Abel & Cole - the greener grocer

[WotzsanEgg]

Has anyone every used them and what are they like?

Just had a mail shot and it looks good.

'Organic food delivered to your door'
'Supporting over 60 independant British producers'

www.abel-cole.co.uk

hate them although they're very well used

you end up with weird vegetables that you don't know how to cook .. and you never get enough staples like carrots and potatos etc

there's also another one called Riverfood

I tried their fruit boxes one .. now based on the fact that my family eat shed-loads of fruit I would probably have needed 1.5 boxes a day .. and they were so expensive

I have asked for a catalogue, but haven't ordered anything yet.

Try googling for a local box scheme. We have one that does organic food from all local farms. It's excellent

If you are in the Midlands, Flights Orchard Organic Vegetables are good.

Thanks I'll have a look at some more local schemes.

LilRedWG - they don't cover Merseyside, but thanks its nice to see alternatives

I used them for about about 4 months.

Pros:
fresh organic mixed fruit and veg
'surprise' and variety - I liked trying novel things and thinking of imaganitive ways to use up things.
Delivery convenience

Cons:
Frequently ended up with the same thing week after week. Particularly in winter. You can preview each box and make substitutions (permanent or week-by-week) byt this was a bit hassly. You couldn't choose what you get instead. There was sometimes an illogical approachto the subs. They once gave me threes different types of cabbage in one box. FFS - what was I supposed to do with three cabbages.

The food goes off quicker and I found out I was throwing out more than I would like to (I'm pretty good at minimisin food wastage in our house).

Their milk rarely lasted more than two days but did taste much nicer thatn normal stuff.

The bread was awful and the fish not so good either.

Thier customer service was very good. However because I was using their customerservice so often I decided to stop.

Some say Riverford is better and I have been meaning to give them a go.

Try Northern Harvest - they might cover Merseyside (thats the one we use)

thanks Diplidophus..not sure what I would do with 3 cabbages either, must have been windy around your way that week

I will Iklboo, I'll have alook after school run.

We use them!

We get an small mixed organic box every thursday and it's alwys great the stuff tastes really nice and it only costs £10.

You can also pick and choose what you like and don't like and they have recipies and cooking instructions on there website for the more unusual fruit and veg!

we use riverford and are happy with them