Like many things that wind up on the Strategist, I first discovered Misfits Market via an Instagram ad last May. Its promise of twice-monthly deliveries of “misfit” produce — a.k.a. stuff too ugly for stores’ shelves — to your doorstep appealed to me for three reasons: (1) I live in a neighborhood with limited grocery-store options (and even fewer farmers’ markets); (2) my husband and I cook most weeknights, so I thought the variety of produce Misfits advertised would introduce us to things we’d never otherwise try; and (3) as someone who grew up with a great aunt that kept an impressive garden (that included a handful of apple trees), I knew that, no matter how imperfect they might appear, plucking and eating things from the ground and branch would not kill me. (That Misfits’ claimed its boxes cost less than you would pay for the same amount of produce from a store was also enticing.)

Almost a year later, I can happily say that the service is exactly what I hoped it would be — if not more. The most remarkable thing about the produce (and this is something I’ve heard from other users too) is how not imperfect so much of it is. Truly: In every box, there are lots of things that look totally normal. We’ve bounced between the smaller Misfits and larger Madness boxes, all of which have contained a good mix of fruit and vegetables in each shipment. It all comes in a cardboard box with small frozen bags for temperature control (that are usually thawed by arrival, sometimes creating an unnecessarily drippy situation). Some of the stuff (lettuces) will go bad sooner than other things (root vegetables), but I would say any time we didn’t use all of what we got was more on us than it was on the box. The other nice thing about the service is that you can switch box size with ease and even pause shipments without canceling your account (something we had to do recently due to coronavirus-related budget cuts). Misfits also offers the ability to customize boxes to a degree based on what produce it has available. We’ve never taken advantage of that though, because, to me, the surprise is part of the appeal.

[Editors’ note: According to Misfits Market, “due to high demand, we’ve temporarily paused first-time orders and have set up a wait list to accept new subscribers as soon as we’re able.”]