Anyone else want to eat more local produce?

Hmm, anyone know how can I find out if there's any local fruit and veg boxes schemes near me?

I just googled it to find ours.

Our boxes are £9.20 (we get every second week at the moment), that is for a fruit box, veg box and eggs. x

My OH and I always used to get a box, we used River Nene, part of the Riverford box scheme for a while and then greener greens when we lived in Surrey, but haven't found one we like in Milton Keynes that we can afford or like yet .
We would really like to start getting a box again and as we are both vegan we get through a heck of a lot of vegetables! We often buy fruit and veg from the local market, although that probably is just as bad a s the supermarket.

I do have a veg patch but have been a bit rubbish this year what with getting married and being in early stages of pregnancy. Hopefully once LO has arrived I can do a bit more in the garden- hahaha, maybe I am deluded about that!

Hopefully once LO has arrived I can do a bit more in the garden- hahaha, maybe I am deluded about that!

That was our plan - we were evicted from our last allotment when Jasmine was 12 months old Hoping to make much more of an effort when we get another one as we had a big garden at the old house, but none here.

Well i have done most of the hard work with the veg plot, I built a few raised beds last year and have space for basics like potatoes and salad but it has got rather overgrown this year

I honestly think that having the raised beds has made it much easer in my garden. We have a real problem wityh ground elder, bindweed and couch grass it just mad sense to make them, and all I had to get was scaffolding boards and some stakes- actually very easy, also works well on crappy soil so ideal if you have poor ground.

Hopefully once LO has arrived I can do a bit more in the garden- hahaha, maybe I am deluded about that!

That was our plan - we were evicted from our last allotment when Jasmine was 12 months old Hoping to make much more of an effort when we get another one as we had a big garden at the old house, but none here.

My OH and I lived in a flat for ages at uni and I managed to grow quite a bit in pots and bags there, it is amazing what you can get into a small space. I found that exhibitor bags were a godsend for growing potatoes- we eat lots of them! and you can get quite a good crop from them in a very small space
Anyway- good luck with the search for an allotment, and enjoy finding small spaces to fit your veggies into!
A x

Frances, now we need to know why you were evicted from your plot??

Frances, now we need to know why you were evicted from your plot??

Neglect I don't think we touched it in the last two years...

We eat alot of local produce, i only use my local butchers for meat as its much nicer than the supermarket and he ususaly cuts me a deal I like the market for fruit and veg but find it doesnt last as long but i tend to buy the veggies and prep and freeze them so that i know they wont go bad...

I loved our veggie box but we didnt use all the stuff in it and would throw away the stuff we didnt like each week We also found it pretty expensive and were paying £15 per week just for veg when it was only me and DH so now i would need double (at least) plus fruit and eggs...it just works out to expensive...

I would love an allotment...

Frances, now we need to know why you were evicted from your plot??

Neglect I don't think we touched it in the last two years...

I had visions of you and your DH being very naughty (no not dirty naughty, cheeky naughty) and getting up to childish mischief to get evicted

Hmm, anyone know how can I find out if there's any local fruit and veg boxes schemes near me?

I just googled it to find ours.

Our boxes are £9.20 (we get every second week at the moment), that is for a fruit box, veg box and eggs. x

That's a good price, but how much veg/fruit/eggs do you get?? I recently got quoted double that from my local greengrocers and that was with mates rates.

I'd love to eat more local produce, but here in Bath my farmers market is really quite expensive for some things and the organics in Sainsburys works out cheaper. Riverford and Abel & Cole I am not impressed with, and I'm not keen on their selections. There are quite a few 'farm shops' here around Bath but there is not a lot of true local produce, most of their veg has been supplemented by buying in from Bristol wholesale market.
Now I am lucky in some respects as my dh is a chef and I can give him an order if I want anything, but a lot of the time it is cheaper to buy from a supermarket than from his suppliers..e.g. fillet steak in M & S is cheaper than what he buys it for at trade price from a farm in Devizes. We had a friend rear a pig for us (personal use- not for the restaurant) as he had a huge house and land...after slaughter costs and upkeep costs were factored in he tried to charge us £300 for it!! The meat was lovely, although extreamly fatty but he's not such a good friend anymore

Frances- Have you thought of Landshare that Hugh F-W at River cottage has set up? As Mareth said, the forum is very good for that. Also, maybe you have any mates who still have allotments who are willing to share? Our neighbour offered us half of his when I was pregnant but I was already struggling with our 3 small veg beds at the time so declined. You could always put out a cheeky request on freecycle