Organic fruit and veg boxes for home delivery?!
Organic fruit and veg boxes for home delivery?
I've been thinking of ordering these instead of endless trips to the shops. Has anyone tried them? What's the quality like? Any companies you could recommend (I live in London)?
Many thanks!
Answers:
I live in London too and get veg box deliveries. I can't recommend them more! They are great.
The produce is always fresh and whatever is in season. You will come across some weird and wonderful veg as well as regular basics such as potatoes/onions.
Here are two that have good reputations:
www.abelandcole.co.uk
www.riverford.co.uk
I never buy veg from supermarkets now and can really see the difference in quality!
My sister lives in hackney and she gets this....cant remember the company but she pays about 15 pound a week and gets this huge box of organic mixed fruit and veg every saturday, she says its always a nice suprise to see what she'll get every week! i'll try find out the company and add it later
Edit: Just heard back from my sis she says they're called 'Everbody Organic' and she pays 11.50 a week and says it's more than enough for two.
Hope this helps!
The fruit is full of bugs, the veg is full of mud to help make up the weight, it is not really worth the bother
fruit and veggie boxes are very good i live in colchester and used to have a weekly box from Ashlyn organics from Ongar the only reason that i stopped was that a good organic shop opened locally.The only minus was the fact that for many weeks on the trot they put a large cabbage in the box and we never managed to finish it all however i rang the firm and told them my problem and then they stopped the cabbage and put extra of something else in instead
As a starter, try this company - Riverside Organics, as they are the most successful in the country and were essentially the first to pioneer the box scheme.Their website may have links to London schemes and will certainly give you a better idea of how things work. My daughter lives in the South West, Gloucestershire and has an excellent box delivered each week, it always high quality.
If you want pristine, over packaged fruit and veg, then keep with the supermarket. Should you wish to support local farmers and smallholders who practice a very high standard of growing which is strictly monitored by the soil association, with the added benefit of a home delivery, then opt for a box sheme.
The ones I've tried when I've been in the UK have been great! It introduced me to beetroot tops(leaves) which taste like spinach.
Its difficult in a big townt o get to farm shops so these deliveries are a great alternative.
I would highly recommend them.
Quality is thier main selling point. If one box is bad, you wont go back - they know this so the quality is generally up.
I live on a farm in darkest Shropshire so cannot offer an actual recommendation, sorry.
Try these;
http://www.riverford.co.uk/
I'm just starting to get deliveries from their sister company in the Midlands. Seems to be lots of choice, and box sizes to suit your budget
I tried it for a while. It was fantastic having the lovely fresh produce show up at my house. At least it was at first when it did show up regularly - the particular supplier I used was new to the business and turned out to be very unreliable in the long run.
It was fun to unpack and make plans for all the good food I could make with the stuff though. Except that I turned out to be not that good with the using it all up part. It turns out that for me it works much better when I make a plan of what we will eat and then buy according to that than when I get the food first and try to think of ways to use it all. The fruits and my favorites of the veggies would always be used right away, but I'm ashamed of how often I'd put off using something until it went bad.
I did really enjoy the service when it was good though, so I've thought of trying again with a better business. The main reason I haven't is that I'm worried I'll end up wasting a lot of it again. Perhaps someday when my kids are older and I have more time to devote to cooking!