Organic Veg Box - good value for OS-ers?

competitionscafe

I agree samcat. Anyway, I got some (organic) brocolli from Tesco last week as I had used up all my organic box veg; and the day after I bought it (still 3 days before the use by date) I got it out the fridge to cook and noticed it was mouldy on top! Have had this problem with Tesco fruit & veg before and have also heard that the Lidl stuff goes off very quickly. At least with my box the stuff is fresh - often the mud on the carrots or spuds is still damp as it hasn't had time to dry out yet.

Fivenations

Bexstars wrote:

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?

Yikes! We eat more fruit veg than that in a week! I'd be broke in no time! I buy my veg from a local food co-op.

Psykicpup

I tried a similar scheme through my milkman- was not impressed the fruit & veg had travelled all the way from Devon apperently! & was dried out.
& the mix was very strange..ie 2 carrotts (actualy 1 whole carrot & 2 halves- one broken, one cut?!), small bag new potatoes (very small) & 2 huge sweetheart cabbages as one of the other items was out of stock!

Anwen_2

I have been having Abel & Cole deliveries for a few weeks now and I'm very impressed with the fruit and veg plus the milk. I have ordered meat a couple of times but the use by date is a bit short for me so I will stick to fruit, veg, milk and maybe eggs (esp as I have now found a local farmers' market). I like the fact that I can choose permanent or one-box-only likes and dislikes, which means that a) I never have to have horrible broccoli and b) if I don't want yet more chard then I can select the option not to have any this week.

One thing that's worth pointing out in terms of value for money is that if you're comparing organic box delivery with organic supermarket veg, you can only usually get the latter prepacked, and aside from the packaging waste, that usually means that you would not be able to buy the same variety of veg (even if supermarkets stocked things like organic chard) without buying a much larger quantity due to having to have largish packs of things. And additionally, Abel & Cole never air freights anything (I don't know other box schemes' policies) whereas if you buy an organic pepper from Tesco it will probably have been flown from Argentina or somewhere.

I also agree that it's making me try much more varied produce, which is good as I'm always rather set in my ways in the supermarket - carrots, mange tout, mushrooms, pak choi, peppers, that's about it.

samcat_2

Anwen wrote:

I have been having Abel & Cole deliveries for a few weeks now and I'm very impressed with the fruit and veg plus the milk. I like the fact that I can choose permanent or one-box-only likes and dislikes, which means that a) I never have to have horrible broccoli and b) if I don't want yet more chard then I can select the option not to have any this week.

I have been getting Abel & Cole deliveries for a few months as well and am also v. impressed..and yes the ability to exclude something just for your next delivery, is handy if you have a stockpile to get through.

Anwen wrote:

I like the fact that I can choose permanent or one-box-only likes and dislikes, which means that a) I never have to have horrible broccoli

I also like the 'likes and dislikes' and they know I love broccoli !!!:rotfl:

r.mac_2

competitionscafe wrote:

My organic veg box is £10 a week (free delivery) and I think that it represents good value for money. I am in Edinburgh and use East Coast Organics:
http://www.eastcoastorganics.co.uk/

£10 veg box 11 items: 4lb potatoes, 1½lb carrots,1½lb onions, 6oz mushrooms, ¾lb tomatoes, lettuce or salad (basics every time) spinach or chard, cauli or swede or cabbage, leeks or celery or courgettes, fennel or aubergine or cucumber, garlic or pepper (rough guide only)

For those in London I have heard good things about this box scheme and they seem good value too: http://www.btinternet.com/%7Egrow.communities/box-scheme.htm

It's a 'pick-up' scheme rather than delivery though, so you would need to live or work nearby [Hackney]

hiya cc :hello:

going to try and persuade OH that we should try this out.

Looks the best value and variety as well as volume in our area - great find.

Simba_25

I had my first box delivery yesterday and im still not sure? I wasn't sure if to go for a mixed box or seperate fruit and veg ones. I said i would try a mixed one to start with and this is what we got in it...

6 apples
1 Grapefruit
2 Pears
2 Oranges
8 large potato
6 beetroot
2 Cauliflower
4 large red onions
1 Cabbage
8 large carrots
1 huge bag of curly kale
1 bag of celery
1 bag of sprouts
1 bag of something else im not quite sure of?? lol

The veg i am pleased with but i was hoping there would be more fruit. We get through loads of it so as it is i am still having to go out and buy more. This box cost £16. So i think i will try seperate box's this week and see what the fruit one is like. It will still cost the same for a large box of each.

We had the Kale and some of the onions and potatoes last night and it was gorgeous! Definately better then shop bopught thats for sure