly before 7 pm, folks gathered in the meeting room for a panel discussion about farms in the area and their future.  Nancy Allen, the president of the Mount Grace Land Trust, introduced the speakers, who included Cathy Stanton, the project lead.  There were almost a hundred people in the room, a lot more than they anticipated, each person wearing a name tag specifying his or her role in the food system.  I couldn’t stay and gave up my seat, but they were still bringing out chairs when I left for home.

I’ll try to summarize what I learned about our local food production system from the Farm Values project.  First, what is “Civic Agriculture”?  Ms Stanton defines it as the “idea of food production as a matter of public concern connected to other social, economic, and environmental issues.”  Her work on this project focused on six farms in six towns, considering the history of each property, the values embodied in the current farming methods, and the ways each farm had to change and adapt to survive and perhaps even thrive in the future.  In roughly geographical order, these are the farms that were studied in this project.

Chase Hill Farm in Warwick.  This farm began as a dairy farm in the 1940s.  Currently run by Mark Fellows and his wife Jeannette since 1984, the farm now makes cheese and markets directly to people and stores in the immediate region.  Situated in the uplands, Chase Hill grows high quality grass to feed its cows and only milks them for three seasons rather than year round.

Moore’s Maple Grove Farm in Orange.  Also originally a milk business founded shortly after the turn of the 20th century, the farm has had to diversify in recent years.  Now run by John and Laura Moore, the farms sells vegetables, meat, and maple syrup, while Laura runs the Maple Grove Farmhouse Bakery.  When their children and grandchildren help out, that makes nine generations of Moores who have farmed in Orange.

Adams Farm in Athol.  Originally a dairy farm, the Adams Farm has been in existence for well over a century; the Adams family who owned the property was known for working with animals.  After small-scale dairying became unprofitable after World War II, the farm transitioned to selling meat.  Now a slaughtering, wholesale, and retail meat operation run by Beverly Adams Mundell, the farm is a key node in the region’s food system.

King Farm in Petersham.  This farm was established in the 1790s but was not maintained as such until recently, when Emily Anderson and Tyson Neukirch took over, with financial help from state and local agencies.  They plan to pasture animals, manage forests, cultivate fruit and nut trees, and grow other perennial and annual crops in ways that don’t deplete soil nutrients.

Many Hands Organic Farm in Barre.  This 55-acre parcel was once part of a larger Barre farm.  Back in the 1980s, Julie Rawson and Jack Kittredge started homesteading the property and raising their four children there, coming to farming at the end of the back-to-the-land movement of the 60s and 70s.  The Farm now sells fruits, vegetables, and meats through CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares and also to some wholesale customers.  The couple also train new farmers and help run the state chapter of NOFA (Northeast Organic Farm Association).

Stillman Quality Meats in Hardwick.  Now owned by Kate Stillman, this business is comprised of two farms which have been meat producers for decades.  Kate continues to build her business by selling at urban farmers markets and through its CSA.  Like all farmers in this region, she struggles to balance supply and demand and transportation and labor costs, all the while maintaining her land’s productivity.

The six towns chosen for this project can be considered a mini-region, which is at the crossroads of the state’s agricultural, industrial, and postindustrial sectors.  Ms Stanton intended to study the intersection of those economies over time and think about the role played by food production in all of them.  Here’s an extremely condensed synopsis of farm history in this area.

Pre-1700: Indigenous groups hunted and gathered
1700s: European settlers created small farms with hayfields, pastures, woodlots
Early 1800s: Area farms expanded and began participating in the regional market economy
Mid 1800s: Farms shifted to producing meat, milk, and butter instead of grain and cheese
Late 1800s: Small farmers struggled to remain competitive
1900: First back-to-the-land movement and agritourism emerged
1910s-20s: A&P founded first grocery store in region, then others moved in
1930s: During the Great Depression, people began growing food for themselves
1940s-50s: New England farms declined due in part to growth of interstate refrigerated trucking
1960s-70s: Second baack-to-the-land movement brought homesteaders
1980s-90s: Chain grocery superstores sprang up amid globalization of food production
2000s: Locavore movement spurred renewed interest in local farms