Veg Box People

02/06/2026

No one puts local legend in Local Legend of the Week like - a true local legend! 😆

Libby is our most reliably reliable local grower; the produce is never anything less than top top notch quality, delivered fresh in the morning, and always exactly as ordered 😍 😇

Growing a great range of leafy green stuffs up at Brook House Farm in Preston, on 4.5 acres, they're a perfect demonstration of well functioning small-scale local organic farming.
More of this please! 👏

It really is a total pleasure working with Libby and Paul, and we are always looking forward to the season in the year when their produce becomes available again.

Having direct relationships with growers has always been our ideal and our aspiration at Veg Box People, and nowhere has it worked better than here.

We hope folks enjoyed the twin gem lettuces (modeled here by the wonderful Jules) last week as much as we did 😀

27/05/2026

As we move towards the glorious return of more summery British produce, you can't really beat the all-time fan favourite's of beautiful bunches of fresh carrots, and vine cherry tomatoes from the Isle of Wight , which, when they hit their peak summer stride, are the best tomatoes in the country 😁

We're also more aware than ever of the necessity of supporting domestic organic agriculture.

As we watch yet more illegal imperialist wars of aggression devastate people's lives, send already high prices skyrocketing even further, and seriously disrupt global supply chains, most poignantly of synthetic petrochemical fertilisers... while at the same time experiencing the hottest May day on record (34.8°! smashed the previous record by a massive 2 degrees! 😲), it is more in-your-face apparent than ever the utterly urgent need to transition to organic agriculture.

Organic is the necessary heart of food sovereignty - as long as we are dependent on petrochemical fertilisers and poisons with complex, highly vulnerable supply chains, we will never have a truly sovereign or secure food system.

And it is also an absolutely foundational part of moving our societies towards real ecological sustainability, completely vital in slowing and ultimately reversing climate and ecosystem damage.

It's a win for people, communities, land, other-than-human nature, and the planet itself!

So support your local organic growers; it's never been more important ✊🏼🍎🧅🥦🥕 🌳

13/05/2026

08/05/2026

Last weeks Local Legend - it's a double - amazing rhubarb and asparagus from (for the purposes of Local Legend of the Week, and especially as we enter the depths of the Hungry Gap, "local" is henceforth defined in global terms i.e. anywhere within the British Isles 😅 and given the insane irrationalities of our ecologically catastrophic globalised food system, we think that's fair enough!).

We're loving having these somewhat less common additions to our bags, and embracing a wider variety of options is particularly important as we enter the months where available British produce is at its lowest point.

You might have noticed the rather dramatic shift, from one week to the next. The week before, over 90% of our bag contents was from Britain and Ireland. The next week, this had fallen to about 50%, as the effect of the Hungry Gap takes full effect.

Whatever the time of the season, we will always prioritise as local produce as is available, supporting British organic farmers - like with this lovely asparagus and rhubarb from Bedlam Farms in Cambridgeshire - as well as bringing you the best organic produce from around Europe when the seasons demand it.

And yet more reasons to be so excited by coming fully into production, given the expansion of super local organic options this will bring 😀

28/04/2026

As we approach the Hungry Gap - that period of a couple of months in late spring (relatively unique to Britain due to our geography and surrounding climate systems) where the previous years stored crops start to run out but the new seasons crops aren't yet ready to harvest - there is one major question on everyone's minds - how are French onions consistently so much sexier than English onions?! 🤔

Obviously here in England, and in Britain more generally, we accept that the French have a certain suave, sophisticated sexiness, in many areas of culture... but with their onions too??

But just look at them!

We defy anyone to deny that French onions are pretty damn sexy.

So as we move into the Hungry Gap, and we have to plug those gaps in our bags with a few more European treats from our fellow organic growers across the continent - we hope you'll join us in appreciating the different qualities and traits that our European neighbours bring to the table 😀

(And for anyone out there going "Onions can't be sexy! You spend too much time with vegetables!", we say, m***e de taureau! 😉😇

19/04/2026

Last weeks local legend of the week - the Red Hot Braising Mix from Kindling Market Garden at Woodbank, Stockport 😃

We hope everyone got the message that they're not joking around with "red hot" description - those mature mustard leaves will blow your head right off if you're not careful 😆🥵🤯

Definitely not to be used like a run-of-the-mill salad bag, but a bit of braising takes the edge off, and you can still get all the nutrition of the same local salad leaves later on in the season - spicy!

09/04/2026

Last week's Local Legend - red cabbage from 💜😍

It's so very exciting to watch Kindling Farm shape up into a uniquely incredible agroforestry farm, and actually start churning out loads of wonderful produce!

We got these beautiful little cabbages for all our customers, and they were so fun-sized, everybody got two 😁

We know people can sometimes feel a little cabbage-heavy at this rather... cabbage-heavy time of the growing season, and to that we say, get fermenting!

Whenever we have a glut of cabbages (especially red) - its time to break out the salt or the Gochujang, and get some sauerkraut or kimchi going 😋

With scientific understanding deepening all the time into how great fermented foods are for the health of our gut flora, if you ever find yourself a bit overwhelmed with cabbage, a bit of very straightforward processing, and a week or two later you've got weeks or months worth of delicious kimchi!

Also, alternatively... braising in a little red win vinegar anyone? 🤤🤤🤤

WE LOVE RED CABBAGES!

31/03/2026

Local Legend of the Week (for last week 😅) - leeks!

We hope you enjoyed these lovely little leeks from as much as we did.

Slimmer and more manageable (not quite Baby Leeks, maybe Adolescent Leeks?) than some of the real chunky boys that overwhelm our smaller bags sometimes.

Leeks are such a good reliable staple of sustainable British agriculture, we'd have them every week if it was just up to us 😀

But we know there are fairly leek-heavy times of year, so our suggestion for their regular use (beyond belting soups and stir-frys and pasta bakes) is just to use them as onions+ i.e. any dish or meal that has onions as a flavour and calorie base, just stick some leeks in too! It reliably enhances pretty much anything 😁

Leeks - we love ya!

22/03/2026

This week's Local Legend* - chioggia beetroot from , Lancashire.

There's nowt quite as visually strike as these beauties 😍 and with their sweeter flavour, it's why they're often known as candy beetroot.

But they are beetroot, and we know at this rather beetrooty time of their year, people can sometimes struggle to know how to use them.

So here are a few of our top suggestions 😊

- grated raw for 'slaw (all the self-righteousness of eating your veg raw... paired with lashings of mayo 😛)
- chopped up and roasted, as part of a roasted veg medley (for those who like simplicity, and, ya know, minimal effort 😅)
- cooked then blended in with hummus, or other bean dip (for the thrill of outrageously pink/purple hummus - though do be careful not to have *too* much excitement, obviously 😆)
- pickled! (because who doesn't love pickled beetroot??)

Enjoy 😊

*obviously Hazel is also a local legend ❤️