Organic Box Schemes - London

There are now over approximately five hundred and fifty organic box delivery schemes in Britain. A weekly box of fresh fruit and vegetables is delivered direct to your door, your office or to a local collection point such as a health store or a school. Boxes contain a range of produce, which varies each week and according to season.

Some include meat, wine and whole foods and most offer organic produce. Prices vary but typical costs range from £15 to £20 per box. You can set up a standing order or pay a lump sum in advance and cancel deliveries during the holidays. You can also give instructions about good places to hide your box to make sure it’s still there when you get home.

Produce is sourced locally, keeping unnecessary packaging, storage and transportation to a minimum, and most is farmed organically – without the use of synthetic fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides – making the process kinder to the environment and, arguably, better for our health.

These schemes provide a fairer deal to farmers than supermarkets and plough money back into local economies. By shortening the supply chain, they also provide customers with greater confidence about where their food has come from and how it has been grown. So if you want to shop ethically but don’t have time to trek to a farmer’s market, this is a wonderfully convenient alternative.

We are this month covering London so the time poor can get the feel of being to Borough Market and picking up their organic fresh vegetables and fruit but without the hassle.

LONDON

Abel & Cole 
Delivering organic food and drink across southern England including organic fruit and vegetables, Abel & Cole offers organic meats, sustainably caught fish, dairy and freshly baked bread. It works with a network of more than 50 British producers to bring local, seasonal and organic food fresh from the grower. 
16 Waterside Way, Plough Lane, Wimbledon, London, SW19 (0845 262 6262)

Bumblebee 
This outfit makes deliveries from London, Oxford and Greater London of small, medium or large bags of organic fruit and vegetables priced from £8.95 to £19.95. Every bag contains potatoes, carrots, onions, salad and a seasonal selection of organic produce. Delivery is included in the price of the bag. 
30 Brecknock Road, London N7 (0207 607 1936)

Growing Communities

 Hackney, London is a social enterprise run by local people in Hackney, East London. It provides a weekly selection of seasonal organic produce sourced as locally as possible. It’s a collection-only scheme from five pick-up points across Hackney. (020–7502 7588)

Organic Delivery Company
Organic fresh fruits, juices, nuts, chocolate, and plenty more. Deliveries to the kitchen table or workplace. They also offer Fair Trade organic gift hampers, made to order. Organic Delivery pride themselves on the quality of their produce and their commitment to food miles. Winner of the 2007 Small Retailer Online Green Award.
Unit A59, New Covent Garden Market, London SW8 5EE (020 7739 8181)

Design Notebook………….

The aluminium Navy 1006 chair is an iconic classic; it was first designed in 1944 for American warships and is now produced by the American firm Emeco.

Emeco has now teamed up with Coca-Cola to produce the new 111 Navy chair, made from 111 recycled plastic Coke bottles.

The idea for the chair was thought up after Coca Cola approached The Museum of Modern Art for inspiration into a way they could utilise the waste plastic from their bottles. It was in 2006 that Coca Cola contacted chair manufacturer Emeco to recreate its iconic Navy Chair using RPET (Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate) aka plastic bottles.

Each chair takes three minutes to make (three times longer than a traditional plastic chair) using Emeco’s advanced moulding technique, which gives the chair a distinctive, velvet finish that is scratch resistant. 

The robustness of this chair makes it suitable for use both indoors and outdoors. 

It is available in six colours: grass, persimmon, red, white, flint, charcoal.Costs £230, from the Conran Shop (0844-848 4000)

Comes with a 5 year warranty.

Seasonal recipe for July

Courgette and red pepper salad

The spirit and brilliant colours of the Mediterranean are caught in this salad. If you have a jar of preserved lemons to hand, add a spoonful, finely chopped, to the dressing.

Feeds 8. Takes 45 mins.

3 sweet red peppers

2tbsp olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1tbsp salted capers, rinsed

5 courgettes

2tbsp picked parsley leaves

2tbsp small black olives

2tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1tbsp lemon juice

Bake the red peppers at 180C/Gas mark 4 for 20 minutes, or until the skin blisters and starts to blacken. Remove and place in a covered bowl for ten minutes. Peel off the skin, cut in half and discard the core and seeds. Cut flesh into thin strips, and toss with half the olive oil and the sea salt, pepper and capers.

Heat the grill or barbecue. Slice the courgettes thinly lengthwise, brush with remaining olive oil and grill for five or six minutes, turning once. Arrange the courgettes casually on a large platter and strew with the roasted peppers, parsley and black olives.

Whisk the olive oil and lemon juice with sea salt and pepper, and drizzle over the lot.

Seasonal Food for July.

New this month………..

Artichoke, aubergine, courgettes, fennel, pak choi, apricots, blueberries, cherries (English), gooseberries, loganberries, peaches, raspberries, redcurrants

Still in season: beetroot, broad beans, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, french beans, garlic, lamb, new potatoes, onions, peas, rabbit, radishes, rocket, runner beans, sorrel, spring onions, turnips, watercress

VEGETABLES

Artichoke Aubergine Beetroot Broad beans Courgettes Cucumber Elderflowers

Fennel Jersey Royal new potatoes Mint Beetroot Pak choi  Parsley  Peas Rocket

Rosemary Sorrel Spinach Watercress 

FRUIT

Apricots Blueberries Cherries Gooseberries Peaches Raspberries Strawberries

MEAT

Lamb

FISH AND SEAFOOD

Crab Herring John Dory Mackerel Salmon Sardines Sea trout 

Kitchen herb garden.

Sometimes you’re thinking of a seasonal recipe and it calls for a herb and you think of the times you have bought this “fresh “ from the supermarket yet have never have enough or any to hand. Growing your own kitchen herb garden is quite easy.

So planning your herb garden window box you need to consider the following. If the kitchen is on the sunny side of the house include chives, oregano, lemon thyme and then have some rosemary as this will drape over the edge of the box.
If your kitchen is on the shady side of the house then consider making a salad herb window box with wild rocket, chervil, French parsley and red mustard.
It’s very easy to grow herbs in containers using soil based compost, very few herbs grow in peat and soil based compost retains the moisture which stops the containers from drying out. Just water in the morning, especially if the window box will be feeling the force of the sun during the day. You need to feed the container plants weekly from March until September , as this keeps the plants healthy and also helps them produce leaves after being cut.