Changing tastes - the rise of the organic veg box

Tag : Box Vegetable
Once considered to be the preserve of "hippies" and city-dwelling"yummy-Mummy" types anxious to give their offspring a taste offresh country produce, vegetable box schemes are springing upacross Yorkshire as demand soars.

These days the old stereotypical images of the regular vegetablebox scheme customer are some way off the mark. A wider mix ofpeople than ever before
are shunning the supermarket in favour of local suppliers of fruit,vegetables, dairy products, meat and eggs. This is due, at least inpart, to the likes of celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and HughFearnley-Whittingstall, who have helped to encourage wider publicdebate about the origins and quality of
the food that we eat, as well as the methods used to produce it.

Graham Brooks of the Arthur Street Trading Company delivers about80 boxes of local, seasonal and mainly organic produce each week tohomes in Hull and the surrounding area.

It's doing so well he fears that the big boys will try to followsuit.

"The danger is that the big supermarkets will move in and tiefarmers to a fixed price that we just can't compete with," saysGraham.

"We want to keep the money in the local economy and, although wesimply can't sell as cheaply as the supermarkets, we can supportsmall-scale local producers."

Graham and his team make local deliveries using a solar-poweredmilk float to keep the impact on the environment to a minimum, andhave diversified the business to include environmentally-friendlycleaning products and wholefoods among the goods that they deliverto their customers' doors.

The fact that Graham's vegetable box scheme is thriving in a arealike Hull, where incomes tend to be lower than the national averageand people have less money to spend on their weekly food shop, isfurther evidence that they are now mainstream.

It's part of a shift away from buying pre-packaged fruit andvegetables from a supermarket that have been flown half way around
the world.

Rob McGregor of the Organic Farm at Leeming Bar in North Yorkshiregives a chuckle when asked about the image of the typical vegetablebox schemes and their customers. "In the early days our organicvegetable boxes appealed mainly to the 'right-on' types as youmight expect," he says.

"However, as the business has grown, we've found it's become muchmore of a mainstream option and we now have a broad cross-sectionof customers."

Since Rob and his wife, Elaine, launched their business in 1998,they have gone from selling 50 to 100 boxes per year to supplyinghundreds of boxes every month across Yorkshire
and beyond.

Customers include companies who offer discounted vegetable boxes totheir staff to encourage healthy eating and university studentsliving in shared houses or halls of residence, who club together tobuy a box. The majority of Rob's vegetable boxes are now bought byindividual families on a regular basis.

Helen Edwards, a busy working mother from York, receives a weeklydelivery of organic fruit and vegetables from the Richmond-basedFarm Around North because she finds it so convenient.

"After receiving a mailshot from Farm Around, we decided to trialit for a couple of weeks and now we take a delivery of fruit andvegetables each week," she says. "I work full-time so I wouldn'tget the opportunity to buy fresh, seasonal, organic produceotherwise.

"They always send you basics, such as carrots, onions and potatoes,but the other items vary according to what's in season. You oftenget tips on how best to prepare certain vegetables and recipes tohelp with planning meals. I recently received a living salad, whichcomes in a pot and lasts longer because you pick it when you needit."

Having fresh produce delivered is undoubtedly convenient, but someshoppers don't like the idea of not knowing exactly what willarrive and prefer to select their own food.

Sue Gibson, a mother of two from North Newbald in East Yorkshire,says: "I think vegetable boxes are a good idea for pensioners ormums with very young children who struggle to get to thesupermarket. But I like to select my fruit and vegetables by hand,varying my selections from week to week depending on what's inseason, what's on offer and what menu I have in mind for the weekahead."

To address this issue, a number of firms providing vegetable boxesnow allow customers to select the contents for themselves using alist on their websites.

Others, including Farm Around North, advertise the contents oftheir vegetable boxes on their websites on a weekly basis so thatcustomers know what they can expect to receive.

For his operation, Rob McGregor has also joined forces with anumber of local organic food producers to extend the range ofproducts on offer through his box scheme to include meat, dairyproducts and eggs.

To make the business more sustainable, a large number of the boxesare distributed through a network of health food shops across theregion.

While Rob welcomes the growing interest among consumers in wheretheir food comes from, he believes that the "local produce" tag canbe misleading. "There is confusion around the 'local' side ofthings because it's no guarantee of quality or high standards ofwelfare. For example, there could be a pork producer just down theroad from me producing meat of a much lower quality using intensivefarming methods. That's a major issue that is simply not spokenabout and still needs to be addressed."

Delvering the goods

The Arthur Street Trading Company supplies a range of standardseasonal vegetable boxes, which are priced at £6 for small, £8for medium, £10 for large and £13 for extra large. Although thereis no guarantee of exactly what will be in each box, at the momentthe medium-sized boxes are likely to contain seven or eightdifferent items, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips, kale,leeks, mushrooms and cabbage. There is also a range of fruit boxes,varying in price from £6 to £20, and a juicing box for £14.Visit www.arthurs organics.com to find out more.

The Organic Farm supplies standard vegetable boxes in a range ofsizes, from small to extra, extra large at prices ranging from £7to £25. It also supplies small (£7), medium (£10.50) and large(£14) fruit boxes, as well as and small (£9.50) and large(£12.50) salad boxes. Customers can also put together their own"choice" box by selecting items from the shopping list on thewebsite at www. theorganicfarm.co.uk/

Standard vegetable boxes from Farm Around North cost from £8 to£17.50. Visit the website to see what's on offer this weekwww.farmaround north.co.uk

Visit www.vegbox recipes.co.uk to find a vegetable box scheme in
your area.