Our Riverford Box

For a while now I have been trying to change our food buying habits so that we can have less of an impact on the environment. We’ve cut down the amount of food we buy in plastic packaging, tried to choose seasonal fruit and veg and only buy exactly what we need. We also tried shopping at farmers markets but found very few in our area and the ones that were around were more artisan food markets and too far out of our price range for a weekly shop. Around that time, we went to the Blenheim Palace Flower Show and met the lovely people from Riverford. I had heard of getting a farm box full of locally sourced organic fruit and veg and had been wanting to try it for a while but honestly didn’t know where to start. The lovely lady at Riverford helped me through all the different options available and we decided to order our first box.

We’ve now been getting a weekly box of meat, fruit and veg for three months and it’s been amazing. Not only is all the produce fresh, organic and the majority locally sourced it also tastes amazing. I have noticed such a difference in the flavour of our meals just by using better quality ingredients. We’ve also really enjoyed getting new and exciting cuts of meat, fruit and veg every week and experimenting with new recipes. Before the summer due to the stresses of university and work I’d got myself in a bit of a meal rut and was just cooking the same meals every week. Now we enjoy looking through recipe books including the ones gifted to us by Riverford and planning our meals ahead. We have had some unusual veg which we haven’t been sure what to do with but the Riverford seasonal cook books have a chapter on most of the veg you can get in the box helping you to learn how to cook it along with a few recipes to put it into.  

I’ve found it so easy to use their website, for the first few weeks we tried different sizes of boxes and bags to see what worked for us. We still like to add things like garlic in every now and again or take the eggs off our weekly order if we don’t fancy them that week. It’s so simple to log on and change things and it only has to be done 48 hours before the box is due to arrive. The box arrives every week on the same day at the same time and for us is just left on our doorstop with the meat in a special cool box to keep it fresh. Its great getting back from work and finding our shopping on our doorstep. We do still go to the supermarket for things like pasta, rice and bread even though Riverford sell most of these things in their deli as it just works best for us.

I also like the way Riverford allows you to pause or cancel orders so easily. Part of the reason we decided to go for Riverford above anyone else was that you aren’t signed up to a subscription, you can cancel at any point or if you’re going away or fancy a break you can pause your orders for as long as you like. You can sign up from nearly everywhere in England as they have farms all over the country so you not only support local farmers but stop food from travelling miles and adding to the impact it has on the environment.

I absolutely love our Riverford box and am so pleased we’ve found an easy and delicious way to source our food more sustainably. If you are looking for a farm box or want to find an easy way to get delicious, local food I would really suggest you try a box.