Good fruit and veg shops or markets North West London

[pecanpie]

There's a great fruit and veg stall outside my tube station from work to home. Everything looks great and tastes great and is much cheaper than the inferior tasteless produce in the supermarkets. My problem is that I will be going on maternity leave at the end of the year and my fruit habit is either going to have to stop or I'm going to have to find somewhere local to shop.

Do you have any recommendations in North West London where produce looks fresh every single day? My most local store closed down about 6 months ago (either the owner retired or Tesco forced him out of business) - ideally somewhere which will deliver, but won't send me rubbish.

When we lived in W Hampstead we got a Riverford fruit box delivered because there was nowhere close to us except a tesco metro and I was getting sick of lugging everything back from Finchley Rd. When we price compared it was cheaper than all the supermarkets.

Alternatively we used to go down to the places along Kilburn high road and to the Queen's Park farmer's market, but Riverford really was the best solution for us.

Thanks for the info. With Riverford, can you choose the contents of a box or is it set items?

You can choose the contents but it's more expensive that way.

We always got the mini fruit & veg box and added on what we wanted - they ensure that the box always has a variety of stuff so you don't just get endless kale for weeks, and you can add on whatever extras you like the look of.

Also you can check what's coming in the boxes that week and cancel (ours gets delivered weds am and we can cancel anytime before monday at 8pm).

www.leonsfruitshop.co.uk/ for a good greengrocer, the others nearby are not as good quality, Polish shop near GG station, shop next to Japanese baker on GG road - occasional nice things, Yarok - not as good as Leon's but some nice things and much cheaper, BX food and wine in Hendon - pick carefully but can be good and very reasonable.

If you want markets - I think there's still a farmer's market in the carpark of the O2 on Finchley Road every wednesday and Church Street off Lisson Grove, NW1. I looked into organic boxes a while ago but they're really expensive, not all deliver to every part of NW london and I like to have some control over what I receive.

Thanks Tigger. Popped into Leon yesterday and wasn't too impressed with fruit to be honest vs the stall go to at the moment. Will definitely investigate the O2 farmers market though - definitely more my kind of thng!

A farmers market has not long opened up in St Johns Wood on a Saturday in the grounds of Barrow Hill School. I haven't been myself yet but have heard that it is good.

The 02 market wasn't good for fruit and veg - it was quite small when I used to go.
I used to get Abel & Cole deliveries when I was pregnant - expensive and but good and you can also get meat/dairy/eggs etc.

I now get the organic fruit from Waitrose/M&S and found that hardly anything gets wasted. Even with the deliveries from Ocado you get decent stuff chosen and I'm very fussy.