Organic food in supermarkets

alfsmum

Looking forward to first A&C delivery for a some time tomorrow. I'm a bit wary of them now they've been taken over by the big boys but will suspend judgement until I see the quality/quantity of the delivery. Also wonder why they add a 99p delivery charge when Riverford deliver free? Am expecting a fruit box plus bits and bobs of milk, eggs, bread. They stock the Authentic Bread Co olive bread which
we really like and have to travel to a deli in the next town to buy so will be a treat to have it delivered. Not having veg this time as don't need any but can anyone tell me if carrots etc come 'clean' or 'muddy' from A&C these days?

TravellingAbuela

Just a small bargain but you on organic diets might be interested. Home Bargains are selling Crazy Jack organic lentils at 69p per 500 gm bag. Rrp of the red is £1.79 and £1.99 is the rrp of the green. I picked up a bag of each as they were the same price as the non-organic varieties.

Kirri

alfsmum wrote: »

Very interesting info on Ocado box, thanks. Was considering one myself but am doing the A&C buy 3 boxes get 4th free at the moment.

Also very interested in Ocado 20% off and free delivery. I have delivery pass at the moment at £6.99 a month but thIs is the last month at that price. Next month it will be £10.99 so I'm planning cancelling and then doing the occasional big shop in a free delivery slot rather than regular smaller shops. I do like Ocado; good website, good service, and they stock all the odds ands ends I buy regularly
But not sure I can justify £10.99 a month on delivery. Hope I'll get some money off codes if I cancel delivery pass

I doubt I could take advantage of the A&C or Riverford buy so many boxes and get 1 free as I'm not home enough on Fridays so I'd have to try a one off. Would be interested for a review on what you receive as I do want to try them at some point.

I don't order frequently from Ocado so I always have a 20% off voucher to use - will see now I've ordered how long it takes to send me my next one!! Otherwise if I don't order they send me 20% off £40 spend voucher every Tuesday for the forthcoming week (they used to send me 20% of £80 or £60 spend but I never used those and ever since they dropped to £40 spends).

It's hard to get a free delivery slot for a £40 order, the lowest is usually £2.99 but they very occasionally drop to zero too but I don't seem to get that so much these days and it's much more a chance thing to find them. Easy enough to get a free delivery on a £75 shop though as there are always those slots available but watch out as the longer you are on the sites the delivery slots appear to disappear and the prices go up, no doubt to panic people to order.. but clear the cookies repeatedly and the slots reappear (sometimes needs clearing a few times as they reappear at different prices and time slots!). With the 20% code it's £63 worth of shopping as max discount is £12.00. Combined with all the organic offers I find as I go along till I'm ready to order and it's a very good deal on organic.

Just added a price alert on MySupermarket for the Ocado veg box - looks like they reduce it every 2 months - so March might be a good time to try it if anyone wants to if it follows the same pattern!

Edwardia

Hi TravellingAbuela welcome to the thread and thanks for the tip !

Kirri and alfsmum, look forward to your reviews of Abel & Cole and Riverford veg boxes.

We're very happy with Ocado organic veg boxes, think we will get one every other week though otherwise we'd be awash with veg - I have to factor in that my mother likes me to shop with her in Waitrose and Sainsbury's about once a fortnight.

Ocado Total Savings Pass 8.99 a year gets 10% off various stuff including the organic veg boxes. I get my delivery on a Saturday morning - good wheeze to get OH out of bed:D - means my delivery would be 6.99 a week if I hadn't jumped on a discounted annual delivery pass when I started using them. I will save the cost over a year, easily so therefore free delivery.

Got my second Riverford order coming tomorrow :T

Edwardia

shrewdal spotted an organic bargain

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4434709

System

thanks Kirri for your review of the Ocado box. I don't like that each box is just described as small/medium/large when looking at these organic box sellers. I would prefer information on weight and quantities eg 10 carrots, 5 tomatoes so your review was useful reading

Edwardia

http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/?pid=48911

Organico whole pickled peppers date up 2015 2 for 1.50

Kirri

Edwardia wrote: »

We're very happy with Ocado organic veg boxes, think we will get one every other week though otherwise we'd be awash with veg - I have to factor in that my mother likes me to shop with her in Waitrose and Sainsbury's about once a fortnight.

berbastrike wrote: »

thanks Kirri for your review of the Ocado box. I don't like that each box is just described as small/medium/large when looking at these organic box sellers. I would prefer information on weight and quantities eg 10 carrots, 5 tomatoes so your review was useful reading

Agree Edwardia, every other week for this box would be fine, it is a huge amount even for a vegetarian! Also in winter, a lot of the UK veg is quite heavy going so it's going to take some eating. They should probably bring out a slightly smaller box too.

You need to get your mum converted to online shopping only!

berbastrike - agree, it's difficult to know by size only. I like quite a lot of variety but not too much quantity of each thing however, ie the garlic in the Ocado box could last me 4 months! It's definitely one I would order again though.

Edwardia

berbastrike, Ocado details how many varieties of veg in the box and what they are. You also get a photocopied recipe whereas with Abel & Cole you get a little booklet and Riverford does that too.

alfsmum I think the A&C carrots were dirty but not caked with mud. I did once get a round object so caked in mud that I was unsure what the heck it was until I bathed it. It's for instances like that, when the Bentley Organic salad and veg wash comes in handy.

Kirri, my mother does online shopping, she buys stuff from Amazon and Marks and Spencer quite a bit, she just likes mooching around supermarkets.

We got chard in our last Ocado box and I was wondering whether to make soup until a woman on the cookery course used home-grown to make borani esfanaj (Persian side dish) and I thought clever idea OH is making it and doing something with wild partridges.

Are there any vegetables in veg boxes which make you go :eek: ?

Edwardia

Got my second Riverford order today.

I bought a Riverford cool bag (2.69) so OH can take food to work because he seems to think the Marks and Spencer branded cool bag is way too uncool to use <I need a rolling eyes emoticon here>.

OH also got a small fruit bag which comprised two pears, some clementines and a cardboard punnet of white grapes.

His other treat was a piece of organic chocolate brownie as I stuffed the Flour Power City Bakery pain de campagne in the freezer.

Got some organic mushrooms for breakfast tomorrow as they were nice last time. A nice plump fennel bulb too.

For the cupboard I got Riverford piccalilli which looks good.

I bought 1 litre of Riverford milk as a back up in case we had run out of milk but we still have a bit left. It comes in the old style milk carton with folding wings

My Shorters Club delivery turned up today also, delivered by Bookers. I bought 48 x 50cl bottles of Evian for 13.98 on offer and 12 x 250ml Frobishers no artificial anything not from concentrate squeezed OJ for 10.16. I got a box of Heinz organic biscotti for 5.82 which makes them 97p a packet I think. Also bought a box of 18 packets of 40g nothing artificial black pepper Kettle Chips for 7.62 Got OH some Eghoyans Bakery pitta bread, again nothing artificial tho not organic. 6 x wholemeal for 60p and 6 x white for 60p. If he likes them I can get bigger packets which bring the cost per 6 down to 54p.