That's good because it means you're eating seasonal vegetables, and usually that keeps the price of the box down.
But it's not so good if you don't have a clue what to do with them.
The latest episode of RNZ podcast Thrift looks at getting the most from your veggie box.
Joani Wilson is a seasoned vegetable cook. When she gets her box, the first thing she does is a kind of triage.
“The first thing I think, as any good seasoned thrifter will, is what's going to need to be eaten first so it doesn't go off,” Wilson says.
She makes sure nothing goes to waste.
Take the humble beetroot, for example.
“The beetroot leaf makes a beautiful salad or pop it into a stir fry.”
Then she considers the beetroot stems.
“You can fry the stems as well - good crunch.”
Parts of the vegetable that might go to waste, or compost, are used, she says, even carrot tops.
“I really want to talk about those, they are delicious.”
“Just pop a little bit through your salad. Just start off small, if it seems a little bit peculiar.”
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They could even go in a pesto, she says, but you'll need some pantry staples as well as some nuts.
“And it doesn't have to be expensive nuts. It doesn't have to be the old pine nuts like it always was.”
What to do when you end up with too much of a good thing, such as zucchinis?
“Experiment, experiment, experiment,” Wilson says.
“Zucchini fritters, everybody knows that. But also you can just do different sort of fritters, like mashed potato. Also saute it, stuff it, bake it, put it into pasta, rice, tacos or salads. Just grate it into everything.”
Open your mind to the possibilities that veggies offer, she says.
“I reckon a thrifting tip is, don't think 'cabbage only goes with that'. Put it in anything, beautiful.”
To save and salvage the last of your produce it’s a good idea to look to other cultures who may have recipes with different veggie combos.
Georgina Stanley, manager of Smith Street Community Farm in Christchurch, is of Dutch heritage. She makes a red cabbage and apple curry, for example.
“That's an unusual combination... but the apple season's coming into its own at the moment, so use it up.”
When veggies are soft, limp and really on their last legs, obvious options are putting them in soup and the slow cooker in a veggie bake, or roasting them in the oven.
But what about when you're really scraping the bottom of your veggie box?
Wilson’s solution is to cook them all at once.
“You might have a whole cauliflower. What I do, and I think this is a good tip, if I've got a pan there, I generally just pop the whole thing in.
“Same with any vegetable, if I get silver beet, I don't cut a few leaves off and put it back in the fridge. Don't put it back in the fridge, it might not make it out again.”
The Smith Street Community Farm in Christchurch supplies veggies boxes to about 30 households, costing $15 for an individual and $25 for a whānau.
“If we can just provide an ample amount of produce for $25 a week, then the money that people are saving, they can spend that money on olive oil or butter.”
Another tip from Stanley is to reframe the way you look at frugal living or cooking.
She likes improvising in the kitchen, and says it is not so much a hardship, but more like a challenge, to make tasty meals from the vegetable boxes’ surprise selection.
“Actually, it's really nice to be able to have a limited palette and just get creative with things.”
Recap: Thrifty veggie box tips
Start with a serious veggie triage. Decide what has to be eaten and when, what is currently crisp but soon to be flaccid, chop it up quick into salads and stir fries.
When produce is in season, accept that you might eat quite a lot of the same thing. Search up new recipes using sauces, spices and dressings to vary meals.
Think about cooking all of one vegetable at the same time, you'll spare it from languishing in the fridge and save yourself some prep time later in the week.
