2026 orders are now open! + What's new at Yum Jar..
Happy New Year!
Kia ora koutou, I hope you’ve all had a great few weeks and are feeling refreshed and ready for a brand new year. This year at Yum Jar we are feeling hopeful and optimistic, bringing the good summer vibes back with us into the kitchen. We have some sparkly new products to show you, as well as some small but important changes on our website. So without further ado, here’s what’s new...
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‘Everything boxes’ are back!
We (unsurprisingly) found we had a bit of push-back at the start of 2025 when we decided to reduce the Self Love and Couple Goals set menu boxes from 5 recipes to 4. While many embraced the change, over the year we had a small but significant amount of people request the ability to order all 5 options, so I figured we could bring them back this year, in addition to keeping the 4-recipe set menu boxes. You can now order an ‘Everything Box’ with 1, 2 or 4 portions of all 5 recipes, with or without gluten.
Check it out here in the Set Menu section!
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New ‘Just the Jars’ boxes
This one is brand new! Love a meal box kit, but picky about produce? Order a ‘Just the Jars’ box and you'll receive all the jarred (or paper-bagged) components of a set menu box of your choice (with or without gluten) at a reduced price, just without the fresh produce. This leaves you to choose your own, be that from our online shop, your very own garden, or your preferred local grower.
Check it out here in the Set Menu section!
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Welcome Wairarapa whanau!
We sneakily added this zone to our website in late November 2025, but just completely forgot to advertise it in the rush of getting everything done for the summer break. So now, officially, we welcome customers based in the central Wairarapa areas to order from us!
We have a great collab with the Masterton-based grower collective We Are Little Farms, where we deliver their orders up as far as Waikanae when we go there on Thursdays. They are now able to return the favour for anyone in the central areas over the Remutakas wanting to try Yum Jar!
Check out the Purple Zone on the map on our Delivery Info page for more details.
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2026 Delivery Zone/Pricing Changes
We’ve had to make some minor but important changes to our delivery system this year.
Delivery Zone/Day Changes
We have moved the lines of our delivery zones to make them make more sense for our EV deliveries and how long, and how much charge, it takes to travel to places.
The main changes are:
Karori is now in the Navy blue (Tuesday) zone,
Tawa now in the Green (Thursday only) zone,
Plimmerton is now in the Light Blue (Thursday only) zone,
For more info see our Delivery Info page.
Delivery Fee increase for farther away areas
We’re still a tiny service compared to our giant competitors, making only about 100 boxes each week. Last year sometimes we would be spending up to 1 hour delivering just 1-2 boxes, when there was only 1-2 in the area, and that area was a 20 minute drive from anywhere else.. and the hourly wage for our driver is $30. With tightening margins we just cannot afford to continue swallowing the extra cost of these longer distance deliveries. Hence we are regrettably changing the cost of delivery for those further out areas, to make it possible to continue going out that far. So in 2026 the Red, Light Blue & Purple Zones of our Delivery Map will be charged an automatic $10 delivery fee. Navy Blue, Yellow & Green Zones remain just $5 per delivery. For more info see our Delivery Info page.
New Discount Code for Add-ons
Something else we can’t really keep absorbing the cost of is orders that haven’t paid a shipping fee. Because the default shipping option at the checkout would always show the cheapest available, the ‘free: add on to existing order’ option was getting chosen by a fair number of customers for products without an existing order, usually (hopefully) by accident. Now, the checkout will always charge the correct shipping fee to your address, based on the post-code the shipping address has.
However, this means if someone wants to add a product to an existing order or subscription i.e. coffee beans, donuts, produce, etc., they need a special ‘free shipping’ option, to avoid paying it twice.
Therefore: you can now enter the code ADDTOMEALBOX at the checkout when purchasing add-ons to existing orders.
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Our recipes for week 1 of 2026 🍴
Choose from these options for your meal box this week, for delivery/pickup between Tuesday 13th - Saturday 17th January
1. Cheezy Black Bean Quesadillas & Avocado Salsa
Fried black beans & cheezy sauce in crispy tortillas, topped with a tangy avocado, lime & mango salsa
2. Mediterranean Style Chickpea & Couscous Salad
Chickpeas marinated in a tart pomegranate & sumac dressing with crunchy veggies, topped with toasted sunflower & pumpkin seeds
3. Roasted Cauliflower, Peach & Feta Salad
A fresh, crunchy summer salad with pickled red onions and leafy greens, topped with toasted walnut pieces
4. Sweet Soy-Chili Noodle & Edamame Bean Stir-Fry
A classic noodle stir-fry with shelled edamame beans in a mild chili & soy sauce, and crunchy mixed veggies
5. Baked Tomato & Aubergine Parmigiana
A juicy oven-baked dish with a cheezy bechamel sauce, butter beans, herby tomato passata & a crunchy side salad
Order cut-off is still 48 hours before your delivery day!
Make sure to order before:
- midnight Saturday night for a Tuesday delivery
- midnight Monday night for a Thursday delivery
- midnight Wednesday night for a Saturday delivery
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Thanks again for being a part of our Zero Waste mission! If you have any questions or feedback please don’t hesitate to contact us - we love hearing from you!
Ngā Mihi Nui, Ottilie & the Yum Jar team 💚