Organic Veg Box - good value for OS-ers?

npsmama

Riverford are great!!

Good value for money in my opinion. Tried Abel & Cole and was very disappointed (tried 5 boxes so gave it a fair shot).

One thing with Riverford....for a long time I thought they didn't deliver to us because when I did a postcode search on their website it said they didn't. Turned out I wasn't including the space in my postcode and that' s why it didn't think it delivered to me.

i now get the fruit &veg box as well as milk and eggs from them.

spiddy100

I used to get a Riverford box and thought it was pretty good value for money, compared to supermarket organic veg, and was always lovely. The reason I stopped buying was that the combinations of things they sent were nothing like what we'd normally buy, particularly in summer. Loads of salad, which none of us really eat, huge bags of courgettes every week (I could just about manage to eat them for a couple of weeks but the appeal really wore off after that), more potatoes than we normally eat (so they were going all sprouty in the garage by the time we ate them), and then the selection of 'Ooh, what's that?' knobbly veg, which were great for introducing new tastes, but meant that I would have to go out shopping again after the box came to get stuff to go with the veg. It was nice but ended up very uneconomical for us after the wasteage of veg not eaten and the difficulty of meal planning if you didn't know whst you were getting.

NB you can check online the week before what each box will contain the following week but I tend to shop/plan in 3 weel cycles plus quite often they will send substitutes depending on what's available that week

albacore1854

seems incredibly expensive compared against my allotment

Linda32

I had my first box delivered this week from River Nene. I was very pleased and will certainly be ordering again.

I went for the large fruit and veg box at £13.50
Spring Greens
Pak Choi
Courgettes
Lettuce
Jeruselum Artichokes
Leeks
Mushrooms
Apples
Clementines
Pears

It has encouraged me to cook from scratch, which has got to be better, although we had very little "ready meals" before, we did tend to have the same. So now I search for receipes which contain those items.

At the moment, the cost of the box and a trip to the supermarket has worked out about the same cost wise, so I'm happy there as a big part of that is organic.

I've tried both our Market and Aldi but the stuff goes off so quick, within a matter of a couple of days, (perhaps it just our Aldi) but that becomes false economy.

We do have an allotment but we're only in the first year and I havn't quite planned for things all the year around at the moment.

So I shall order a veg box from River Nene again, plus they do lots of other things as well, which look tempting and good value.

RainbowsInTheSpray

If you're in this for the 'organic' side of things then fine... but don't fool yourself into thinking that this remotely matches the prices you'd pay in the shops, let alone something like the frequent Lidl half price offer on all fruit and veg. For the £14 quoted above you could practically buy up the store.

lil_me

http://www.downtoearthorganics.co.uk/ found the Durham one

dianasnan

I have been having a box from Abel and cole for two months and the quality and quantity has always been good. I think that it saves me money as i don't need to go near a supermarket as often and i am guaranteed to get my veggies whereas when I went shopping late in the evening I quite often found that stocks were low and then had to go to another shop the next day.

Have tried several veggies that I wouldn't usually buy like fennel, black salsify and Jerusalem artichokes.

also you can put a marker against anything that you hate so that they substitute something else or ask them to leave an item out of the box for that week only if you have an excess.

Will look at river Nene and Riverford incose they suit me better.

nappentass

We get RiverNene boxes and are very happy with it, we love that the veg actually smells like veg and tastes great. It's challenged our cooking and introduced us to new things, and techniques
We're down an income at the moment, so if I could find a farm shop nearby I would probably also use that because items available seperately in addition to the box is not always what we could use more of.

Apparently there's a Riverswale starting further up the country too.

HTH
Jill

Quackers

albacore1854 wrote:

seems incredibly expensive compared against my allotment

If your growing plenty of veg then its time to set up a local box scheme delivery me thinks. Think of the money you'd make!

I dont suppose you live in staffs? I cannot find anyone to deliver to me

I tried one nationwide company (cant remember their name) and it was awful!

samcat_2

RainbowsInTheSpray wrote:

If you're in this for the 'organic' side of things then fine... but don't fool yourself into thinking that this remotely matches the prices you'd pay in the shops, let alone something like the frequent Lidl half price offer on all fruit and veg. For the £14 quoted above you could practically buy up the store.

I don't think anyone kids themselves that this saves money in a direct comparison weight for weight. 5kg of Tesco veg will be cheaper than 5kg of organic delivered veg. But the FLAVOUR is unbelievable in comparison. And once you get going with a system it can save you money when i) EVERYTHING gets eaten and ii) no visits to supermarket strangely saves you money.... it must be the 'not being tempted' by special offers. when you have flavour like this and eat with the seasons again, it is like rediscovering what it means to feel alive