Our Organic Box Scheme
Bag Contents For This Week
Fruit and Veg Options
Pick Up Points
Payment
Place an Order
Standing Order Details
Our box scheme provides a delicious weekly
selection of seasonal organic produce from £6 per week. We are
committed to cutting food miles and to supporting small sustainable
farmers. We source as much local produce as possible: our salad bags
are grown on our own Soil Association
certified growing sites in Hackney, our potatoes and apples come from
small farms in Kent and Essex and our oranges come from a cooperative
in Italy. Last year over 80% of our vegetables came from the UK. We
never buy air-freighted produce or produce from heated
greenhouses. Only our Fair Trade organic bananas come from
outside Europe.
We were London's first box scheme and now help to support over 25 organic farmers and cooperatives by providing them with a regular outlet and a fair price for their produce.
The scheme is collection only to cut down
on pollution and food miles, and it?s a good way of meeting other
members on the scheme. We have seven pick-ups points and we use
either Maisie, our
electric "cow" milkfloat, or a bike trailer, to get your bags there. We provide a weekly
newsletter with recipes and a list of where the fruit and vegetables
in your bag have come from. You can also check what will be in
your bag on-line before collecting.
If you want to join our box scheme, for a regular order or for our one
month trial
click here.
The last date to request a one month trial is the Thursday before
the first Wednesday of the month, so we can include your order in
time.
Fruit & veg options:
Standard veg bag
£44 per calendar month (equivalent cost per week: £10.15).These
contain around 8-9 varieties of seasonal produce. Standard
bags always
include carrots, onions, potatoes and two greens (e.g. spinach, chard,
savoy cabbage) plus a selection of seasonal vegetables.
Click here to see an outline of the standard veg
bag contents this week
No potatoes standard veg bag
£50 per calendar month (equivalent cost per week: £11.54).
This contains 9
varieties of veg including a leafy green vegetable instead of
potatoes. Greens cost more to buy than potatoes which is why
this bag is slightly more expensive than the standard veg bag.
Click here to see an outline of what's
in the
no-potato standard veg this week.
Small veg bag
 £26
per calendar month (equivalent cost per week: £6).
This
contains around 6 varieties of seasonal produce. Small bags always include
potatoes and carrots and have onions every other week. They always
have one green item per week (e.g. spinach, chard, spring greens) plus
2 or 3 varieties of other seasonal
vegetables.
Click here to see an
outline of what's in the small veg
bag this week .
Standard fruit bag
£35 per calendar month (equivalent cost per week: £8.07) The standard fruit bag has 5-7 varieties of UK and European seasonal fruit each week. These are a combination of the
following depending on seasonal availability: pears, grapes, oranges,
clementines, Fairtrade bananas, kiwi fruits, plums, cherries, peaches,
nectarines, limes, lemons, grapefruit, apples.
Click here to see an
outline of what's in the standard
fruit
bag this week
Small
fruit bag
 £19 per calendar month, (equivalent cost per week: £4.38).The small fruit bag contains 3 to 4 varieties of UK and European seasonal fruit each week. Fruit bags contain a combination of the following depending on seasonal availability: pears, grapes, oranges, clementines, Fairtrade bananas, kiwi fruits, plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, limes, lemons, grapefruit, apples.
Click
here to see an outline of what's in the
small fruit bag this week
Find out more about what it's like being on the box scheme on these blogs:
Urban Foodie blog and London Plains blog. Both are written by Box Scheme members.
Picking up your
fruit and vegetables:
We operate a pick-up scheme rather than a delivery service. By walking or cycling, you are helping to cut down on food miles, while those who use cars are encouraged to share pick-ups if possible.
Our pick-up points
You can pick up your produce from one of five community pick-ups in Hackney, one in Islington and one in Tower Hamlets.
View Larger Map
The
Old Fire Station, 61 Leswin Road, N16
Wednesday evenings 3.30 pm-7.30 pm (when the pick-up is
staffed)
Late pick up (when the pick-up is self-service):
Wednesday 7.30pm - 9.00pm,
Thursday 8.00 am - 9.00pm,
Friday 8.00 am - 5
pm (after this time, the left-over produce is given to a homeless
shelter)
 If
you pick up from the Old Fire Station, you can use the Growing
Communities' Urban Farm Shop which is open at the same time as the
pickup - and only available to to people on the box scheme. The
Urban Farm Shop sells extra organic items such as eggs, as well as extra organic
veg and fruit and Growing
Communities' own Hackney grown produce (such as figs, salad,
strawberries, rhubarb, herbs, artichokes, tomatoes etc).
Chats Palace, 42/44 Brooksbys Walk, E9
Wednesday evenings 4pm-8.30pm
www.chatspalace.com
Hackney City Farm, Hackney Road, E2
Wednesday 6.00pm - 9.00pm
Thursday & Friday 10am - 4.30pm
www.hackneycityfarm.co.uk
Pogo Cafe
76 Clarence Road E5 8HB
Wednesday 6-9 p.m.
Thursday 12.30 - 9 p.m.
http://www.pogocafe.co.uk/
Mother Earth
5 Albion Parade, Albion Road, N16 9LD
Wednesday 5-8 p.m.
Thursday 9.30 a.m. - 8 p.m.
or
101-103
Newington Green Road, N1
4QY
Wednesday 5-8 p.m.
Thursday 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.
http://www.motherearth-health.com/
New for February 2010
The Castle Climbing Centre, Green Lanes, London, N4 2HA
Thursdays 1 pm to 9pm
Fridays 1 pm to 9pm.
http://www.castle-climbing.co.uk/
Payment:
By standing order:
Standing
orders makes payment easy and enables Growing Communities to plan
ahead. Please use this option if you can! The details you need to give
your bank are available online when you fill in our joining form.
Other methods:
Payment by standing order helps us tremendously, but if
you can't do that, try these:
For people on irregular income, payment by cheque is possible in
advance - we would need your cheque by 1st of the month. You can post a cheque or drop it off at the Leswin Road pick up. Cheques are payable to Growing
Communities.
The Box Scheme is part of the government's Healthy Start scheme which means that if you are in
receipt of Healthy Start vouchers, these can be used towards the cost
of your produce order with us. Please get in touch with us by email or
phone if you want to use this option to help pay for your order with
us.
Want to
join the box scheme?
If you want to join our box scheme, for a regular order or for a one
month trial please click here.
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