Local Veg Box Schemes

[matthew2riches]

Thinking of joining one as there has been very little off the lottie and the local shops are supplying rubbish

What should I expect for £15 a week? Or rather, what would you expect for £15 a week?

[di]

Matthew,if you do can I suggest 'Growing Places'.
They're based in Claydon and are a Social Enterprise.
I've not had anything much to do with them lately and know they've grown since the days I did,but still an enterprise that deserves support and offers fully organic produce to boot.
(my sister still gets boxes from them,I don't know the prices or quantities she gets but I know she's been using them for a few years now,so must be good value)

[Two_Sheds]

How come you're not getting much off the lotty? That's got to be the cheapest way forward.

Winter is a lean time for fresh veg, but we have a freezer full of goodness that sustains us during Jan & Feb

[matthew2riches]

Nothing off the lottie over the winter. Sprouts fluffed and everything else is had it apart from leeks and parsnips. There is only so many leeks and parsnips you can eat before you get peeved.

[Two_Sheds]

There is only so many leeks and parsnips you can eat before you get peeved.

True.

I'm still eating raspberries, peas & sweetcorn from the freezer, dried beans (French) and pumpkins. We have various curries & stews in the freezer too, made from lotty veg

[Mikey]

my lottie tends to have a rest period over chrimbo, the plot is big enough 300m2 so the chest freezer has a reasonable surplus of veg, which will carry us through.

Cawl, I like leeks and parsnips.

[chris]

Where's your plot, Mikey?

[Jono]

To give you an idea on the veg box, my local organic farmer (Sarah Green's Organics) does potatoes, carrots, 6 eggs + 2-3 other seasonal veg for £8 delivered.

[Mikey]

Where's your plot, Mikey?

Posh valleys dude.

[chris]

First time I've heard the word posh in the same sentence as valleys hehe

I used to use riverfords farm veg boxes - as I was studing in exeter at the time - then found out they delviered to Cardiff... the food miles thing bothered us so we stopped it in the end. Really nice though. It hink ours was £15/week. Meat boxes, we spent £60-80 on, but that lasted us *ages*. Would like to do it again, to bridge the gap I have by growing in the garden... until I can get a plot myself!

[Mikey]

Where do you garden at the moment chris, at home?

I was passing the docks in Cardiff the other day, and there are at least 80 overgrown plots down by the flyover near Newport road. There are plots out there.

[northepaul]

I occasionally use Riverford organics as we dont have any other scheme here. However I am blessed with a great farm shop within a few miles. I tend to use the veg box for things I cant get, such as fartichokes and blood oranges etc.
I dont have an allotment (7+ year waiting list) but have kale/leeks ready-ish now from one of my veg beds, cant live just on kale, however much I like it! .

To answer your question, for £15 ish you get a medium veg box which is supposed to feed 4+ people, but they tend to bulk it with potatoes and carrots, I found. I would say if you use it quite sparingly and love potatoes, it would last a 4 person family a week.

[Glutton4...]

I stocked up at a farm shop yesterday. Far superior to supermarket rubbish. Cheaper too. My In-laws have a Veg-Box, not sure where from, they spend £10 a week for the two of them, and have far more than they can eat. But then MiL does only have the appetite of an anorexic sparrow.

[Mikey]

I was looking at the riverford one earlier, man there are a lot of imported goods on there.

[Alison]

We used to get one from a local guy who tried to procure as much of the produce as possible from local farms etc (less feasible in the winter though). It cost £10 for an organic mixed fruit and veg box between two of us and I bought / grew a few things to top us up. In summer I ended up with far too much when our home grown stuff. He eventually sold up and passed his customers onto a bigger crowd (can't remember who) but this coincided with us getting a lottie so have not had one since. From speaking with friends, most of them pay more for it now if they want organic although non organic ones are cheaper. I'd always want to use a local delivery service rather than the national ones, seems much more in keeping but don't buy veg any more as we're currently harvesting sprouts, carrots, swede, parsnips, cabbages and kale as well as having stored spuds and onions and frozen beans, peas, courgettes, tomatoes and much more. Very lucky really