Box Scheme
What is the box scheme?
Our weekly box scheme is a way of getting fresh produce from the grower to the consumer, with the minimum of time and distance between harvesting and eating. It works for us as growers because we can plan our production based on 300 relatively uniform boxes per week, this provides a stable marketing base, and helps us cut costs through some economies of scale. Since all of the packing and distribution can be done on Thursdays, we can spend the rest of the week farming.
The box scheme customer benefits from this system because they have their own bespoke market garden, dedicated to providing them with better and more varied produce, season after season. The price you pay for the veg in our box is roughly 30% less than you would pay at a farmers market.
We offer both vegetables and/or fruit in your boxes. The majority of the vegetables you receive will be grown by us. We are able to keep our veg box going through the "hungry gap" by supplementing our own produce with that from other parts of the UK and from Europe. The variety of vegetables you receive will vary with the seasons. During autumn and winter, potatoes, carrots, onions, roots and brassicas will be a staple part of your box. In the warmer months you will find lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and beans etc appearing frequently in your box. We try to provide you with as much variety as possible.
The organic fruit we sell is sourced as locally as possible. Our proximity to the Arctic Circle means that the variety of fruit available from the UK is limited. We have excellent local suppliers of apples and pears, and in season you will get our own plums and soft fruit. The citrus fruit and melons come from small to medium sized growers in southern Europe, and our organic bananas are from the Dominican Republic, where smaller independent producers are the norm. None of the produce is air- freighted.
What types of box do we offer
£9.00 Vegetable- with 8 different kinds of veg
£17.00 Vegetable- with more variety and twice as much veg.
£12.50 Mixed Vegetable and Fruit Box- which has 7 different kinds of veg and three different kinds of fruit, normally bananas, apples, and oranges.
£ 8.00 Fruit- 5 or 6 different kinds of organic fruit, normally including bananas apples and oranges.
You can have any combination of the above on a weekly or fortnightly basis.
To order a box please click here.
How does the veg box scheme work?
Orders may be picked up from your selected collection point weekly on Thursdays 4.30-6.30pm (please see Collection Points for time variations) Once you've placed your order we will assume that you want a box every week or fortnight. It's up to you to cancel any week or weeks you wish to. Please return the box as we re use them.
Collection Points:
See the Collection Points page.
How do you pay?
There will be someone at the collection point taking payments and keeping records. We take cash or cheques. It would be really useful if you write cheques for at least two weeks, the bank charges us for the number we deposit, and it saves a lot of time in the office. If you really want to make us happy you can pay up a month in advance, it helps our cash flow situation a lot.
What if you want to cancel a week or go on holiday?
You may cancel any week or weeks that you wish. We ask at least two days notice of any cancellation (by Tuesday at the latest). You can cancel by phone (leave a message) or e-mail. Include the name on your box and your pickup point, and the dates you want to cancel. You will be asked to pay for any boxes not cancelled. If you could find a friend or neighbour who wants to have your box the week(s) that you're away, it would be really helpful!
What if you forget to collect your box?
It's best that you don't, because the freshness and quality of many items will suffer if you don't put them in your fridge on Thursday evening. Boxes not collected come back to the farm and are put in the packing shed where they may be picked up at any time from 9am Friday onwards (click here for directions and map). You may come and collect at any reasonable hour, you don't have to phone us first. Please pay for your box at your collection point the following Thursday. You will be asked to pay for boxes not cancelled and not picked up.
What if you don't like some vegetables?
Most of our customers like the selection of veg they get in their boxes. But we appreciate there maybe certain vegetables that you simply don't like! To cater for this we allow up to 3 veg 'dislikes' which we substitute with different vegetables. This option is not available for the fruit bag.
Will the scheme operate all year round?
Our scheme runs all year round except over Christmas (depending on which day Christmas falls) there will be one week we do not operate. We offer our customers the opportunity to order a double box in the week immediately prior to Christmas.
What Else?
If you have any queries, complaints, compliments or suggestions please let us know. We won't know how to improve things if you don't tell us!
Open days
If you would like to visit the farm we usually have an Open Day in June. Please see the news page for details around this time.
Volunteering
If you are interested in learning more about organic growing and getting hands on experience we very much welcome volunteers at any time of the year to help us. We can offer lashings of tea in return!
We hope to see you soon,
