For the past month, myself and Lindsay have been getting our veg delivered to us by Riverford. Well what a month it has been, put it this way, in the past month I have probably eaten more veg than I did in the whole of last year!
Ok so that’s an exaggeration, but it really is a big improvement, and you know what, I feel much better for it, I have more energy, my skin is clearing up a bit and in general I feel much happier. I have tasted some strange new vegetables that I probably would have previously passed up in Tesco in favour of the traditional favourites. Well I love Jerusalem Artichokes and Swiss chard, and I want more!
Its quite surprising but even over one month we have seen a change in the veg we are getting, it truly is seasonal, we have had the traditional English winter fodder of parsnips, turnips and swede, turn into more spring like veg such as pak-choi and cabbage.
We also started getting our milk and eggs from Riverford as well, and this has been very good as well, it cuts down on our carbon footprint as our milkman now no longer comes twice a week to deliver to us in addition to the Riverford fella. Actually I feel quite guilty about the milkman, but since the dairy went bust the milk had gotten worse and we only ever kept him on cause he was a nice guy, I hated giving him up, but the Riverford milk is of a better quality and is about the same price.
The lovely couple who run the local Riverford franchise here are brilliant, and frankly I can’t fault them, Ian who delivers the box is always very pleasant and Gwen even read the blog here and emailed me to let me know they do Ecover refills, saving me a trip to Heaton or Jesmond when I need my refills, further helping me cut down my carbon footprint. Now if they delivered bread it would be absolutely perfect, but who knows maybe they will add that to the selection in the future.
Actually it does strike me as interesting that veg box schemes are becoming more and more widespread and the range of what they offer is growing, they are looking more and more likely of taking over the traditional role of the milkman. Our milkman used to when the dairy was still running offer delivery of things like butter, bread, potatoes, toilet rolls, bin liners, chocolates, and all sorts of other stuff, but as the situation at the dairy got worse, many of these extras were gradually withdrawn. As there are now fewer and fewer milkmen, and if you ever wanted to get a milk delivery its very hard to arrange these days, the “vegman” is there ready and waiting to fill the gap, and they seem to be better organised and easier to deal with than the dairy was. I mean, the milkman would come calling at random times for his money, and personally I rarely keep cash on me or in the house, so I often found myself having to write a cheque, which our bank manager hates us for, but Riverford allow you to pay the bill by card online, which is such a breath of fresh air compared to the milkman.
Riverford also send a lovely little newsletter each week in the boxes, which can be nicely filed away in a little folder you can buy off them, but it tells you what’s going on at the Riverford farms, and what kinds of veg we can look forward to. They also have a selection of recipes as well, which are great at showing you want more you can do with your veg. I mean before i would have steamed carrots, maybe put them in a stew and rarely in a stir-fry, but that’s the only way I would use them. I never imagined that one day I would be eating sugar glazed carrots in stock!
Anyway our month long experiment in using Riverford veg is at an end, and I think its been a great success, so I am keeping it on. Ok so for the size of box we get, its slightly more expensive than the supermarket, but when I worked it out, we would only save 19p shopping for the same amount of organic veg from Tesco and that doesn’t take into account the fact that we do get to taste the “exotic veg” which we would never be able to buy at Tesco or Sainsbury’s, ok some of them we might get in a larger Waitrose, but not the one in Newcastle, which is so very tiny. Anyway if we had a lodger, or a child I suppose, we would need the next size up box, and that would work out cheaper than the supermarkets, so I think for families they boxes work out at excellent value. Of course if you just buy the cheap veg then it is more expensive, but I have to say where before I was at best neutral on the subject of organic veg, but once I took my first bite of a Riverford carrot, I was converted as they do taste so much better. Maybe that’s a placebo effect, but at least if its organic there is no pesticide drift into rivers, and I lived in a rural community for many years so that’s something I should really care about.
So to anyone out there who can, I highly recommend you try a Riverford veg box, in fact I got some info in this weeks box with a lovely offer for me to recommend friends to Riverford, basically every time I recommended a friend to Riverford and they sign up for a regular weekly or fortnightly delivery, they will donate £10 to the charity Send a Cow, which is a great cause. Plus on their second delivery, my friends will get a free copy of the Riverford recipe book worth £12.99, not sure if its any good, I hope it is as its on my next order! Actually I am sure it will be great judging by the quality of the recipes in the weekly cards.
God Bless
Michael
