Organic Veg box schemes: do you use them?

[Frenchgirl]

I got my first delivery from Riverford.co.uk yesterday, and am hooked!!! Got a veg box and a fruit box, from a Devon farm, and made delicious salad at lunchtime and stir-fry for dinner. The taste of the veg is brilliant, they look really nice and fresh, am absolutley delighted and excited about all the stuff I'm going to make. I like the idea that some of the stuff I wouldn't normally buy, and therefore have to have a think about how to prepare it. I hate routines....
Just wondering how many of us use these schemes?

stuffed marrow is good - scoop out marrow, get rid of seeds. fry a chopped onion in oil, add some lamb mince (half a kilo probably), brown that up, put in a third of a cup or so of rice, let that fry a bit, then add a cup or maybe a bit less of veg stock, some worcestershire sauce, oregano, salt and pepper, cover and leave over a low heat until the rice is nearly cooked through. bung the mixture in the marrow, put in a roasting pan, drizzle the marrow with oil, but a bit of water in the pan (to make some steam to help cook the marrow), cover with foil, roast in a medium hot oven for 45mins-1hr. Then I would let it cool a bit and make an avgolemono sauce (do you have a greek cookbook? Have a look in there, basically stock, lemon juice whisked into a couple of eggyolks) to pour over the top. delicious!

Thanks lyndap , I have seen Roots And fruits didn't realise they do deliveries.

here
Put in your area and it will give you a list of organice services (including box delivery) in you area

this is a sore point for me this week bought a £20 box of fruit and veg from a company that delivers to my fantastic local healthfood store.i havent bought one since winter and i hoped it was going to be interesting .however i was v.dissapointed with it same boring stuff as winter and nowhere near fresh enough(some mouldy).
feel
that i will have to continue to buy not very local organic veg from supermarket.
feel though i need to complain to company directly as i would love to support them but cant afford to buy crap

ive left them a nice but disapointed message on their answer phone
hope they improve

Does anyone know of a delivery service for organics, where you can actually choose which veg you want, rather than just order a ready-made box?

With mine, you can give 'dislikes' for the boxes (not bags) and order specifics as well. I think you could possibly just order off the 'extras' list, actually. Abel and Cole, as said before.

Riverford Organic Veg Boxes are expanding their franchises to the Midlands. Northamptonshire based Rivernene.co.uk starts delivering free of charge in March.

Message withdrawn

I had my first delivery with abel and cole last week. I was really impressed with the value for money - the quantity and the fact that it's all organic and delivered to the door.

I ordered all mine from the 'extras' rather than going for a standard box.

I used to get a huge organic box for £6 from a local farmer - not delivered though you had to go and collect it. I stopped in the end though as I ended up with far too much veg and wasn't prepared to eat cabbage more than twice a week...

We did get some unusual stuff though and it was a challenge having to cook seasonally all the time rather than relying on having red peppers to hand every week of the year.

However apart from the health benefits of organic food, when you have one delivered from a 'company' rather than getting it from a local farm, how do you know how local the food is? Can you be sure it hasn't travelled halfway across the country to get to you (with all the associated environmental issues that raises)? I'd be interested in what assurances you get on that score.

It's one of the reasons I don't, on the whole, buy organic veg from supermarkets. I'd rather buy something non-organic that's reasonably local, than something organic from the other side of the world that has clocked up thousands of food miles.

I get mine via school, from Abel and Cole. The school gets 25% of the profits. We've raised over £1,000 this year already. Brilliant value, but you're right it is a challenge cooking seasonally. Lots of casseroles and stews and roasted veg. Pretty good though!

We have been using Abel and Cole for over a year. The produce is almost always very good and, when there are problems (like elderly broccoli), they replace/refund without quibbles. We are definitely eating more veg and have a much more varied diet than we used to. We used to get into a rut of having the same meals all the time and endlessly eating them with peas. I like having to think afresh when given a vegetable I haven't cooked with for a while. They have a useful collection of recipes on their web site, which is helpful if you are presented with something like fennel, or celeriac. I also make a lot of use of Jane Grigson's 'Vegetable Book', in which there are chapters on each vegetable. This book has even encouraged me to cook stuffed cabbage with my Abel and Cole sausages. It was delicious, so much so that we are going to have it for a second time tomorrow.

wordsmith, agree with you. i use to get an organic veg+fruit box from a local farmer but have managed to lose their number and i can't remember their name. surfing the web only returned local companies that deal with organic boxes with stuff imported from all round the world which, as you say, i think defeats the whole purpose of buying organic to protect the environment, etc. etc. i try now to buy from the local market stores but alas, when i ask them where the veg comes from, the answer is usually spain, israel, jamaica, etc!

if anyone know of any local organic farmers in cambridgeshire, please let me know

but have to say that i have just had a quick look at the abel and cole website and they look quite impressive, especially on the meat front.

UI've only skimmed down the thread but wordsmith, I think I read something recently about Abel and Cole sourcing from the most local suppliers. It might say on their website. Oh, just remembered, it was an Observer article.

abel and cole don't do the Black Countraaaaay, where I live.

Wordsmith, try the soil association website which has a list of organic suppliers, and work outwards from there?

I'd probably just go back to the local farmer, and write a best-selling recipe book "1000 things to do with a savoy cabbage"

So how much do you get in the riverford boxes?

Am trying to convince DH that we should do this, he is sceptical and thinks we will still need to go to Tesco.

You get about 10 different things in a medium Riverford box (10.50). However, I always end up buying more spuds and carrots and do still buy salad etc in tesco.. Today mine should have carrots, onions, spuds (always has those 3), parsnips, leeks, mushrooms, cauli, lettuce, purple sprouting brocali and claytonia (whatever that is!) I like trying out things I wouldn't normally buy and the recipes and website are helpful, Towards the end of the winter things do get a bit root-based and the quality can get a bit crap as things have been in store. I think they are trying to remedy this buy buying in more variety from other organic sources. However, I still love it. DH not so keen but I pay for it - he takes it upon himself to wash all the veg before it gets put away - this is not something I have insisted upon!

csa - I am in Cambridgeshire, have you tried looking at the www.bigbarn.co.uk website? They have lists of local suppliers.

MI what did youdo with your salsify in the end?

Oh shame, wordsmith. Hey, read in The Ecologist today that supermarket market share for organic produce has gone down recently for the first time because people are using box schemes. Good news I think.

sam, thanks. will have a look.