Toby and Brandon Tull are ecstatic. Their words bounce off each other like dueling guitars at a rock concert as the thirtysomething siblings take the phone to tell me about The Home Grown Farm, the diversified 100-acre operation in Gholson, Texas, that they started with their mom and younger sister five years ago. Toby, a former IT consultant, and Brandon, who worked in financial services, have increased the family business’s revenue nearly tenfold in a single year, thanks primarily to an app that allows CSA subscribers to customize the contents (vegetables, cow’s milk, and chicken meat and eggs) of their weekly deliveries. But at this particular moment, late last May, the Tull brothers were most excited about a recent order for cucumbers.

Those cucumbers – approximately 20,000 pounds of a cultivar called ‘Salt and Pepper’ – represent Home Grown’s first sale to Blue Apron, the start-up that’s pioneering a new way to put dinner on the table and, therefore, a new way for farmers to move their goods. Launched in 2012, the New York City”“based company ships more than eight million meals a month, each packed in boxes with premeasured ingredients and step-by-step instructions for, say, Seared Cod and Udon Noodles with Shiitake Broth and Togarashi-Spiced Cucumber.

Fans of the service point to such factors as convenience (no grocery store runs, no measuring, almost no room for error); cost (at $10 per serving, cheaper than most restaurants); quality (sophisticated recipes that incorporate farm-fresh ingredients); and waste reduction (very little in the way of landfill-bound leftovers).

The desire to deliver a consistent menu nationwide has forced Blue Apron to stretch the definitions of “local” and “seasonal” pretty far.

Detractors lament the plastic packaging and cardboard boxes that contain all those ingredients, not to mention the lack of culinary spontaneity. FXX’s hit series You’re the Worst parodied the problem this season: When the acerbic sitcom’s boring- husband character presented his wife with a “Red Napkin” subscription and promised “no surprises, ever,” she stabbed him with a kitchen knife.

Blue Apron, currently valued at $2 billion and reportedly on the verge of an IPO, may be the most successful player on the domestic meal-kit delivery scene, but it’s hardly the only one. In addition to major competitors like HelloFresh and Plated, the 150 or so companies that comprise the U.S. industry include brands that cater to vegans (Purple Carrot), Paleo fanatics (Caveman Chefs), and organic and non-GMO purists (Sun Basket), plus dozens of smaller local and regional outfits.

For the Tulls, the vast quantity of cucumbers and, then, squash that Blue Apron bought last spring and fall radically changed their 2016 balance sheet. “Just those two orders almost met our break-even point for the year,” says Toby. Not all farmers share his enthusiasm, however. Blue Apron and its ilk typically pay midway between wholesale and retail prices, which can seem like a king’s ransom to anyone accustomed to dealing with wholesale distributors, yet very little to those who sell directly to consumers through farmers markets and CSAs.

“Ultimately, fewer dollars trickle down to people like us,” explains Lauren Langworthy, co-proprietor of Blue Ox Organics, a 153-acre farm in Wheeler, Wisconsin. Blue Ox once supplied celeriac to a Minneapolis meal-kit firm, but Langworthy says it wasn’t worthwhile economically and she missed the connection with CSA customers.

“They needed 40,000 pounds. If you’re a large mechanized farm and can grow it for 80 cents a pound, that might work out. I couldn’t do it.” – Martin Stosiek, farmer

Martin Stosiek of Hillsdale, New York, declined a recent offer from Blue Apron to grow Swiss chard. “They needed 40,000 pounds. If you’re a large mechanized farm and can grow it for 80 cents a pound, that might work out. I couldn’t do it for close to what they were willing to pay,” explains Stosiek, whose Markristo Farm spans about 24 acres. “And if they didn’t accept my chard? I wouldn’t have much of a Plan B.”

Some 30 miles south, in Clinton Corners, Tyler Dennis dedicated 25 percent of his 12 acres to Blue Apron this past season, cultivating pea shoots, purple daikon, and baby fennel – crops he considers predictable and nowhere near as diverse a mix as the 150 varieties he raises on the rest of Alewife Farm. “I wouldn’t do something risky for them,” Dennis cautions, in part because it’s just a handshake deal. Though Blue Apron followed through, purchasing what it asked him to grow, he adds: “There’s always a chance that something catastrophic could happen in the fields, so it’s best to not have too many eggs in one basket.”

To the company’s credit, Blue Apron sourced 75 or so crops from independent American farms in 2016, instead of relying solely on distributors that amalgamate produce and meat from around the globe for major retailers. These middlemen tend to add “food miles” galore and can’t be bothered to track down unusual vegetables, much less vouch for their suppliers’ treatment of employees, live-stock, or the environment.