Does anyone use Abel and Cole?

[flapjack]

I'm getting back to our box scheme after a hiatus whilst we moved house, and I can't decide whether to go back to Riverford or give Abel and Cole a try. Does anyone have an opinion?

[chick]

we use A&C - have no probs with them at all. Anything else you want to know?

[Helen_A]

After suffering Mr Riverford on the radio yesterday I've gone right off them! (he's basically complaining that people wanting to eat seasonally aren't buying from him, and that 'local' food was bad for his business. Oh, and its apparently too early for any UK grown tomatoes not to be from an intensive hothouse system - which may be true for his suppliers, but my mate on the IOW has been cropping from his polytunnels and victorian built unheated glasshouses for a month now, without using extended seasons lighting or heat - His lack of grace was horrid!). I used Riverford briefly this year, but stopped after a month as the quality was, um, pretty awful and there was a lot of imported stuff (even though I was deliberately choosing a box that was claiming not to contain anything imported) and the contents of the boxes bore only about a 30% likeness to the contents listed on the 'site....

A&C look good on paper, but I haven't got around to using them as yet as our friends allotment is now producing (and we are getting his excess) as are my parents (ditto, although potatoes in the post are interesting, lol) and our own small garden will be productive within the next couple of weeks as we are eating the thinnings already. However if you sign up for A&C and then don't order they send you multipler order codes and 'free' codes to induce you..... after a month or so they start looking very attractive, lol.

You could also see if there is a scheme local to you - there are loads listed at downsizer, or on the telegraph and times websites. Not all are organic though.

[Plaid Leopard]

(Hi Helen - I was just asking Bex if she had seen you recently. I keep meaning to call you. . .)

I didn't hear the piece on the radio yesterday but was speaking to the woman who delivers my Riverford veg box and she was saying that Guy was NOT saying that people should only buy from him, or not go to the supermarket if they need to, and that sometimes local isn't always the most environmentally friendly choice (tomato example being that local hothouse, non-organic tomatoes can produce up to 300g co2 per kilo - from heating, fertilisers etc while trucking in organic outdoor grown tomatoes from Spain works out to about 3g/kilo. Of course, organically outdoor grown local tomatoes would be best so maybe Riverford needs to find new suppliers).

They offer imported fruit and veg for those who want them> Most of the year the majority of the selection is seasonal and local, except for a few weeks in Spring when the winter crops are done but the summer crops aren't quite ready. They never air freight either.

I have been using Riverford since last summer and have never had a prob with quality, or with contents differing from what is listed. I used A and C once and another local scheme once but I like Riverford. I wish I had heard the interview on the radio, in order to make a truly informed opinion though.

[chick]

ISTR that if I recommend someone to A&C I get a voucher too. might have to check that one!

[hermionesmum]

Are you still in Wilts? If these people cover your area I recommend their veggie box very highly! http://www.oggvalleyorganics.co.uk/

[Helen_A]

The interview was on yesterdays (wednesday) You and yours on R4 - part of the issue of tomatoes (and other UK grown things) was his bold statement that hot house growing was 'how it was done in the UK' and that it was year round (even with hothousing this isn't the case - at most the season is 'extended' by a month either way, and there are parts of the UK (IOW, Isles of Scilly and the Channel islands, and 2 weeks ish on the gulfstream coast in Somerset and Devon) where the season is naturally possible without resorting to intensive processes (glasshouses, especially ones going on for 200 years old without additional heating/fertilising, other than the digging in of manure at the end and beginning of each planting cycle, are pretty efficient beasts, and because the sun hits them all of a sudden in march/april anything ready to ripen does so in a short time frame which is just right for quantity of supply*; and the following suggestion that his co were the only ones who weren't doing this, by importing at the far ends of the season... It was his franchisees that I felt for after the interview as they will be the ones who take the flack (as they do when the boxes aren't up to snuff and all that!).

I'd listened in to said interview because I was assuming that the bold statements made in the run up/promotion of it were programme/journalistic hype... if he'd stuck to the way the show put it, he'd have come off better. All he did yesterday was dig himself a hole and ensure that various UK growers don't want to sell to him now either, silly man!




*plus if you have another lot of plants ready to go in may, you can use shades to push them on and get a second crop in the same season, still organically, still without recourse to non-organic and energy using means. Being Old glasshouses, these places aren't machine friendly either so the majority of the energy used is human :-) They also get cucumber and courgette plants in as the first lot of toms fruit so they diversity into those across the late spring/early summer giving them an under crop that grows happily as the longer season tomatoes are developing and ripening for the July/august/sept. market.

[flapjack]

Oooh, Hermione, you've just given me plan B. Nice prices too! Thankyou!

We have two local local boxes: Coleshill, who orangefoot use; nice enough but a bit heavy on the chard and they don't do doorstep deliveries. With four kids, two of pushchair age, the bump-in progress and the blasted wobbly pelvis, that isn't an option. The other is Purton House, and they're lovely but really not exciting at all and sometimes the quality of the veggies we've had at the farmers market has been a bit wobbly.

The only complaint I've had with Riverford's boxes (bearing in mind the fact that my delivery day is a Monday- don't know if that makes any difference) is that they had a big glut of squashes last year, and we don't eat squashes much. They don't do extras I want though: and I get my milk direct from A&C's suppliers, so I feel a tiny bit loyal to them... I'd agree with the basic statement that Riverford and A&C are primarily organic boxes, rather than local, and local is more important to me.

[chick]

see what I like about A&C is that if there's something in the box we don't like, we don't have to have it.

We got loads of their extras this week - just to see what they were like. Goats cheese and onion marmalade quiches were gorgeous! Also had a spicy lamb pie and some fishcakes - got the fishcakes tonight!

[AutumnAir]

: We're just landed here and I've been researching organic veggie boxes we can have delivered.

[puddleduck]

I have used A&C and Riverford and A&C win hands down for quality, ease of order, customer service and extras. I would get them now but they don't deliver here.

[Plaid Leopard]

I really like my local Riverford delivery people. They are very friendly, helpful, willing to answer questions. What I didn't like about A and C was that I had to call a central number, and while the people who took my order were very nice it seemed a bit impersonal.
I might give A and C another try. I was disappointed that their eggs were from vaxed chickens though.

[CrunchyMamaToBe]

We used Abel & Cole for a long time, maybe 2003-2006. I liked that you can get into their website and customise your box, saying "Don't bring me squash this week" or "Don't ever bring me cabbages." One summer we had potatoes and courgettes coming out of our ears (the only success we had in the allotment) and they gave us substitute items for 4 or 5 months running. We did have a few weeks, towards the time that we decided to switch, that the fruit they brought went mushy within 1-2 days. I also liked that you could order Ecover cleaning products through them.

We switched to Riverford sometime in 2006 because the comparable box was cheaper. The trade-off was that you get no say over what's in your box each week, but it is easy enough to get online, see what's in the boxes coming up, and switch your box around. I've found very nearly 100% agreement between what they say will come in the box and what actually comes in the box, as long as I take the list from the weekly email they send or by logging in to the website. I think different areas of the country get different boxes, so if you just click on "this week's boxes" on their homepage, you don't necessarily see what you would be getting in your area. We get milk from them, too, which comes directly from their farm, and we have had meat as well, which has always been good.

I have also heard good things about Coleshill, but of course that depends where your town drop-off point would be.

[flapjack]

I used Coleshill in the past, but the drop point was 2 miles from me and we only run one car: it isn't possible to fit a large veg box underneath a Phil and Teds (ask me how I know ) That wouldn't be a huge problem these days- as long as I don't end up getting so big this pregnancy that I don't fit behind the wheel of the car, that is

[orangefoot]

We have abandoned our veg box now as I'm tightening our purse strings even further I've got stuff growing in the garden which I hope will tide us over somewhat.

When we were getting the Coleshill box we used to share collection with two other friends which made it easier. Sometimes I went for weeks without having to go and collect the box and other times I got it every week when the others were busier.

[CrunchyMamaToBe]

Flapjack, your new signature cracks me up!

[flapjack]

Thankyou Yours isn't too bad either I have to say, though, I love the sleepytime smiley so much.

Orangefoot