Fruit and veg boxes are they worth it?

[DustyTv]

I picked up a leaftlet from our local farmers market which comes to town once a month. They look really good, £13.00 for a mixed fruit and veg box, or £9.95 for a basic one, and various more.

We spend a fortune on fruit and veg, DD loves it all, so I was thinking of getting a weekly £13.00 one delivered which would almost half our cost of fruit and veg a week.

The things I am wondering about is;
Does it all get used so no waste.
Would it be better for me to get a larger box every fortnight.
Are they as fresh as they say?

I love my box, but I like surprises and we're not particularly fuss eaters. If you "need" bananas every week for example, then you're going to find yourself going to the shop some weeks. If you're happy to use what you get, then great.

The scheme we use admits that some of the produce doesn't have the "quality" the supermarkets demand. That's not to say it's worse to eat, but apple skins etc can sometimes be marked and that can be a challenge for DC's who are used to everything looking perfect.

When the box arrives, I sort it according to what needs using first. e.g if there's a swede, that will last to next week if you don't use it, but the lettuce needs using now. I wouldn't go for a fortnightly box, as I don't think everything would keep (although lots will) but do occasionally cancel a week, if the keeping stuff is mounting up.

I worked out that we spend appox £25.00 -£30.00 per week on fruit and veg for the 3 of us at the supermarket.
So even if we get the large box at £17.00 we would save.

I just don't want it to end uup going to waste if it is things we don't like.

Thanks sameagain, do you find that a smaller box each week is better.

My DD is 11.5 mo and will eat any fruit and veg we put in front of her.

I am just tring to get out food bills down and if I can do that by using fresh, organic, local produce then I would rather.

Do you have to pay a delivery charge?

I personally don't like unusual things so it is not for me.

A friend has one and they say it is great during hte summer - but during teh winter they get an awful lot of potatoes cos a llot of stuff isn't in season - not a problem for many people in winter but they don't eat many potatoes!

I love my Riverford box. We get a small one every week (£10.35 for eight types of veg - but each is more than one portion). I never have to buy any extra veg. There is some stuff that I'm not wild about - endless parsnips and kale in the winter, for example - but it's a lot cheaper than buying the equivalent amount of non-organic supermarket veg.

I must admit that odd bits of it end up going into the compost unused, but not much. Riverford are very flexible about allowing you to cancel a box if you're still working through the previous week's supply - maybe you should ask your farmer's market scheme about this?

We have a mixed abel and cole box. Its good to have seasonal veg and it has made us eat more kale! some week's there is a bit of waste. I find I also buy extras (3 vegetarians in our family) You can cancel if there's a week you don't need it. Also you can add or substitute veg/fruit easily online

I want to go back to Able and Cole-I stopped getting them because I was broke, but then went to the supermarket and was at the fruit prices.

I know what you mean pawslikepaddington, the prices of fruit in the supermarkets is just mind boggling, esp when I have a DD who scoffs so much fruit and veg at only 11.5mo. I eat alot of fruit and veg too, DH only eats bits and bobs but still it is so bloody expensive in the shops.

So if I get the large fruit and veg box at £17.00 per week, then I will save approx £8.00-£13.00 Per week on fruit and veg.

I get all our meat cheap at our local butchers, so all I would have to do is buy stuff like milk, bread, tins and houshold cleaning from the supermarkets.

Another vote here for Riverford - I have tried three suppliers and I find the riverford boxes the best - better value for money in terms of the amount they provide. But then if you have a local scheme, that is probably a good idea too.

You do not need to stick to one box type either - I change our box every so often so I can get different types of things. Now we are getting the Riverford Favourites box, which is your basic veg - onions, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, broccoli... all quite predictable, which suits my family. But I can literally change online whenever I want and get a different box delivered. I find with the favourites box that I throw very little in the compost, and I can always add a few extras from their list if I fancy it, to try different things.

Have gone back to A & C-never heard of riverford, oooh

Have to say, we were torn between abel&cole and riverford. Friends of mine very happy with riverford!

I got my fruit and veg box today (was weirdly excited about receiving it )

There is some things in it that I am not sure about though, I have 2 lots of green leafy stuff, one is really dark green and bumpy the other is lighter and not bumpy. I've never bought them before so I don't know what they are or how to use them. Any ideas?

Also there is something that looks like a large red chillie, but it would be the biggest chillie I have ever seen or the smallest sweet red pepper I have ever seen. Any ideas?

Dusty - does the website list the contents of this week's box, so you could check?

Kale, maybe, for the dark green and bumpy.

Yes they do but when I went on they are still updating it and just says list to follow shortly.

How do you cook kale, is it simmilar to cabbage?

Yes, like cabbage. The way I do it is to wash it, boil some water and drop it in when the water's boiling. I only cook it for a little while as I like it just cooked.

Can't think what the lighter green stuff is.

Thanks

I mentioned a weekly veg / fruit box to my MIL and she told me to go to the local weekly market - that I did and I literally couldn't carry home the amount of fruit and veg that I got for a tenner - I like the idea of supporting your local farmers and having the box but if it's purely a money saving exercise then try out the market first.

yes if moneysaving is the reason, DEFINITELY go to the market. We get a veg box, but buy fruit in the market - organic fruit is insanely expensive, and I find often not that nice (has been kept hanging around too long).
Our market does bowls of stuff for a pound - you need to think about whether you think what's in it is worth a pound, but often it'll be 15 limes, or 20 bananas, or a whole load of tangerines or kiwis - an amazing moneysaver.

Thanks OLIVASMUM and littlefrog, I will have a look at that the next time the farmers market is in town.

We have had romano (or somthing like that) peppers from A & C recently - they look a bit like giant chillis - although they're longer than your average red pepper I think.

imo,no as it is a random ole selection.would rather pick my own veg/fruit to suit

The peppers you're thinking of are called Ramiro, looking like oversized chillis. They taste ten times better than the bog standard bell peppers that the supermarkets sell, particularly raw in salads. We've had a Riverford box for a year and I can wholeheartedly recommend them. Much better value than Abel & Cole and the service from the local distributor is very good - nothing's too much, it's always left where I ask it to be left, the website's great for recipes and if there's ever a problem (twice in 11 months they sort it with no hassle. Tried A&C once out of curiosity, but found them to be really overpriced for what you get and it felt like I was dealing with a big organisation - a supermarket in all but name (and they're owned by an investment trust not farmers like Riverford). I'm not sure I agree that organic fruit isn't as good as that from a market, we have fruit from Riverford every two or three weeks, always fresh, tasty and varied and unlike fruit from a market, most of it hasn't spent time travelling through the hands of an importer and a wholesaler, so much more direct.

Noodle, I totaly agree with you. Inow get our box from a local farm and it is really nice, I have changed a few things for this weeks box though as I still have some bits left from last weeks box.