Experimenting With an Alien

I am becoming a veggie nerd. I have harked on about my Riverford Organic Vegetable box to anyone who would listen for the past week. My closer friends are glad I have changed the subject from what I have learnt on CBeebies, but our plumber was rather bemused by my explaining the benefits of organic veg and left with a rather dazed expression.

This week, Caitlyn’s weaning took top priority and the first meal for my little one was a three root combination of potato, swede and carrots. My sweet little girl turned into a black hole as I shovelled the food in. Thanks to the generous size of my veggie box, I have been able to make a week worth of meals for her and freeze them. Why would anyone want to waste money of jars of slop for their children with who-knows-what amount of preservatives in, when you can have fresh organic ingredients with no hidden surprises for little effort and with the same level of convenience? My other half, who is a bit of a greens-dodger, dared to say “yes, but I bet she won’t eat broccoli”. How foolish to dare me. He clearly underestimated his daughter who happily wolfed back a generous puree of broccoli, potato and chicken yesterday.

One of the few benefits of pre-packed foods are the sell by dates, but Riverford have a clever way of informing you these by supplying a freshness guide, so by storing my vegetables where appropriate, I was easily able to plan the weeks meals. I was truly surprised at how fresh everything kept, and I can only put this down to the short time between being plucked (or whatever the agricultural word is) from the field to arriving at my front door.

If you read my blog from last week you may be waiting in anticipation to hear what I did about the fennel. I’ll not keep you in suspense any longer. Thanks to Riverford’s website, I found and carried out a recipe for fennel and onion soup. It smelt so good that my other half asked if he could take some to work for his lunch. I am glad I used the website as it was more fun to cook something different than to draw three eyes on it and pass it off as a Martian, as was my first instinct.

I missed Lee the Veggie Man (as he is now named) this morning, but he left my box round the back of the house and wrapped in a liner, so it was perfectly safe and dry. This part of the service must be very reassuring for people that are normally out all day. Riverford Organic Vegetable boxes come in all different sizes with varying contents to suit your needs and all are amazing value for money. However, I ordered another medium box for this week and emailed Lee to ‘surprise me’ with the contents as I’m feeling rurally adventurous – not enough to grow my own though. I’d get my pretty pink wellies dirty! Want to know what was in my box this week? I’ll tell you all and what I did with it in next week’s blog.

©Meriel Flavell 2010

Meriel Flavell is a freelance writer with two teenage boys and a baby girl, all of whom are on a mission to eat her out of house and home. www.merielflavell.co.uk

To experience excellent organic food at affordable prices with convenient free delivery, go to www.riverford.co.uk, or if you live in the Shropshire/South Staffs/Wolverhampton area, call Lee on 01952 433066 and prepare to have your taste buds tickled!