organic veg boxes in north Wiltshire?

[den_the_cat]

I've found a couple of organic veg delivery schemes in Wiltshire with an online search but I know there are a lot of you from there so I wondered if anyone had any recommendations?

I want a reasonably priced family sized mixed fruit and veg box, weekly, and preferably with the option to block certain veg (or a neighbour who likes cucumbers....... )

But I'll sacrifice the occasional cucumber on the alter of a local farm - I don't want one of the national delivery schemes which send stuff down fron Scotland in a pantechnicon

recommendations please?

[Andy Hamilton]

where abouts are you in wiltshire, the farmers market in bath is pretty good too if you can make it over there in a saturday.

[den_the_cat]

we'll be almost exactly between Chippenham and Bath, I've heard lots about the market at Chippenham too, which is all good news, and I assumed that meant there were a lot of local farms selling direct, but there seem to be less than I'd expected

[glenniedragon]

I use Riverford Home delivery, which while being a reasonably large company its all separate franchises and much is sourced (reasonably) locally. There are various sized boxes, fruit and other organic produce available- and your account can be managed online so you don't have to be there to pay the delivery person every week. I recommend them to all. We are going to stop our box soon as they have become a victim of their own sucess! we enjoyed our organic veg so much that we decided to grow our own on an allotment! not quite Victor Kiam,

kind thoughts
Deb

[Millie]

Ive used Riverford twice, and I really wasnt impressed. Tried the farmers market in trowbridge, not been impressed by that either! No pleasing some people

[den_the_cat]

thanks, Riverford looks worth a try but they seem to import quite a bit stiill so I'll carry on looking as well :)

Millie I sympathise, our local farm shop here is great for cheese and breads and preserves etc but the fruit and veg is terrible, poorly stored and generally pretty manky - its like they assume that because you want to buy organic you're willing to pay twice as much for something the supermarket would throw out.

[glenniedragon]

I suppose as they are franchises it probably depends on your franchise-ee. Sorry to hear you weren't that impressed Millie, my experiences have been, on the whole, very good.

kind thoughts, and good luck with your search Den

Deb

[shiney]

I am in Bradford on Avon and have used Able & Cole. They do pretty good stuff but a family fruit and veg box lasted me less than a week. I guess we just love our fruit and veg and it worked out to be very expensive for us. It was very good produce and pretty varied with a little newsletter in the box for each week with a fab recipe.

When I am richer I will use them again!

[den_the_cat]

just realised I should update this because I quite like the one I fouind - we have a box from Tallywhackers now, which, besides being a great name, is actually really nice stuff.

The drawbacks are that for some inexplicable reason they arrive in a carrier bag and some veg is also extra wrapped (spinich came in a poly bag for example) but thats probably because they genuinely are small local producers and don't buy in enough wooden boxes to send out.

They also don't allow you to run a 'dislikes' list (thankfully very few cucumbers so far) and its not cheap - but everything to date has been really fresh, tasted great and the large veg box does have a fair amount in it. They reckon it would cater for a family of four and if you're into meat and three veg it would probably do that easily. For two vegetarians it lasts us a week and stays fresh enough for a curry by day 6

The veg is all local, I've been assured, but some fruit is imported. That said we're going to buy bananas anyway so they may as well be organic if they are. I think the rest so far have been fairly local and this weeks damsons are delicious.