Recommend me an organic box delivery scheme please!

[hopefully]

I'm in West Sussex, so I'm assuming I can get the usual suspects like Abel & Cole, Riverford etc, as well as any local ones. Has anyone got any particularly good or bad experiences to share about any companies in the south east?

I know they're not the most economical option, but unbelievably Chichester appears to be the only place in the UK that doesn't have a greengrocers or a butchers within walking distance of the town centre, and Sainsburys is just too damn far with a pram.

i buy froma local farm
they do a drop off to a local house or shop and you fetch it

I am sure if you googled you could find something

only have positives about abel and cole (inc freebies, decent veg and fruit,driver asking how the boys are and fab email customer service)

its not recommended on MN though generally

Abel & Cole have been great for me

I would avoid abel and cole.
see threads

here
and
here

There are more as well.

Have heard good things about riverford.

I use rivernene which is a sister company to riverford. Only positive things to say, really helpful. They sorted out the one prob I had quickly and fairly (a bunch of bruised bananas!!) and take feedback on board too. I have only heard the same about riverford from pals in the SW too.

Hope that helps. If not, the soil assoc website has a search facility to look for local suppliers.

www.whyorganic.org/involved_organicDirectory.asp

another positive vote for Riverford (Riverene). Initially we used Able and Cole but their quality and quantity is very poor compared to Riverford. In our case we got a lot more and fresher produce for less money

I like abel and cole

Looking at the old threads, I think they've sorted out a lot of issues - they give massive portions at the moment and their website is very flexible, to an extent you can handpick what you get. But maybe I should try riverford - get meat boxes from them occasionally and they're v tasty.

I love Riverford and find them to be best value for money from the 3 I have tried - Sunnyfields, Abel & Cole were other 2.

I like the flexibility they give via website and they always resolve any issues I have had as soon as possible.

Another happy Abel & Cole customer here, too. Haven't tried any of the others, so can't do a comparison. But haven't had any complaints about A&C.

We get veg and milk delivered by Abel & Cole, and quite happy with them at the moment. Their meat, fish etc is just sooo expensive that we just stick to the veg, milk (oh and tried some of their bacon, which is LOVELY)

ok, next question - does anyone menu plan? do you just check what's in the next week's box and plan around that?

ooh, and thanks for your opinions everyone!!

Rivernene here as well. And yes I menu plan once the box arrives, simply because some bits keep better than others, ie broccoli will be yellow after three days. I check each week's offering and then buy the one that looks best. Sometime give it a miss altogether but really look forward to our box when we resume.

I LOVE my weekly Riverford box. I keep meaning to change because of food miles (I'm in Brighton) but the ones I've tried haven't been as good yet. I also want to try Bills boxes but they make you choose what you want. I'd much rather be dictated to funnily enough.

Hopefully, I do exactly what you suggest - A&C put the next week's box online in advance, so I check that before I go shopping on Tuesday, planning meals around what's coming on Thursday. Usually works pretty well.