what's a box scheme?

A veg box is literally a box of  seasonal vegetables delivered to your home. Every Wednesday we sit down to decide what should go in the boxes the following week. We  consider what’s available in the fields and any feedback we’ve been getting. You can order and change your box as often as you like – and we deliver it free

Fifteen years ago we were talking to Safeway about becoming one of their suppliers and had started building a packing house to their specifications. One morning the phone rang; it was their buyer asking me to come up to London to meet their technical man the following Thursday. I said great, but suggested we make it Friday because I was going to be in London for the weekend anyway. The line went dead. When I rang back, saying I suppose we must have been cut off, he said – I’ll never forget the words! – “No sonny, when we whistle, you jump”.

We started our box scheme in 1993 determined to loosen the supermarkets’ stranglehold. I vowed that my business would never depend on supermarkets, and by 2003 we no longer needed to have anything to do with them. That’s why we love box schemes! We know our customers are more interested in flavour, seasonality and variety than cosmetic appearance, specifications or supply schedules. At Riverford flavour is king - not the supermarket!