Martha Stewart gets into meal kit business

[Anna N]

While I applaud the old ways I am not sure they will be sustainable for very long.  And my reasoning is this: how long do we think that basic foodstuffs as we know them will continue to be regularly available in their unprocesssed forms.

 

Offal which requires more knowledge and a lot more time to properly prepare is almost nonexistent now in regular grocery stores. 

 

 Sometimes I can go into a grocery store and find only sliced mushrooms!  

 

 More and more my grocery store produce department is filled with pre-chopped, presliced, pre-cleaned  fruits and vegetables. 

 

 I don't think it will happen overnight by any means but I do see a time when finding uncut squash, pineapple, etc., will prove quite challenging. 

 

And I suspect it will become harder and harder to convince a child or teenager that they need to learn knife skills when someone else has done the work for them.  

 

 I'm just saying…… 

 

 

 

 

[gfweb]

I think these services are a gateway to real cooking. They'll bring in the newbies with the illusion of ease etc. Soon enough the newbie will do the math and figure out that they can get recipes for free and buy food themselves for less.

 

[JeanneCake]

I can't get past the "I want to pick it out myself" - whether it is dairy, meat, fish, produce .... I want to know it's not just a few days from expiration or the berries on the under part of the packaging are wet and won't last the day before the whole package goes south.  It might be from constantly checking the stuff that we bring in house from our distributors - if I buy a case of heavy cream, I want to know the expiration date is a month out because that tells me they just got it in; versus Restaurant Depot having heavy cream on the shelf that has a use by date within 7 days because that tells me they've been sitting on it for a while and their turnover is not that great. I can send it back if I don't like how something looks when it arrives, and I can bypass the stuff I don't want on the shelf and choose something with a later date/etc. With the  meal plan, how do you send back the food if you don't like the look of some of what's in the box?  Then what do  you do - call for pizza?

 

For those younger people who use it, is there a tutorial or something you can follow along on a smartphone while you do your own prep for the featured recipe/meal? - and getting some experience with it maybe that, in turn, will inspire them after a while to venture out and shop/buy/cook outside the meal plan.....

Edited July 21, 2017 by JeanneCake
ETA more detail about food distributor (log)

[ChocoMom]

22 hours ago, lindag said:

ChocoMom

I really can see both sides here.  Your way, more difficult, better in the long run.

Her way, gets the job done and maybe will inspire her kids to learn more about cooking so they can end up creating their own meals one day.

 

That is my hope too!   The concept familiarizes the kids with some kitchen tools, ingredients, and operation of the stove, etc.  I know at least one of the kids is more interested than the other.   And, should this become a pathway to show them the joys of cooking, its great!   Its just, from a farmer's perspective, a pretty expensive avenue to go down. I mean, they can afford it and all, and I certainly wouldn't tell them differently.  Its just that, as a lifelong coupon cutter, sale shopper, and farmer - the cost of some things makes me cringe a bit.

 

I ended up being pretty "old school", I guess.       My parents adopted me when they were well into their 40's, and my grandmothers were in their late 70's and 80's by the time I was old enough to start learning cooking, canning and freezing. Going to U-pick farms all over lower Michigan was a routine event every year, along with processing and preserving.  I never learned any other way.  In some ways, I've turned into my Mother and Grandmothers- still doing what they did.   And, having listened to all the elderly relatives speak of their experiences during the great depression, I suppose, helped shape how I think about feeding my family and weighing the costs and benefits of everything.   Their sense of frugality and creativity still astounds me today. 

 

 

[lindag]

1 minute ago, ChocoMom said:

 

 

I ended up being pretty "old school", I guess.       My parents adopted me when they were well into their 40's, and my grandmothers were in their late 70's and 80's by the time I was old enough to start learning cooking, canning and freezing. Going to U-pick farms all over lower Michigan was a routine event every year, along with processing and preserving.  I never learned any other way.  In some ways, I've turned into my Mother and Grandmothers- still doing what they did.   And, having listened to all the elderly relatives speak of their experiences during the great depression, I suppose, helped shape how I think about feeding my family and weighing the costs and benefits of everything.   Their sense of frugality and creativity still astounds me today. 

 

 

Fellow (former) Michigander