Organic Veg Box - good value for OS-ers?

JillD_2

We have used Riverford in the past and I loved them. Initially it saved me money cos I used to go mad buying every veg under the sun every week and then chucking it (we are veggie), but once I got the boxes delivered it all evened out a bit. Towards the end of the year we had to tightem our belts a lot so I started menu planning a lot better and then cut the box from weekly to fortnightly to monthyl and then stopped it altogether. I am now bored of cookig the same things again and am ordering my first box for mionths for next week - I can't wait!

regarding the kale/cabbage glut problems, when on the box scheme we always have cabbage or kale stir fried with chilli and garlic every week, as a side dish for something lke sausage caserole, or chuck it in with a veggie stir fry. I found kale to be gorgeous with leek and potato in soup.

Is the endless beetroot that I have problems with ....

competitionscafe

By the way, i found the Borscht recipe I use online - a Conran recipe which is also in the excellent 'Soup Kitchen' cookbook. You can find the recipe here, along with a few other recipes from the book:
http://www.cookingisfun.ie/forms/letters/2005/november/soupkitchen26th.htm

N.B - I found the quantity of beef stock in the recipe above FAR too much - made a very thin soup, so I use only a third of the amount (500ml instead of 1.5l) which gives a lovely thick soup just the way I like it.

If you fancy something different try this salad: http://kathryncookswithjamie.blogspot.com/2007/01/crunchy-raw-beetroot-salad-with-feta.html

Bexstars

notanothergreyhair wrote:

Hi,

As a fellow Sheffield resident I can suggest the following store, it is in Crookes; I do not have anything delivered as I live within walking distance.

The fruit and veg is really top quality and I cannot see why this would be any different if you had it delivered. The staff are lovely to chat to and are knowledgeable about their produce; oh, and the prices seem very reasonable to me.

http://www.beanieswholefoods.co.uk/

Thank you! I could only find the Wild star when I was searching but I shall have a look at this one too

thriftmonster

Madmel wrote:

Another happy Riverford customer here! As far as unusual veg goes, my kids have been more willing to try something just because the "vegetable man" has brought it! I try to vary what we eat, and Riverford do give you a booklet when you first join and then recipes every week to try.

As other posters have said, I often make soup, especially with root veg like swedes that we don't like on their own. Another trick is to parboil a mixture of stuff then homemake a cheese sauce, pour it over the top, then sprinkle with breadcrumbs & more grated cheese and bake til it goes golden & bubbly. Probably not very good for the waistline, but wonders for the 5 a day;)

Another tip I have found is that my children (7 & 5) will eat certain veg if it's stir-fried that they won't eat if steamed or boiled. They wolf down any sort of cabbage, but ignore it if it's boiled. We have a rule here that you have to have 1 (or a very small portion) and that has helped them get used to stuff like kale.

We like it because it's local and seasonal, we feel that we are supporting local farmers, and it saves me having to lug loads of veg home from the supermarket.

I agree with the stir frying and also that my kids are more receptive if the veggies come from the box scheme - it helped that it was featured on Rick Stein and also the Local food heroes competition on the TV so the kids got very excited about seeing "our veggies"

Re the cost, most of these schemes aren't the cheapest way, but I do save money by taking the temptation of the supermarket out of it. I also find it interesting to work with the seasonal veggies, although the swede gets made into chutney for school sales etc. We went onto this when I felt we could afford it after a payrise - and like the others, I like to support local farmers and buy organic.

SSB

Hi
We get a box from Rivernene and it is always really good stuff. It does work out a bit more expensive but the emphasis here is good food and support for organic/local farmers.

kodokan

I've been getting a Riverford veg box on and off for about a year and a half. I really enjoy the whole 'oooh! presents!' of having food delivered, the challenge of cooking seasonally, and it's made us try veg that I wouldn't have thought to buy - Jerusalem Artichokes, beetroot, Swiss chard, etc. It IS more expensive than Aldi, but comparable to supermarket organic, and we make up for it by not eating as much meat and doing more veg-based meals. I tend to get more boxes in the winter, and do lots of soups.

My veg delivery can also have milk, cream, yogs, other add-on veg (we're very much having a carrots phase at the moment), even wine (although that's very pricey).

I recently discovered that Riverford also do a meat box, which is sent by courier - very well insulated, the icepacks are always still frozen (and very useful for lunchboxes!). I buy the largest size box, which is £75, and split it into little portion sizes when it comes and freeze it. This lasts us (2 adults, 2 kids) a month, eating meat meals 3-4 times a week, with soup/ pasta/ jacket tato veg meals in between. I also bulk out with lentils, pastry and so on - a chicken (large, organic, mouth-wateringly delicious) can provide a week's worth of meat for us.

Again, you can buy cheaper meat, but it's truly stunning quality, and we'd rather eat really good stuff, with full traceability, just not as often as before. (We recently did a 'taste test' on a Tesco Value beef joint, just to check I wasn't being sucked in by fashionable lifestyle hype - looked lovely, all red and juicy in the pack, but was completely inedible, really tough and chewy. And believe me, beef has to be REALLY inedible in this house before we won't eat it...)

HTH

kodokan

mikki2d

There just isn't anything like this local to us. I do, however, buy all my fruit and veg from the local greengrocer who stocks local produce where he can. The produce is much cheaper and fresher than the supermarket.

allIcouldwishfor

We get our box from River nene and the quality of the produce is excellent, if a lot more grubby than from the supermarket. If you are comparing the cost to buying veg from the market or value store then yes it is expensive, but against supermarket organic produce you get much more for your money from a veg box scheme, in my opinion.

OH was very sceptical, he didn't like not being able to choose our usual green beans flown all the way from kenya or wherever, but seeing as he never cooks, I don't really see how he has much of a say!! It has made us much more adventurous with our food and I think we eat less meat and more veg as a result, which has got to be good.

lindadykes

I originally tried the boxes from farmaround - only the vegetables at the time, but found there was not enough staples such as potatoes, onions and carrots and too much unfamiliar stuff such as loads of ruby chard. It was also only vegetables. I went a while without a box scheme then tried Abel and Cole. I got their basic fruit and veg box and I did quite enjoy it. I did end up with the Kale problem, and the first weeks kale just ended up in the bin, but then I discovered that the abel and Cole website have a really good recipe section and after making a kale, potato and chorizo soup and a stir fried kale and garlic recipe, I actually began enjoying the stuff! However at my local farmers market I discovered a local supplier and now get a fruit bag and a vegatable bag each week from Bluebell Organics and I have to say they are the best yet. (£8.50 for each bag).

I think the key to enjoying these boxes is to change the way in which you look at food. Yes I could get the produce cheaper, if I was prepared to accept non organic food. However I now find I am enjoying the challenge of cooking in season. The box makes me more disciplined in my planning and I also find I try to get the best value by using everything.

As an example I suffered a bereavement over christmas and therefore was in no mood to cook so ordered takeaways for a few days. this left me with an assortment of slightly past their best fruit and veg on the day my new delivery was due. Determined not to waste things, I squeezed all my oranges and satsumas, blended my kiwi fruit and stirred them together to make a lovely fruity drink. I then stewed together the apples, pears and plums and made an orchard fruit crumble, this left some banans that I used to make banana bread. I then tackled the veg. I chopped and froze the remains of a green cabbage and two red cabbages. The remaining veg was a mixture of 2 jerusalem artichokes, a leek. a carrot, a parsnip a couple of onions and four potatoes. These were chopped into dice, boiled together till tender, drained (reserved the eliquid for veg stock), and mixed with left over stilton and some mature cheddar cheese and used as a pastie filling. basically a very tasty group of recipes from stuff thaat at one time I would have probably thrown away.

Bexstars

I had my fisrt organic veg box delivered just now, i got

6 Kiwi fruit
3 apples
4 banana
1 mango
7 large potato
5 beetroot
2 squash
4 large onions
2 broccoli
6 large topped carrots
1 huge bag of kale

got this for £14.10 delivered and im thinking of ordering this box every 2 weeks but the contents will vary. Do you guys think this is reasonable for the price?