The Riverford Blog

At Riverford we develop long term relationships with growers who share our values. It generally takes years to build up the trust and understanding that encourages farmers to commit to growing for the box scheme and to concentrate on flavour rather than yield. When it all works (and I think it usually does) this close relationship enables us to deliver that flavour plus the social and environmental ethics in your box each week without a price premium. I went to school with several of our co-op members in Devon and after 12 years things run incredibly smoothly. But the more distant the grower, the more challenging building a relationship of trust becomes.

Earlier this year Armando from Brazil visited and shared a cup of his coffee while he told me the story behind the co-operative of 23 Demeter certified biodynamic family farms in North East Brazil where the beans were grown. Twenty years ago 65% of Brazilian coffee was grown by small family farms. Today the figure is 25% with the remaining 75% being grown by large farms and corporations on large, mechanised and chemically intensive farms. The displaced farmers and their families are mostly condemned to the grinding poverty of migrant seasonal workers or have moved to the urban slums of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The resulting coffee is traded as an anonymous international commodity. Under our agreement with Armando, the growers of our new Floresta organic coffee are paid at least 40% more than the Fairtrade price for the green (fresh) beans plus an extra 40% of the profits on the sale of the roasted coffee.

The best thing of all is the coffee itself. 100% Arabica, single estate, slow roasted and because it is delivered without any middlemen, competitively priced at £3.95 for 250g.

I have since enjoyed many cups with Armando, who has become a trusted friend, and I am really happy to be selling it. I would have liked to have visited the co-op myself, but in the meantime am reassured by Andrew Purvis, a friend who has written an article about it for the Observer Food Monthly ”wake up and smell the biodynamic coffee”.

As the days turn colder, thoughts turn to warming stews and casseroles full of comforting root veg. One root you’re bound to find in your box over the coming weeks and months is parsnip. Parsnips are only grown as a significant commercial crop in the UK. The French are particularly dismissive of them and use ‘le panais’ (parsnip) as an insult. But we think they are missing out. Our first crop is often ready by September but we wait until the temperature drops to start harvesting; the cold weather causes some of the starch in the root to convert to sugar, giving fantastic flavour. read more

We’ve been nominated in the ‘Favourite to-your-door food supplier’ category of the Good Housekeeping Food Awards. Please vote for us here - you might even win a luxury weekend break while you’re at it! Voting closes 21^st December.

Giles Coren reviewed our Field Kitchen restaurant in the Times calling it “the lunch of my life” and giving it a score of 9/10. It was following an unexpected visit on a fraught day last month – Jane Baxter our head cook had an accident earlier in the day and was rushed to A&E. A credit to Jane and the rest of the team that they can pull it off on possibly their trickiest day of the year so far!   Read more

Our mission for the coming months is to make life with a box easier. There will be a few minor changes like less clods of mud but mostly we want to do this by cooking with you; both virtually and in person. We plan to team up with around 100 like-minded professional cooks who are inspired by our veg and on a par with our chef, Jane Baxter when it comes to cooking them. They will work part-time with us and our customers, inspiring, teaching, demonstrating, creating recipes. We plan to run initiatives including affordable cookery classes and demos in homes, workplaces and community venues; lunch clubs, supper clubs and cooking clubs and a recipe exchange for customers. We have already run some pilot events and now we really want to get going. read more

We are back to our Devon drizzle and there is a side of me that is almost pleased. Some of our crops certainly needed the rain and we can finally pack away all those pumps and sprinklers for the year, secure in the knowledge that nothing will be thirsty for the next seven months. After two dreadful summers when the corn struggled to ripen, we downgraded our yield predictions and planted more acres to make up the numbers. This year the crop has been late and looked dodgy in July but the September sun saved us, bringing our highest yields ever. With it all ripening at the same time… read more…

With the recent warm dry weather, our squash are developing good hard skins to store well over the coming months. Squash and pumpkins are part of the Cucurbitaceae family, along with courgettes and marrows, but are distinguished by the fact that their fruits are harvested mature and can last very well, making them a useful staple through autumn and winter (and often beyond). read more

Zoe Williams’ attack on all things organic (The Guardian 26/9/09) is comprehensive but incoherent. Does she really think we should condemn all organic farmers for the misdeeds of one criminal like Neil Stansfield of Swaddles Green? Or write off every organic buyer who shows a modicum of trust as a mug who deserves to be ripped off?

My 23 years of growing organic vegetables have given me a different view of organic buyers and growers (though box scheme buyers may be a little more considered than those snatching organic labels from the shelves of supermarkets or Fortnum and Mason). The vast majority are searching for a safer, fairer and more sustainable way of growing and enjoying food. Far from being unthinkingly compliant and accepting, or driven by fashion, they generally seem to me an argumentative, questioning and varied lot, making their own pragmatic judgements after balancing up a host of issues including local, fair trade, scale of production, use of packaging, animal welfare, food safety and environmental impact to name a few. Food safety and particularly the avoidance of pesticides (not covered in FSA report she quotes) often head the list of motivations for new organic buyers but, in my experience, this is soon supplanted by flavour. Few believe that organic is the only, or complete solution, but most share a belief that our food and farming needs to change and that in most instances organic offers a better alternative.

I have more sympathy with the second half of her article, condemning a perceived hijacking of all food issues by the organic movement. read more

Our mini cucumbers from Wash Farm have won the Fruit & Vegetable category in the Soil Association Organic Food Awards closely followed by our pointed cabbages awarded commended. Judges called them ‘delicate, sweet, fresh and crunchy’. We couldn’t agree more!

our founder, Guy Watson, has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law from Plymouth University.  Guy earned a distinction for his campaigning work for the organic movement and more recently for promoting practical home cooking using seasonal veg.

 He was in the company of the likes of Pen Hadow, polar explorer who picked up an Honorary Doctorate of Science and Juliet Davenport founder of the Good Energy Group who also picked up an Honorary science degree.