organic veggie box deliveries

[Fruitbat]

I am quite proud that the local oranic shop has asked me if I could get enough students in student village interested to make it worht while for them to do a veggie box delivery! I hope I can get enough ppl interested cos I certainly am! Then I will be almost 100% organic as well as vegan and 80% raw!

[Roxy]

Wow that's really great!

[uww27225]

I hate to sound ignorant, but veggie boxes have been mentioned here in the past and I don't really know what that is. Can someone explain? Thanks!

[Cloudy]

They're just boxes of vegetables you get delivered to your door. You can usually choose based on certain criteria like top ten favourite veg, food miles, that sort of thing.

[uww27225]

Thanks Cloudy! That's sounds really cool. I haven't heard of any such service near where I live.

[snaffler]

They are a big thing around here but to be fair I stopped mine I was getting some pretty sorry looking veg for the money, I may be vegan and ethical but I am not loaded.....

Luckily now we have a regular organic marke in my town twice a week - Although I am strict vegan I am not 100% only for finance reasons so I try to buy organic when may bank balance is ££££

[Lentil]

This may have been discussed elsewhere (had a good look but couldn't find it though) so apologies if it has :rolleyes:

How good are the organic box schemes? I've been thinking about it for quite a while but they always seem so expensive! There are 7 of us to feed so it could end up costing a forune. Anyone on here get boxes each week? How much do you get for your money? I've found a couple of sites which list the contents but not the quantity - it just says "apples" which is all well and good but is it 1 or 20 :confused:

The two in particular I'm looking at are www.riverford.co.uk and www.abel-cole.co.uk so anyone got any experience of them?

Thanks :D

[Kevster]

I work for an organic fruit and veg wholesaler outside of Leeds, and they run a box scheme, the organic food is pretty reasonably priced is it goes, we get a £10 veg box and get some fruit too. The veg box would last a couple of days if it was used to solely create meals in the evening for seven of us. For veg boxes i would suggest looking for a smaller local business and steer clear of the larger ones, because sometimes poorer quality goods can find their way into veg boxes that wholesale customers have rejected. Plus the smaller companies pay greater attention to customer care as they have fewer of them. The downside is that they have less buying power. Also worth looking into how much they produce themselves, it really is the only way to get locally grown organic fruit and veg.

[harpy]

I use one called Farmaround and like them on the whole, but I think they mostly do greater London so might not be helpful for you.

For what it's worth the food seems to work out a bit cheaper than buying organic food in a supermarket but more expensive than buying non-organic food in a supermarket (and a lot more expensive than buying from non-organic street markets etc).

I'm sure Kevster is right that local ones are the best if you can find one - makes sense from the "food miles" point of view as well. I have heard the downside of the local ones, if you think it is a downside, is that the contents of the boxes are usually more limited in variety, because they are sticking to what's in season in a given area.

With seven of you to feed maybe you could strike a semi-wholesale deal with a local grower...There are just two of us and the food in a "large" vegetable bag is about right for us if we eat in about five nights in the week.

[Herbsman]

When I found out about my local box scheme it was the best thing ever. Not having to go into town to buy vegetables that have been flown in from europe and beyond. They're much fresher as they were picked more recently and have only travelled about 25 miles rather than 2500...

If you can get one in your area then I'd recommend it, it will save you time and might even save you some money. It'll also be less damaging to the environment (far less travel, therefore far less fossil fuels burnt. no packaging except for the reusable, returnable box).

[Wildflower]

Thanks Cloudy! That's sounds really cool. I haven't heard of any such service near where I live.

Hi, I know this post is from years ago, but if you are still in Milwaukee there are several places that do this, one being Feild's Best (at the Public Market) as well as several other CSA's you can get pamphlets on at Outpost. :)

[veggyboxes]

I am quite proud that the local oranic shop has asked me if I could get enough students in student village interested to make it worht while for them to do a veggie box delivery! I hope I can get enough ppl interested cos I certainly am! Then I will be almost 100% organic as well as vegan and 80% raw!

Fruitbat - This is great...

We have launched a non commercial website to let people recommend and search for box schemes in their area. It was launched today and now needs everyone to log on and recommend the scheme they use. It would be great if the users of this site could recommend their local schemes and we hope to quickly have a directory of trustworthy, customer promoted schemes for aeveryone to search.

Visit www.vegboxschemes.co.uk and recommend today... Thanks

[watervoilet]

Can anyone help me find a organic veg box delivery scheme that is close to were I live? I live in Rowley Regis in the West Midlands I have tried organic veg from the supermarket and was not very impressed by the taste it was much the same as conventional veg. I did try a box from a website and it was much better but the cost was too high to have very often. Can anyone help me? thanks

[applepie]

This is where I had my veg box from while I was living in Birmingham: http://www.flightsorchardorganics.co.uk/
They also do eggs and stuff, which I was not too happy with, but the veg was always very good quality. I first tried a different supplier but it was too expensive and the veg was often past its sell-by date, so to speak.

[Kevster]

' New Organic Vegetable and Fruit Box Scheme

We are a vegan family who have started a small organic box scheme in West London. All vegetables and fruit come from Fair Trade, Soil Association certified organic cooperatives. Where possible all produce is from the UK, nothing is ever airfreighted. We aim to provide a range of boxes at affordable prices, always lower than the main supermarkets.

For more information look at www.woodfieldorganics.com '

From: www.veganvillage.co.uk

[harpy]

Farmaround, who we have used for years on and off, seem to have lost the plot recently, so I'm planning to try a different scheme, e.g. this one:

http://www.organicdelivery.co.uk/

The Woodfield one doesn't reach as far as SW15 yet unfortunately.

Just wondered if anyone in the London area had any recommendations or dis-recommendations, please?

ETA I wrote to Woodfield to ask when they would deliver to my area and it seems they do, in fact. So I might give them a try, but I would still be interested in any recommendations people here may have.

[bryzee86]

I used farmaround last year when I was in halls. Twice they came too early while I was at uni and left it at the main front door (on a main road!) onlyforittobe nicked, and no apology from them. acouple of times the stuff was off, and the final delivery never showed up -I waited all day. I wouldn't recommend them.

[harpy]

Apologies, I missed your message, bryzee.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Farmaround. As I said they used to be OK (though delivery times were always erratic) but I think like a lot of small businesses they may have lost control as they've expanded.

Have ordered from Woodfield for next week so let's see what that's like. ETA that on another board I got a lot of recommendations for Abel & Cole so I might give them a try sometime as well, but they don't tick the "vegan" box.

[bryzee86]

I'm looking at abel & cole and UK5 organics at the moment - to choose later in the week. I'll let you know what I choose, when I choose.

[harpy]

Thanks - I haven't heard of UK5 before, I don't think, but the way they've organised their ordering looks quite clever.

Perhaps we can compare notes on the ones we choose. I may try more than one (in different weeks!) unless Woodfield proves to be the business of course.

[BlackCats]

I meant to start this up again. I used to use farmaround but it annoyed me that they could only deliver on one day.

I think I will see what you think Bryzee and Harpy and copy you.:D

[Gorilla]

i used Real Food Direct a couple of times but they went out of business. they recommended their customers use Abel & Cole instead but i'm not sure.

[harpy]

Aphrodite, this one seemed to offer a choice of delivery days

http://www.organicdelivery.co.uk/

and I think Abel & Cole may do as well.

Not sure whether the larger ones are as ideologically sound as the small ones - e.g. I don't know how "local" the stuff would be if the service was national. I assume having one delivery round per area per day may conserve fuel, but maybe the big firms have enough customers to justify more deliveries. :confused:

I don't really mind what day they bring the stuff on but it would be nice if they either brought it on the advertised day or else warned you when they're not going to.

[xwitchymagicx]

I use [...]...

[harpy]

And how do you find River Nene, witchy? I think Riverford, which delivers down here, is the same outfit under a different name.