The Great Organic Veg Delivery Comparison Shop Adventure!

Hello, blog-fans!

Apologies for my absence - I've been working on my book (!) - a subject, I promise, will be milked to death in my next post.

Today, I'm adding to the blog a series of weekly reviews of my adventures in organic vegetable home delivery. It will contain a bonus recipe that demands the inclusion of this intriguing broccoli:

The Romanesco Broccoli

The Boy Next Door and I are fabulously stereotypical tree-hugging environment lovers... who live very deliberately *right in the centre* of one of the busiest cities on earth. Obviously, I love organic veg for all the environmental and ethical concerns of its production, but it's an unavoidable truth that it also tastes better. If you don't believe me, hold up an organic tomato to your nose and try not to salivate.

The other day I was rambling around London when I noticed a box of juicy vegetables sitting in an ethical-looking cardboard box outside someone's house. This is deranged behaviour in London, given that the easiest way of getting rid of things you don't want is to leave them outside your house, where they'll be stolen in less than five minutes (I time-trialled this with an old bookcase, it is true), but rather than lurk in the shadows to watch out for London's soon-to-be-healthiest local thief, I came home and decided to find my own organic veg supplier.

I found five:
• Riverford Organic Veg: www.riverford.co.uk
• Abel & Cole: www.abelandcole.co.uk
• The Organic Delivery Company: www.organicdeliverycompany.co.uk
• The Food Folk: www.thefoodfolk.com
• Farm-Direct: www.farm-direct.com

The Boy Next Door, who would, left to his own devices, exist entirely on a diet of fruity buns, has, as the result of a recent snotty flu, enfranchised me to set the nutritional agenda for our household. With a mutually agreed combined grocery budget of £40 a week, I set to work on my first order, from Riverford Organic.

The Boy Next Door works weird shifts, and I spend a lot of nights out, too, so for my first veg order, I thought I would err on the side of caution with quantities. The way Riverford work is that they offer you a box, with a choice of size, and base their contents of a number of items of fruit or veg to fill it. What these are, of course, are determined by seasonal availabilities. There are also dairy and meat options, booze, softdrinks and seasonal treats that you can order, as well as things for the larder.

I ordered:
- a "mini" box: This is advertised as containing 7-8 types of vegetable, being a week's supply for 1-2 people, and cost £8.95. It contained: 8 large potatoes, 5 medium carrots, 2 enormous zucchini/courgettes, 3 medium-sized leeks, 4 medium brown onions, 1 medium savoy cabbage and 1 medium head of romanesco broccoli.
- a "fruit bag": This is advertised as containing 3 types of seasonal vegetable, and cost £5.95. It contained: 4 enormous plums, 4 huge oranges and 8 small kiwi-fruit.
- a litre of semi-skinned organic milk (£1.06)
- a half-dozen free range, organic eggs (£1.95)
- a 170g wheel of St Eadburgha soft cheese (a treat for the Boy the Next door, £4.45)
- a 600ml tub of the "Soup of the Month" - tarragon and celeriac - for £2.99

The total for this spread was £25.35. I worked our larder up to £40 through the purchase of boxes of black beans, kidney beans and chickpeas, lots of dry spaghetti, bacon, wild rice, wholemeal pitta bread, hummus, apples, soft cheese, oatcakes, butter and fruit juice and decided to trade off our larder for anything else.

I emailed in my order to Riverford (the website is a little annoying, as you can't revise your choices at checkout - you have to reverse to the main page and manually adjust the quantities), but was DELIGHTED to learn:
- they delivered for *free*
- they would deliver before 9am on a Tuesday.

Now, the first point of comparison in this shop was to challenge whether a free, organic delivery would be cheaper than ordering the same things from the local supermarket. So I comparison-shopped with Sainsbury's online; we do all our regular shopping from the local Sainbury's, which has an organic section.

Withdrawing the cost of the cheese - which you can't get at Sainsbury's, and which, was, after all, a really a naughty treat - the cost of these items was £20.90.

Using the order mechanism for Sainsbury's Online, the same (or equivalent) items as my Riverford stock were:

Sainsbury's Carrot, Chickpea & Coriander Soup, So Organic 600g £0.28/100g £1.69
Sainsbury's Fresh Milk, Semi Skimmed, Organic 1.13L (2pint) £0.91/ltr £1.03
Sainsbury's Free Range Woodland Medium Eggs x6 £0.24/ea £1.46
Sainsbury's Plum Punnet 400g £4.98/kg £1.99
Sainsbury's Navel Oranges , Taste the Difference x4 £0.62/ea £2.49
Sainsbury's Kiwi Fruit, Organic x4 £0.35/ea £1.39
Sainsbury's Onions, Organic 750g £1.33/kg £1.00
Sainsbury's Leeks, Organic 400g £4.45/kg £1.78
Sainsbury's Lady Balfour Potatoes, So Organic 2kg £1.25/kg £2.50
Sainsbury's Courgettes, So Organic £0.66/ea £1.98
Sainsbury's Carrots, So Organic 750g £1.24/kg £0.93
Sainsbury's Broccoli, So Organic 400g £3.92/kg £1.57
Sainsbury's Savoy Cabbage, Organic £1.27/ea £1.27

Which totals to: £21.08 - although quantities are not equivalent (I got more kiwi fruit and leeks, but perhaps less spuds and carrots). Also, I couldn't get organic plums or oranges from Sainsbury's at this time.

Interesting. ALSO: were I to order through Sainsbury's for home delivery I couldn't get a delivery before 9am. Deliveries only start from 10am, and would cost me an additional £3.50.

That's only an 18p difference between Riverford and Sainsbury's on the groceries, but the difference in cost with delivery means a saving of £3.68, or 17% on the total shop.

Of course, there's an argument that I had to go to Sainsbury's anyway to get our other groceries, so there's a carbon issue with the delivery from Riverford. Of course, buying that many groceries would have needed the help of a car or bus to get home, anyway... Not to mention, there's an ENORMOUS save in time between ordering on the internet and hanging at home for an early-morning delivery, rather than the hours spent going to, staying at, and coming from the supermarket (not to mention that the Boy Next Door is not supermarket compliant, and tends to start wanting to buy £10 of jellybeans or stick bananas in his ears if we're in there for more than 5 minutes).

The real issue, for me, of course, was going to be the quality and taste of the food. I'm writing this on a Sunday, following our Tuesday delivery. Of our stock, we have 1 courgette, 3 onions, some eggs, the plums, 3 oranges and all of the kiwi fruit remaining, but we've had some lovely meals:

- leeks and cabbage fried with butter and bacon
- roast potatoes and carrots
- the Soup of the Month was fantastic
- the cheese lasted, oh, about 30 minutes (and that was the last of our oatcakes)
- spaghetti with broccoli and pinenuts
- fresh orange and bay leaf tea
- courgette with wild rice
- kidney beans with bacon and onion

... and tomorrow, obviously, I am going to whip up an omelette with the eggs, an onion, bacon and the remaining courgette, using the last two onions in a french onion soup for dinner.

Of course, it's alarming that the Boy Next Door and I have essentially been staring at a fruitbowl full of food that we haven't touched for a week. The plums I will make into a cordial tomorrow, the oranges will last a couple more days and I may juice them... but kiwi fruit are annoying little critters and any ideas what to do with them would be most welcome.

So, in summary, Riverford:

- good range of in season fresh fruit and vegetables
- also very decent range of meat, dairy and booze
- some interesting luxury products
- flexibility with ordering (instead of the fruit bag, we could have just selected apples and bananas to add on)
- website is clear, even if ordering is a little annoying
- free delivery, and at good hours for people with, you know, jobs
- they delivered on time and were very nice
- delivery came with recyclable packaging, as well as (bonus!) a handy guidebook to their vegetables (which is how i found out what the weird green thing was) with storage and preparation instructions, as well as recipes. Recipes!
- organic, responsibly sourced
- high quality food (one potato was a little dodgy, but a few flicks of the knife and it roasted fine)
- had to scrub the carrots and potatoes
- got freaked out by the weird-looking broccoli (pyramidical cones and bright lime green in colour)... but it turned out to be crunchy and scrumptious
- tasty food that lasted the promised week
- price comparable (slighly less) than Sainsbury's

The week ahead we are going to try Abel & Cole and see how they compare.

In other news, today I bought a peace lily... and already my apartment is more joyous.

To leave you...

• 10-Minute Spaghetti with Broccoli and Pinenuts: Heat 2 tbs of olive oil in a pan, adding your own desired quantity of pinenuts. Cook the pinenuts in the oil on a low heat until they are VERY slightly more golden than beige, but remove from heat immediately when they start to turn this colour. Do NOT drain, but set aside. Boil water in a kettle and pour it into a saucepan, adding (preferably wholemeal) spaghetti. Once the spaghetti is is bent into the saucepan, add a slice of bacon to the water, a dash of salt and cover the pan with a bamboo steamer that fits it. The steamer should contain half a head of romanesco broccoli, cut into flowerets. Bring to the boil - once the broccoli is cooked, the spaghetti should be, too. Drain the spaghetti, add the broccoli to the pan, and pour in the oil and pinenuts, seasoning with ground black pepper and salt, to taste. Can be served with shredded pecorino or parmesan cheese.

Peace, Lily! A Reader Suggests Detoxification by Flowers

This post is a sequel to my previous "I can't believe that people actually read this" article form the other day. Yesterday, I was complaining about antennae growing out of my head. Today I am ordering a peace lily. Why? Because they've been proven by NASA to actually detox the air around you. No, I am not joking and yes, this was messaged to me by someone who reads this blog.

They look like this:

Ooh, pretty!

Peace lilies are called spathiphyllum and come in numerous varieties. They detox the air - specifically, they absorb formaldehyde and benzene - and you only need one plant per room to keep its air fresh and chemical free. Apparently, they are NOT recommended for homes with plants or children, as their nifty toxin-inhaling properties make you violently spew everywhere if you eat them.

But if you know someone without pets or children who's got, you know, antennae growing out of their head, you should buy them one. There is a company in London doing a delivery of a potted peace lily for £20. They're good plants for domestically irresponsible, as they like shadows and only need to be watered if their soil feels dry.

And lilies are gifts with impressive symbology. The Archangel Gabriel, no less, presented one to Mary at the Annunciation, and Mary is often represented with lilies in Western art. Although hers was a Madonna lily (and from a different genus), the symbolism of the flower still holds; lilies, interestingly, represent both purity (because of their pure white colour) and sexual energy and fertility. In the latter case this would be because of the, um, impressive pistils and their particular location within the petals. Give the photo a good stare if you don't immediately see what I mean.

The combination of the symbolism of purity and sexual energy OF COURSE results in lilies being associated with motherhood and fertility. Lilith, the "unsuitable" first wife of the Biblical Adam, was actually named after the lily. [If you haven't heard of Lilith, fret not; she'll make an appearance in the this blog at a later point], but the association with the flower is shared by all kinds of mother goddesses, like Astarte, whose European name is Eostre. This makes a lily a particularly good gift for the season, as upcoming Easter, unsurprisingly, gets its name from the Eostre festival.

In flowers-as-a-gift symbolism, a present of lilies implies your intentions are motivated by purity, majesty and honour. This is one of the reasons that they are popular at funerals - to "honour" the dead. There is a memorable scene in Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber that features lilies in this context, but I'll leave this to your own delightful discovery.

Interestingly, perhaps because of their power to "honour" a recipient, lilies are recommended for those bothered at home by troublesome ghosts. They do not banish ghosts, but appease their tempers and thus prevent them from causing harm or mischief. 

Those amongst the living, though, who remain intrigued by the detox properties of plants are also recommended to find refuge amongst ivy, gerbera daisies and bamboo palms. 

And by the way...

It's March, meaning that the Great Len Deighton has updated his seasonal eating recommendations in The Len Deighton Action Cookbook. For those of you here in the Northern Hemisphere, take note that you can now consume with impunity:

• FISH: carp (until the 14th), catfish, chub, cod's roe, conger eels, gurnard, John Dory, lemon sole, ling, mackerel, mussels, oysters, perch and pike (until the 14th), salmon, salmon-trout, scallops, smelts, tench (until the 14th), whitebait and witch.
• HOME-GROWN FRUIT: Apples (Cox's Orange Pippin) and rhubarb.
• IMPORTED FRUIT: apples, grapes and pears, granadillas, grapefruit, mangoes and strawberries.
• MEAT: All meat - with a particular recommendation to try British lamb.
• POULTRY: Guinea fowl and duckling.
• HOME-GROWN VEGETABLES: Jerusalem artichokes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbages (particularly Savoy - perfect in colcannon, yum), celeriac, kale, parsnips, new potatoes, radishes, spring greens, spring onions, sprout tops, swedes and tomatoes.
• IMPORTED VEGETABLES: Broad beans, endives, salsify and white cabbage.

And one cheeky recipe thrown in, for the marvellous colcannon:

• Colcannon: Boil enough quartered potatoes as you'd want for mash, leaving the skin on. While the potatoes are boiling, melt a large knob of butter in a frypan, adding a chopped brown onion and, then, when it's soft, four rashers of chopped bacon and half of a chopped cabbage (preferably Savoy). By the time the cabbage is soft, the potatoes should be done. Strain and mash the potatoes in their pot with buttermilk, adding the vegetable-and-meat mixture. Return briefly to the heat and season with lots of cracked black pepper and salt. Excellent with soda water on the side.

I came, I saw, I ate virtually everything in sight...

I write this from one of my favourite places in the world; the little members’ room at the Tate Britain.
Yes, I have made it back to my beloved London – faded with jetlag, but otherwise intact and already feeling better for exposure to the brisk cold air and pale sky.
Since I last updated, I have been through three continents – Australia, of course, and Asia and now Europe. The Boy Next Door met me at Heathrow and his loving ministrations have ensured that my return home has been both immediate and seam-free. It is the tag-end of Winter now, and while it’s still dark in the morning and all too quickly in the afternoon, as well as very cold at night, it’s fantastic weather for cooking, reading and snuggling up at home with cushions and blankets, recipes and spells.
I celebrated Lammas/Lughnasa in Australia – the correct seasonal ritual for the Southern Hemisphere (it was Imbolc/Oimelc/Candlemas up here) by making a corn doll out of rosemary and sitting it on my desk. Wherever (and whenever) you celebrate it, Lammas is a ritual for the end of summerand a celebration of the harvest; I used rosemary for the doll because a.) I find the smell invigorating and b.) it grows and grows in the garden at my mother’s house – as small as that garden is – and was therefore in easy and plentiful supply. I learned today from the fabulous Element Encyclopaedia of 5000 Spells that rosemary is a herb traditionally sacred to women, and growing it in the kitchen garden ensures matriarchal control over the household attached. I must say that in the example of my mother and her rosemary bushes, this theory carries much, much weight.
A corn doll is just a construction of herb leaves and twigs fashioned into a humanoid shape – a loop in the twigs creates a head and legs, and a cross-bar of twigs makes arms. The idea of the doll is to display it to yourself at your place of work; at harvest-time, the doll-of-twigs is a reminder that the hard (agrarian) work of the year is rewarded with growth, harvest, prosperity. Also for Lammas, I dressed in green (is this a reminder of the summer’s last green gasp on the trees before deciduous leaves turn for autumn?) and ate a big meal of rice. In this last case, I think the idea is to start feasting on carbs to fatten yourself up for winter, so you can live off carb-lard while the plants wither and dwindle with the cold.
I wonder, of course, if all this jetting across the world is healthy at all – and whether a lot more goes screwy with the human body than just the obvious problems with jetlag that occur with disturbances in sleeping patterns. I actually had Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD, ha ha ha) the first time I came to Britain, and while I was soon cured of horrible, black-and-listless depression with oily fish, abstinence from alcohol and compulsory daylight walks, seasonal adjustment confusions are an interest I may yet revisit. Hmm.
To London, now, and my programme of eating seasonally. Serendipitously, as I unpacked my London life from the boxes and bags stored in the Boy Next Door’s apartment next door (I am not making this up), a forgotten, unread recipe book* (bought in a £1 sale at the Borders liquidation) fell on the floor and broke open with a STUPENDOUSLY CONVENIENT guide to seasonal British eating.
From this handy little volume, I have learned that these are the foods that are suitable for year-round consumption:

• FISH: brill, cod, cockles, crabs, dogfish, eels, halibut, herrings, lobster, periwinkles, plaice, rainbow trout, saithe, shrimp, sole, turbot and whelks. 

• FRUIT: Bramley apples and avocado pears [and, if imported: bananas, grapes, grapefruit, lemons, melons, oranges, peaches, pears and pineapples].

• MEAT: Scotch beef.

• POULTRY: capons, boiling/broiling chickens, ducks, ducklings, pigeons, rabbits, rooks and turkeys.

• VEGETABLES: artichoke, beetroot, cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, cucumbers, leeks, lettuces, mushrooms, mustard, cress, parsley, potatoes, spinach, turnips and watercress [and, if imported: globe artichokes, asparagus, aubergines, chicory, courgettes, French beans (and dried pulses), haricot beans, Spanish onions, sweet peppers and tomatoes].

I learned also, from this wonderful book, what I should SPECIFICALLY be cooking in February alongside the above.
It told me:

• FISH: carp, catfish, chub, coalfish, cod’s roe, grayling, gurnard, haddock, John Dory, lemon sole, ling, mackerel, megrim, mullet (grey), mussels, oysters, perch, pike, roker, salmon, scallops, skate, smelts, sprats, whitebait, whiting and witch.

• FRUIT: Cox’s orange pippin apples, pears and rhubarb [and, if imported: apricots, peaches, plums, granadillas, grapes, grapefruit, lychees, mangoes, nectarines, ortaniques, prunes, Seville oranges, strawberries and uglis]

• POULTRY: Aylesbury duck, curlews, geese, goslings, hare, leverets, plover, quail, snipe, wild duck, wild geese, and woodcock,

• VEGETABLES: Jerusalem artichokes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, celeriac, celery, curly kale, seakale, mint, parsnips, radishes, spring onions, spring greens and Swedes [and, if imported: endives, fennel, new potatoes and salsify].

Wow. What a list. I don’t know if I’m yet to eat saithe, capons, rooks (I take it these are not the chess-pieces, but are they actually crows?), chub, coalfish, grayling, gurnard, megrim, roker, smelts, witch (!), granadillas, ortaniques, uglis, curlew, leverets, plover, snipe, woodcock or salsify… but by the end of the month I’m going to give it a red-hot go (a visit to the Food Hall at Harrods may be in order – whoohoo!)
The Boy Next Door, who works hard and is often very tired, is more than happy, except when his pro-feminist sensibilities kick in, for me to play chef - and being an environmentally responsible person is supportive of my domestic seasonal-eating campaign. So for dinner (for two) I whipped up:

• Tasty haricot beans: Empty entire contents of 1 tin of haricot beans into saucepan. Add 1 whole piece of bacon. Cook on hob for 4-4.5 minutes. Season to taste. Serve.

• Brussel sprouts in cream sauce: Steam 500gs whole Brussels sprouts in a bamboo steamer. While sprouts steam, chop 1 Spanish onion and add to half a cup of sour cream and mix. Heat cream/onion in a saucepan on the hob until warmed through, season to taste and spoon over steamed Brussels sprouts on the plate.

• Hard boiled eggs: 1 egg per person. Cut into quarters, sprinkled with paprika.

• Brown bread was served on the side.

All of which was insanely easy, but ALSO – wonderfully – VERY cheap… because, obviously when these things are IN SEASON they are in plentiful supply, easily sourced and actually overflowing the shelves at the local supermarket.
All of this we washed down with:

• Moroccan mint tea: Put 4 stalks of mint into a teapot, with 1 tablespoon (or two teabags) of jasmine green tea. Pour 500mls boiling water into teapot. Steep for 10 mins. Stir 1 teaspoon of white sugar into teapot. Cool to taste. Pour into glasses garnished with fresh mint leaves to serve.

Those concerned about the red onion’s potential to douse the smoochability of one’s dining partner should take note that the Moroccan mint tea is marvellous on the breath.
I should point out that even if you had’ve asked me six months ago if I was chowing down on haricot beans and Brussels sprouts my response would have been a clear no. I hated them when I was a kid and I presumed into adulthood that I’d still hate them – but six months of crappy health and lack of energy has forcibly opened my mind. And guess what? My tastes have changed; I was actually bummed when the Boy Next Door helped himself to the last of the beans. I got the sprouts, but that’s not the point.
So the immediate effect of seasonal eating?

1. Kindness on my wallet
2. Ease of getting the ingredients (Sainsbury’s as a 1-stop shop)
3. I woke up in a really good mood for the first time in ages.

Hmm… I think our pagan cousins may be onto something…

* The wondrous cookbook that has done so much for my menu plan as well as my culinary vocabulary? Wait for it… The Len Deighton Action Cookbook. Yes, the guy who wrote The Ipcress File. No, I am not joking. Take knowledge where you find it. And it’s got George Lazenby on the cover getting felt up by a pretty girl.