Community Stories

This summer, between all the swimming, reading, traveling and running around you’ll be doing, we at Blue Apron are advocating for another activity the whole family can do together: cook! Getting kids in on the kitchen action doesn’t just lighten your load; it also teaches them skills they’ll use for life, creates a bonding experience, builds confidence, and encourages them to learn about (and taste!) new foods.

A couple of years ago, farmer Tony Emmi’s neighbor asked him for a favor. Mr. Winter, his friendly, longtime beekeeper and proprietor of Winter Apiaries—located just down the road, outside Syracuse, in upstate New York—was doing some renovations on his property and wanted to know if Tony would be willing to store some of his honey bees for him temporarily.

In honor of #ValentinesDay, we’re sharing a few of our favorite Blue Apron love stories here on our blog! From enjoying time together as a family to finding a new ingredient to love, these stories always warm our hearts here at Blue Apron and we wanted to share them with you!

If you’ve cooked with us, you know we love our lemon zest. But this time the lemon in your box looks a little different. Here’s why.

Chris, the owner of Say Hay Farms in northern California’s Yolo County (northwest of Sacramento), isn’t what most people would think of as a typical farmer. A UC Berkeley graduate with a degree in Philosophy, he’s a brilliantly articulate admirer of soil. Chris wants us to think about “dirt” differently. His main lesson: it’s alive, “a giant living web.” Soil teems with an ecosystem of countless microbes, crucial to growing healthy, delicious produce like Say Hay’s gorgeous orange cauliflower, hearty beets and petite shokichi squash. “Once you kill that ecosystem it takes a lot of work to build it back up,” he says. “It’s not something that you can take lightly.”

Cooking with your kids not only teaches them practical life skills, it builds confidence, fosters family togetherness, cultivates an appreciation for real ingredients and encourages them to try new foods. Trust us, the kid who helps wash and prep the watermelon radish is far more likely to try it!

On the day after Thanksgiving, food may not be the first thought on your mind. That’s why, instead of talking about more recipes for you to eat, we’re popping in to tell you about how successful we were in helping you, our customers, donate your extra Thanksgiving boxes to families in need. It was awesome. […]