I’m doing a bit of a review of potential veg boxes delivery company, as I want to get the best supplier. I also think writing about it will help others as well as achieving BC purpose!. I’m quite aware that some of these schemes potentially are premium priced, so I also wanted to check whether they’re competitive to convince my wife .
When searching through the options Milk and More is good as it’s reasonably priced, organic and also provides milk. Here are some photos of the goods and what I thought.
1. What I ordered
Milk & More Organic Whole Milk in Glass, 568ml, 1pt-
£0.95
Milk & More Organic Semi Skimmed Milk in Glass, 568ml, 1pt
1 £0.95
Premium Organic Veg Box 1 £16.50
Organic Apples, 6 pack 1£3.50
Organic Clementines, 600G 1 £2.75
Organic Cherry Vine Tomatoes, 225g 1 £2.75
Organic Bananas, 800g 1 £2.00
Free Welcome Gift! The Village Press Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice 1 £0.00
The service was great. I got to pick a date for delivery and it arrived on my front doorstep on the day outlined.
The only packaging used was biodegradable which is amazing - why can’t everyone do this!
3. Value for money
##Veg Box
It’s worthwhile comparing with another premium high street brand so I chose Waitrose. I paid £16.50 but it would be £15 if I ordered it regularly. It would cost £15.92 from Waitrose, so really not bad.
Quantity
Waitrose Cost
Onions
3
£1.30
Butternut Squash
1
£2.19
Cucumber
1
£1.40
Kale
200g
£1.70
Cabbage
1
£1.18
Fennel
500g
£4.00
Sweet Poatoes
700g
£2.25
Romano Peppers
2
£1.90
Total
£15.92
Other Items
What you learn here is that Milk is a lot more expensive so if you’re like us and have small children, this is a tough pill to swallow. However, on all the other items Milk and More stands up to the price text.
Highly recommend MIlk and More! I was a bit stuck with some of the ingredients but made an amazing roast carrot and fennel soup for the first time in my life, which was quite amazing
I’m going to order from another supplier now and will let you know what I find.
If you are using a service it would be great if you could let us know what your experiences have been!
I use Regather, which is local to Sheffield. Pretty much everything is organic, except the milk which comes in a glass bottle from a much-loved local farm. I live alone and get a small veg box with potatoes (£6.75) on week one and, on week two, a small veg box without potatoes (£7.75). These boxes always contain onions and carrots and then other things randomly. I might occasionally go out and buy other stuff for reasons of taste and preference, but I never really run out - in fact some weeks I have to cancel a delivery as I have too much veg. Once a fortnight I also get an extra small fruit box (£4.50) - usually (in winter) apples and oranges/clementines - and I usually supplement that with extras (e.g a bunch of bananas for £1.15) to get through the fortnight.
The randomness results in better value for money, on the whole, I think, and I quite like being forced to try out new recipes for food that I wouldn’t normally buy from choice. It is possible to exclude things you really hate. My best so far has been Jerusalem artichoke and mushroom risotto - both vegetables I like but had never previously thought of combining. They charge £2.50 for delivery and living through winter in lockdown with extremely dodgy knees, that’s been a huge blessing.
My girlfriend and I use Oddbox which delivers to London & South East only. We get a medium fruit & veg box (£15.99) every fortnight which covers most of our needs but we use the local supermarket for milk, storecupboard bits and other fresh veg items like garlic, ginger, etc.
In our box today we got:
Celeriac,
2 aubergines,
12 small potatoes,
10 small onions,
A couple of large handfuls of kale,
2 leeks,
Bag of radishes,
Punnet of grapes,
Bag of rocket,
6 passion fruit,
10 satsumas,
6 peaches.
This is pretty representative, although it’s always slightly different with a good variety. We’ve found it fun not quite knowing what were going to get and improvising or finding new recipes.
Oddbox are a certified B Corp and I did a bit of research into how they procure such fresh and exotic ‘waste’ food, as I didn’t want to be contributing to greater demand and a cottage industry. Most of it seems to be supermarket surplus from over-ordering or growers over producing, with some wonky stuff too. There’s usually a handy leaflet that tells you where each food has come from. The box is delivered overnight (cutting driving time and emissions) with usually no but sometimes minimal plastic packaging (e.g. just the rocket and grapes this time).
Oddbox allow you up to three exclusions at no extra cost which is great, and the website is easy to use if you want add-ons or to skip a week.
Thanks Zak. Had the Oddbox delivered most recently. Am going to write it up soon like I did with the other. Seems as if you got a few better things than us with kees, grapes and peaches - didn’t get those in our big box!
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