When Hadley came through the door a couple of weeks ago that connects the JOY stockroom to Farm Store and asked if I’d like to be the first one to try out her “Dinnerbox” idea, I immediately said, “Sure.” It was about 4:30 at in the afternoon and I of course had absolutely no idea what I was going to do for dinner. The “Dinnerbox,” she explained, would have all of the ingredients needed to make a delicious dinner in one bag or “box.” There would be a recipe and you wouldn’t have to shop for each ingredient. Sounded good to me. The catch was that I had to give her feedback. Not a problem.
My fellow FBoM (Female Business Owner of Manchester) reverted to her shop and then showed back up in front of my desk in the stockroom about 10 minutes later with a large grocery bag. Hadley had done the “shopping” and thus, the presentation of the “Dinnerbox.” Right on! The bag was nicely filled with an assortment of bok choy, purple cauliflower, mint, cilantro, and a package of Stonewood Farm ground turkey and a recipe for Thai Turkey Larb. (which is a meat salad – yum, right?!) My boyfriend Matt was pretty psyched too when I plopped the bag on the counter and proclaimed that I had dinner all figured out. “We’re going to try something out for Hadley – it’s a Dinnerbox!”
We had a blast chopping – and smelling – everything. I don’t have a food processor so we had a lot of chopping to do. It was really kind of fun making all sorts of little 
piles of veggies and herbs and posing them on the cutting boards. The smell of the chopped mint was ridiculous. Like, I know mint smells good, but this smelled crazy good! One part of the Dinnerbox recipe that we really liked was the list of “if you have these, you can add them in.” It was like a bonus treasure hunt that you could choose to participate in or not. We amazingly found half a lime, some ginger, and a half bottle of sesame oil in the house and added them to the recipe whenever the time seemed about right.
This Dinnerbox night also happened to be Halloween night and since I live up a dirt road on the backside of a mountain, there were no trick or treaters. As we “Dinnerboxed,” Matt and I told each other about the Halloweens we remembered from before meeting each other. I loved hearing about his kids’ costumes (a puppy, an FBI agent, Thomas the Tank Engine) and I think he enjoyed hearing about that Halloween around 1995 when my ex-husband and I dressed up as pilgrims. It was my favorite Halloween until possibly this one.
Thanks to the Dinnerbox, Matt and I really didn’t actually have to think too much at all about dinner, which meant other things like sharing memories and listening to Blake Shelton had our full attention. Dinner really just kind of came together without us. The work of art in the fry pan towards the end was breathtaking. Before I knew it, there was an incredible medley of tan and green on my plate with just a little hint of purple and orange. It was true beauty. Meat Salad. Hmm.
I love the Dinnerbox idea, Hadley. It’s convenient without being full of fillers and preservatives. It’s honest and real. Just like the best conversations.
Thanks for letting me be the first to test-drive your “Dinnerbox.” I say go for it, sister!
Farm Store is located right behind JOY all things underthings at 4732 Main Street in Manchester Center, VT. In addition to Farm Store, Hadley Stock owns Pink Boot Farm in West Pawlet, where she and her husband raise two daughters, two dogs, and 60 pigs.
