What Nigel Slater says about veg boxes

Many years ago, long before we had our own veg box business, Chris had one favourite cookbook that somehow got lost when we moved to Australia to live. Back in the UK years later, after much fruitless searching for our copy, we finally found a 2nd hand one. We've used it since, and still love it, although have a few others who've joined the selection now too.

We had never read it cover to cover though (so many recipe books, too few minutes in the day) and just the other day came across this paragraph for the first time. We found it quite incredible how well he sums up exactly how we feel about our boxes, and we wanted to share his thoughts.

So, from Nigel Slater's fab book 'Appetite' (first published in 2000):

'One system I have used for several years now is the organic box scheme, a weekly delivery of organically grown fruit and vegetables that turns up rain or shine on my doorstep. The contents are a mystery until I dig down into the bag, but they are always seasonal, and as organically grown as possible.

I recommend such schemes to anyone who hasn't tried them, though it must be said that osme are better than others. I use it as a blueprint for the week's eating, moulding my cooking around what comes out of the bag. It is rather like going to market, but where someone else has done the difficult bit deciding what to buy and how to get it home. The downside can be that if you don't like, say, pumpkin or beetroot, you are stuck with them just because they happen to be in season. If your family is a bit picky, you may find this syatem doesn't work for you.'

One of the things we try to find out from new customers is whether they have ever had a vegetable box in the past, and, if not, whether they are up for this potentially new way of doing things. When we were box customers ourselves, before taking on the business, it ws certainly a change we were very aware of - and took a good while to adjust. Instead of thinking 'what do I want to eat today/this week', the question becomes 'what do we have to work with and create a meal from, and what meal do I want to make with what I have'.

For us, this was a bit of a eureka moment when we realised that our habits and behaviour had changed. And we know many of our customers feel the same. We could never go back to not having a box now. If you've thought about it but still aren't sure, get in touch and we'll see what we can do to help.