Organic veg box thing - opinions?

Caz2_2

hi bluemoon

I think you have the right idea ordering fortnightly. Your box is the same one that i have had for last 4 weeks apart from aubergine and advocado. I have oranges and kiwi fruits coming out of my ears. Anyway i think i may find someone more local as i am in north yorkshire, enjoy yours.

EddyHall

My girlfriend and I took the advice of my brother (a complete organic devotee) and looked at https://www.riverford.co.uk. After a little bit of poking around for a better deal elsewhere, we started off by ordering a fruit and veg box from Riverford.

To be honest, I really wasn't that impressed by the fruit side of things but the veg was delicious. So the next week we stripped the order down to a small veg box only. This duly came and was great.

Problem then was that two young, fit and healthy people couldn't between us eat the entire box in a week. Not that we don't eat enough veg, but we were forever working late, working nights, eating out etc. So some of each box would have to go out.

They had no trouble shifting the order to fortnightly and paying by standing order.

The only 2 remaining issues is that every box contains potatos (which we don't eat very many of) and I don't know how to cook a lot of the suff!

squeaky

Welcome to MoneySaving

If you follow the blue (The Indexes) in my signature you'll find loads of good recipe collections.

Don't be put off by Slow Cooker recipes if you don't have one, they can all be done as casseroles.

chrisico

I'm afraid I've had an poor experience with my local organic box supplier (who recently won a national award for quality!). The first time the eggs were bad and smelly , the onions were rotten inside and the bread raw and soggy.
I phoned to complain and got an apology and a refund.
The second time the cucumber was about 6 inches long and made of rubber(!)
and the potatoes were green under the soil.
I still decided to continue,thinking perhaps I was being too picky.
Gave up finally when the salad tomatoes were green and hard and the (imported) apples were black inside.
They had the cheek to phone and ask why I no longer ordered anything!!

I now buy from my local green grocer or organic veg from Asda if it has been grown in this country.

bluemoon_3

Caz2 wrote:

hi bluemoon

I think you have the right idea ordering fortnightly. Your box is the same one that i have had for last 4 weeks apart from aubergine and advocado. I have oranges and kiwi fruits coming out of my ears. Anyway i think i may find someone more local as i am in north yorkshire, enjoy yours.

Yep, I really would prefer someone more local too, but I haven't been able to find any. I've found one that delivers quite close, but they don't cover my postcode yet. I've gone on their list so they'll let me know when they start covering my area.

Good luck with finding a local supplier.

squeaky

One thing I didn't say earlier.

The local Box Scheme to me, less than two miles down the road, doesn't have a web site and isn't listed on Bigbarn or anywhere else. If it hadn't been for their weekly stall in the village hall I would have never found them

So it'll be worth keeping your eye open for delivery vans or boxes on neighbour's doorsteps and even asking as many friends and neighbours as possible if they know of someone.

maggie1976

If you get something in your Riverford box you don't know what to do with, go back to their site and click on the recipes section and just type in the ingredient and you'll get lots of lovely ideas.

I didn't really know what to do with the spring greens I got last week but I found a great recipe for lentil and cavalero nero soup which I adapted, and it's fab

EddyHall wrote:

My girlfriend and I took the advice of my brother (a complete organic devotee) and looked at www.riverford.co.uk. After a little bit of poking around for a better deal elsewhere, we started off by ordering a fruit and veg box from Riverford.

To be honest, I really wasn't that impressed by the fruit side of things but the veg was delicious. So the next week we stripped the order down to a small veg box only. This duly came and was great.

Problem then was that two young, fit and healthy people couldn't between us eat the entire box in a week. Not that we don't eat enough veg, but we were forever working late, working nights, eating out etc. So some of each box would have to go out.

They had no trouble shifting the order to fortnightly and paying by standing order.

The only 2 remaining issues is that every box contains potatos (which we don't eat very many of) and I don't know how to cook a lot of the suff!

Loadsabob

I know we were all looking for a list of the best foods to buy organic (ie: the worst if bought non-organic). I have been looking for this for ages, as I did have the hard copy from the Guardian last year. There is a 20 ways to cut out chemicals article Here

And I quote:

"When organic produce isn't available, remember that some produce has lower levels of pesticide residues than others. Good candidates include aubergines, peppers, cabbages, frozen peas, garlic, leeks, marrow, radishes, swedes, sweetcorn and turnips. Conversely, the government has recently found high levels of pesticide residues in spinach, apples and celery."

Odd - I have read before that bell peppers are BAD for pesticides...but who knows!

Curry_Queen

I said I'd post back with the contents of my organic boxes, and they've just arrived, so here goes ...

Small veg box @ £8

bag spring greens
curly lettuce
fennel bulb
2 broccolli heads
2 courgettes
4 onions
carrots (750g)
mushrooms (250g)

Small fruit box @ £8

4 apples
4 pears
4 bananas
4 oranges
4 sticks rhubarb
2 kiwi fruit
grapefruit
lemon

I also had a bag of spuds, a dozen organic free range eggs and a 1kg joint of organic brisket, and the whole lot came to just over £26 (free delivery) :j

I priced up the same items on Tesco website and they totalled almost £30 plus delivery charges :eek:

I'm very happy with this lot and can see myself placing further orders now

squeaky

Just got my box today

I asked for a small box for one person for one week.

I have:-

3/4 kilo new potatoes

2 onions

2 different small cabbages

1/4 kilo carrots

2 apples

2 pears

1/2 kilo rhubarb

Because I asked for a small box to make sure I could use up everything in a week it didn't even cost the fiver as advertised. The whole lot delivered to my door was just £4.00

I'm impressed