Review: Gardencup

My days usually start out with me waking up 10 minutes before I need to start work, chugging an energy drink, logging in to my laptop, and then getting a headache around 3 pm when I realize I haven’t eaten a single thing (let alone a nutritious thing). Between my ADHD hyperfocus and simultaneous ADHD time blindness, I have a tendency to eat like a toddler and accidentally let produce go bad because out of sight is absolutely out of mind. Sometimes I feel like a Sim from The Sims 4, wandering aimlessly around my house in search of something, not realizing my Needs bars are all flashing red. When I do remember to eat, I’m a grazer, and I could eat charcuterie or adult Lunchables for 90 percent of my meals. I like containers. I like finger foods. I’m a foodie that can’t doesn’t like to think too hard about their next meal.

Gardencup. Gardencup is the answer.

Gardencup is a meal subscription service that sends freshly prepared, single-serving salads, bowls, soups, produce, and snacks to your front door. And I’m a little bit upset about having tried it because now I don’t think I can ever stop getting them.

Where Have You Been?

Gardencup is a little unlike some other popular meal kit services because you get to fully customize your order each week. Choose either a six-pack or nine-pack, build your pack (there are vegan and vegetarian options), and choose your shipping frequency. Order totals vary by item. Protein-heavy salads cost $12, whereas snacks and produce cost between $6 and $9. You can sign up for the Gardenclub after placing at least five orders to earn a percentage as cash back. You can pause or skip auto-deliveries and cancel your shipments easily in your account settings.

Each jar is packed to the brim full of goodness. The filling salads are packed smartly, with dressings and wet ingredients toward the bottom and fresh veggies toward the top. Simply shake them up when you’re ready to eat and you’ll have a dressed, fresh salad in no time. They’re also packed tightly—sometimes I had to eat a few forkfuls of undressed spinach in order to have enough room inside the jar to shake it thoroughly. Of course, you could also just dump the whole thing into a bowl. For products like Producecups—cut-up pineapple or apples with almond butter, carrot and celery sticks with hummus—or spreads like tuna salad, simply dig in. (Note that you’ll need to bring your own crackers.)

The primary thing I love about Gardencup is how easy it makes my life. I’m already thinking about money, doctor’s appointments, going to the gym, career growth, maintaining my friendships, my godforsaken emails, the state of the world at large, and whether or not I can pull off a cool-toned purple lipstick. (I can’t.) Despite my love of delicious food, the last thing I want to think about is having to eat a freaking meal three times per day. Gardencup lets me go on autopilot for a little while. I reach in my fridge, grab a cup of Something, and eat it knowing that it’s nutritious and ultimately tastes good. Sometimes the meals are a little bit bland—my chicken noodle soup could have benefited from some black pepper, and I’d add my own dressing to a few of the salads if I wasn’t reviewing them. But the trade-off is absolutely not a problem for me and my lifestyle. ’Tis better to have a cup of food and need to add your own dressing than to not have a cup of food at all. And these weeks eating well more easily and frequently with the help of Gardencup means that cooking or going out to dinner has felt more like a luxury and less like another thing on my to-do list.

Photograph: Louryn Strampe