This is the Riverford Organic Vegetables blog where we talk about anything from growing the veg to the environmental impact of the box scheme and a lot in between. We’d love to hear from you so please do add your thoughts to the posts.
-
Search It!
-
Recent Entries
- beyond certification12.7
- parsnips – our veg of the month11.17
- Good Housekeeping Food Awards – win a luxury weekend break11.17
- 9/10 from Giles Coren11.16
- a cooking odyssey10.29
- ideas for sweetcorn10.13
- veg of the month – squash and pumpkin10.5
- Guardian Response9.29
- Riverford mini cucumbers win food Oscars9.29
- Guy awarded an honorary degree9.29
-
Links
Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Cutline by Chris Pearson.
31 responses so far ↓
Sylvianne // July 10, 2007 at 10:33 am |
Any chance you could put an RSS feed on this blog. It’s going to be a great resource to use with my students.
riverford // July 10, 2007 at 10:43 am |
Hi Sylvianne, glad you find the blog useful. At the moment we can’t provide RSS because of the way the site is configured, but hope to very soon. We’ll send you an email when we do. Until then, please do check back regularly…
Anne // July 23, 2007 at 11:48 am |
How does ‘we never air freight’ square with selling bananas, italian wine etc, and why could I find no explanation of this on your website?
Cheers,
Anne.
riverford // July 23, 2007 at 1:01 pm |
Dear Anne, We never air freight anything. 85 per cent of box contents are grown locally, anything we do import comes by ship.
amy // October 2, 2009 at 3:09 pm |
Hi, I was wondering about the bananas too. Last week they had ffyfe ‘organic’ stickers on them but I couldn’t see anything ‘ fairtrade’ anywhere. Are they fairtrade?
Also we unfortunately missed the deadline this week due to internet problems so I went to shop in Sainsburys and did a little experiment. I took the list of veg that would have been in the box (had we not missed the deadline) and bought the equivalent in the supermarket. I was careful to more or less match the quantities we normally get but I chose Non-Organic veg. Unbelieveably, the bill came to more than the riverford order AND it wasn’t organic. Amazing! I shall make sure I won’t miss the deadline in future.
I do have a gripe though- Please could you consider packaging the milk in bigger cartons (or even plastic bags like some of the supermarkets do) because its silly having to order 5 cartons of milk and also, we can’t recycle those types of carton locally so they all go to landfill.
riverford // October 5, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Hi Amy,
we do a monthly price check of our vegboxes against supermarket organic veg and are consistently cheaper than the supermarkets. It’s great to hear the results of your experiment where Riverford vegboxes were cheaper than non-organic veg in the supermarket.
Our bananas are usually Fairtrade but there has been a problem with crown rot, particular to this time of year when the spores are virulent, which has affected crops. When this happens we source from suppliers we know and trust and they are always organic mostly certified as Fairtrade. Last week we had a mix of organic and Fairtrade organic.
riverford // October 6, 2009 at 11:24 am
Interesting you should mention bags for milk which is something we’ve done a study on to find out whether it’s a better option environmentally and the practical implications of bags. Practially it’ll be quite difficult but that’s not to say impossible! It would be good to hear from others who have either bought or would like to buy milk in bags.
Nadine Hengen // August 22, 2007 at 6:51 pm |
I think you guys are great. I have recently moved back to the contintent, and am having great troubles finding anything similar here. Although there are schemes, they don’t have the same homely ‘unwashed carrot’ feel to them.
I’m looking forward to the day where your UK map has no grey areas and you’re considering ‘expanding’ south…
Keith Balderson // May 28, 2008 at 3:29 pm |
How do I create a thread on your blog?
I’d like to discuss the merits of the age that meat products go to slaughter. I live half of my time in France where the one pot ‘ragout’ is king and young tender meat falls apart after several hours steeped in wine.
Is there a place for the ‘old boiler’ in modern society, and if, so where can these be obtained? Equally, why is it that offal is so hard to obtain?
Please edit this and move to a more appropriate location if necessary.
Jane Bowden // October 30, 2009 at 5:43 pm |
I too would be very interested to know how the French manage to achieve such tender meat. I don’t find ragout and the like so hard to get right in England, but I’m constantly disappointed in pork, beef and lamb steak and won’t cook it for guests in case it’s tough.
patti Marston // June 10, 2008 at 5:09 pm |
The broccoli last week went off in two days and had a slight mould when it arrived. As I live nearer to the Nene than Devon (Harpenden) why can’t they deliver to me? I feel sometimes that the produce has been kept in the warehouse too long.
Dianne Smith // July 2, 2008 at 8:00 pm |
Just love my boxes and look forward to seeing what’s new. My husband thought I’d really lost the plot though when I did a little dance around the kitchen at the sight of a living and unsprayed snail on my lettuce! What joy. When can we look forwards to meat boxes from you?
Donna // July 24, 2008 at 11:00 am |
Hello,
Please can you confirm what the price for the new Riverford Farm cookbook will be? Is there any offers for your valued Riverford customers if ordered pre publication?
Thanks Donna
amanda // August 5, 2008 at 6:31 pm |
hi , your produce looks fantastic and having been posted a leaflet would love to try it, unfortunatly you do not deliver to my address why would you leaflet an area you do not deliver to? however i have registered my details with you and hope to hear from you soon
Rebecca // August 8, 2008 at 2:29 pm |
I saw the Riverford van one day and thought I would look up the details on the internet. My kids now love eating fruit and veg. My son says they taste different from the ones we used to have in Tesco. They love looking at the veg in the box and all the mud. I enjoy cooking again and not being lazy buying quick ready meals. I have even lost weight. The cook book is good as well as it helps with the veg we are not always used to. My son said he will even miss the food when we go on holiday. All I can say is for people to try and stop being lazy and go back to cooking like my nan always has. She was bought up on a farm and she said people eat rubbish now, which is why people are so fat. People have noticed I have lost weight and said we are all looking healthier. My next thing is to be able to buy some of the meat to try. I would like to say thanks to Riverford as I also do not have to go to tescos now and this makes life a lot easier as my daughter is autistic. Thanks. Oh and my son loves Guys newsletters. He is 14 and thinks they are funny.
Lesley // August 19, 2008 at 10:25 pm |
Great to see you guys on Jimmy’s Farming Heroes this evening. Ten minutes was not nearly enough time to talk about everything you are doing so brilliantly, but it was a good airing nevertheless.
I always look forward to the box arriving; the new cook book is great too; keep up the good work!
Lynsey Flack // August 24, 2008 at 9:51 am |
We are new customers to River Nene Veg box scheme or what ever its called. Everything that we have had from them has been absolutely excellent and it has even encourged my other half to eat far more veg.
Why o Why dont you do a recommended a friend reward system?
Just an idea!!!
Oh and our lady that delivers to us is a excellent ambassador for your company always helpfull always professional and reliable.
thanks Liz Ede
Barbara Pouw // November 18, 2008 at 3:10 pm |
You recently wrote in your newsletter about why you prefer cavolo nero over curly cale.
Tenderness is one thing, but the strong flavour of the curly variety is fantastic in the dish I love to make with it.
Question: is it possible to put the name of the variety of apple you sell on the bags/and or the website? I believe I have had a few different ones this year and I would like to know the names of the ones I like best.
Georgie Furst // December 17, 2008 at 2:21 pm |
This is a fantastic service, the produce is wonderful, our local agent is fantastic and we’ve saved money too. Highly recommended. We particularly enjoy Guy’s no nonsense newsletters too – ever considered politics Guy?! We need more people who actually speak some sense…
kate // December 18, 2008 at 7:15 pm |
I stopped getting my Riverford box some months ago after several years of really enjoying my weeekly surprise. There had been a few issues over quality but my main beef was the endless MUSHROOMS which noone in our house will eat. Feeling a little nostalgic I logged on this evening wondering if my moaning had had any effect and thinking I might start gettin a box again. But what do I see in all the boxes?
You’ve guessed it.
Would love to return – noone does it quite like you – and I miss Guy Watson’s rants as well.
Ditch the mushies, please.
Teresa // February 19, 2009 at 4:19 pm |
Hi, I have just recieved my first set of boxes from you and I think they are great! I love the idea of having fresh fruit and veg to eat, and the fact that it is organic and from a farm makes it even better! I love the fact that it is delivered straight to my door, and the pakaging is adorable!
The food is good quality and the amount I got for my money is excellent. Thank you!
Liz // March 15, 2009 at 6:34 pm |
at long last washed carrots but what gets put on top of them – unwashed parsnips! Please get the packers to think – yes I have been on and off ordering your boxes since the early 1990’s so I don’t get put off – particularly now I can change via the web so easily and it is a great service and of course great veg.
Jo // March 20, 2009 at 7:39 pm |
I like the mud! I like the fact that Riverford veg has had very little done to it. I want unprocessed straight out of the ground stuff. I think this is a slippery slope – it will be ready washed salad next – don’t do it.
Ann Barattini // March 23, 2009 at 12:16 pm |
Mud is good but your arguments about less mud would make life a little easier for us customers as well as looking after your boxes to be used a few more times. Muddy veggies remind me of being able to dig fresh veggies in my own garden and tells me that your veggies have not been out of the gground for very long!!!
Liz // March 23, 2009 at 3:03 pm |
I’ve noticed that you no longer put ‘This week’s box contents’ on the subject line of your emails. I don’t read every email I get from Riverford but I do order my box on a weekly basis after choosing from the box contents. I rely on reading the email with the box contents and miss having the prompt in the subject line to remind me.
Helen Smith // March 23, 2009 at 6:13 pm |
I love yogurt but you don’t sell fruity ones.
With all that lovely organic fruit and milk (and now vanilla!!) you have there, is there any chance of some flavoured yogurts being available on the xtras list?
Kieran Masterton // May 17, 2009 at 5:28 pm |
@Sylvianne & @riverford as the Riverford blog is running on WordPress you can always find the RSS at http://.wordpress.com/feed/ so in the case of Riverford here’s the link:
http://riverford.wordpress.com/feed/
Hope that helps,
Kieran
Helen Craik // May 18, 2009 at 11:02 pm |
i only started getting your boxes after xmas and i love the veg – even if you think it is a bad time of year – except to the chard. The only thing i have attempted is soup with my husband described as a biology experiment! Has chard run its course or are we at risk of more?
Helen X
Vivien Cruickshank // June 26, 2009 at 1:01 pm |
A few years ago, my daughter came to visit me and said, “guess what I’ve just seen”. It was a Riverford van. We had tried various box schemes before, all of which had tried hard to make it work but for one reason or another, had failed. Riverford was so well organised that it seemed like a dream come true. Now, some years down the line I am just as impressed. Another bonus is that I save quite a bit as I don’t have to go foraging in supermarkets as I used to, looking for organic vegetables. I could find potatoes, carrots and onions, plus lettuce in season. Greens, I would have killed for!. So thank you Riverford, and long may you prosper.
Jo King // September 22, 2009 at 4:32 pm |
I’ve been a customer for nearly five years and love the fact that as a vegetarian I hardly ever have to go to the supermarket! Especially as the list of Riverford products gets longer! I wanted to mention though, that I think the Riverford cotton shopping bag would be more attractive and functional if the straps were a little wider.
dave // October 18, 2009 at 6:24 pm |
what happens to the un-used fruit and veg is it recycled on farm