we had a great time at our summer party at Home Farm, Northallerton. We hope you did too…
growing your own?
July 20, 2009 · 10 Comments
According to our customer survey, a staggering 43% of you are growing some of your own vegetables. The potatoes may succumb to blight, gooseberries be defoliated by sawfly and lettuces devoured by slugs, but that is not the point. However gnarled, nibbled and diminutive those vegetables, in their naked simplicity they will be the most revered food to enter the kitchen…read more
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good looking boxes
July 13, 2009 · 3 Comments
it’s been a good growing year so far and our boxes are looking great. Our most recent box is the Big Lunch Box, enough to make scrumptious salads for 8 people with fresh fruit & cream for dessert. Find out more about our box on our website.
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broad beans & Heisenberg’s principle
June 29, 2009 · 6 Comments
Half the staff are lost in the broad beans, picking with deft, nimble and (I hope) well motivated fingers, moving systematically up the rows like marshalled locusts. A bean top rustles now and then and occasionally a head pops up to carry out a completed crate, but otherwise they could all be asleep in there. Read more particularly if you want to know what Heisenberg’s principle has to do with picking beans!
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strawberry season
June 24, 2009 · 2 Comments
Strawberries mark the start of summer and provoke Pavlovian dog style anticipation but, as in so many years, the first pickings had very disappointing flavour. Just as I was despairing and the first complaints started arriving, the flavour developed (no one knows why) and I am confident this will 
improve further as we get into the main season.
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in season – spinach
June 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment
spinach is plentiful through June and there are a lot of thrifty but imaginative ways to use spinach. Here are some ideas: 
1. simple oriental spinach (see picture) shred spinach stir fry in olive oil and serve sprinkled with soy sauce. Great served with grilled fish.
2. greens and cannellini beans – blanch spinach for a minute in boiling water, drain well, then cook gently in olive oil with sliced garlic and chilli. Stir in some drained cannellini beans (or other pulses), season well and drizzle with olive oil.
3. max out your meals – to make curries, stews and risottos go further, stir in spinach towards the end of cooking. Adds flavour, colour and stretches your supper to feed another person.
there are a lot more recipe ideas on our website.
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tasting french carrots
June 16, 2009 · 1 Comment
we’ve been tasting carrot varieties today, all grown on our French farm in the Vendee. Our stored Devon carrots last until the beginning of May and we have a 4-5 week gap when we import carrots to fill the gap before our Devon bunched carrots come into season. The plan is to bridge this gap with carrots from our French farm and as we tasted 8 varieities the decision was unanimous - Namur is the best. So you’ll be seeing these in the boxes this time next year.
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a credit munch worthy diet: £11 a week!
June 9, 2009 · 2 Comments
see the letter to the Daily Mail by Celia Gunn a credit munch worthy diet. Two energetic people, one week on organic food (including their Riverford vegbox): total expenditure on food £22.66.
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ethical business – what does it mean to you?
June 4, 2009 · 20 Comments
Not only did we win Best Ethical Business at the Observer Ethical Awards, we also got to meet Colin Firth… But what is an ethical business? We’d love to know your thoughts.
Here’s a short film about Riverford shown at the award ceremony.
(photos by Alicia Canter)
→ 20 CommentsCategories: what do our customers want?
fleece for sale
June 2, 2009 · 3 Comments
Fleece is a godsend to growers and gardeners; its use not only brings crops forward but also excludes pests like carrot and cabbage root fly and cabbage whites. After the local deer, badgers and my dog have run over it we can seldom use it again on a large scale but it is still fine for garden use and a number of locals collect it for their gardens. We will supply a vegbox of pre-used fleece (roughly 30-40 sq m) with a few tips on use for £4.99. Any margin we get after cutting it up we will donate to Send a Cow.
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