Have you ever gone somewhere, or met someone with a pre-conceived idea of what you’re going to find? As a food blogger I do, it’s not a bad thing (if I had no idea where I was going this blog would be extremely random and not very well researched at all!)
The other week I visited Louise from Healthy Boxes, I’ve seen a few veg box companies around Cornwall and I was intrigued to find out more about them. As someone who cares about the environment and supporting local businesses the idea of ordering and eating veg from a local farm is really appealing to me but for one reason or another I’d never ordered one and instead felt the guilt every time I picked out my perfectly straight, orange carrots from Tesco.
Healthy Boxes is a business grown out of a joint idea to try and encourage local farmers to experiment with growing different crops and to encourage local people to eat more veg, and experiment with it, all at an affordable price. Louise’s passion for local, fresh produce is undeniable and as the daughter of a farmer, and now wife to one, she also knows her stuff. (Something I learnt very quickly trying to scribble down all her facts about veg!)
So, here comes the surprise; when I asked Louise about her future plans for the business she said she wanted it to stay in the West of Cornwall – not going much further than Helston and Redruth (never have I been so glad to live in Helston aside from Flora Day). She believes that local food should be just that – all the items in her boxes are either sourced from her own farm or from 5 other farms around the local Penzance area. In fact the furthest away thing she sources are the boxes themselves (which come from Devon). To her the quality of the product is the most important thing – which is so refreshing to hear (and something I’m so happy to be hearing from a lot of the people I talk to for the blog). She also encourages farmers to use a strip planting formation – planting different next to each other confuses insect pests and reduces diseases as plants don’t all suffer from the same diseases. (Louise explains this in more detail on her website here).
I believe the food market place is changing as people become more aware of the produce available locally and valuing the ethics of their food. Is this just me? Am I too focused on talking to artisan producers that I’ve had my views slightly distorted, what do you think?
Something I love about these boxes is that Louise tries to encourage people to experiment with veg. I’ll put my hand up and say if I don’t know a vegetable in a supermarket nine times out of ten I do not buy – because I’m scared. The Healthy Box solution to this issue is great – Louise puts in a recipe with the box which will generally incorporate the veg you might not be familiar with, then ta-dah! You know how to use that vegetable!
So how can I get my hands on a Healthy Box I hear you asking?
It’s pretty simple really. Log onto her website here and sign up! I like that there’s no obligation to order one every week (though you can if you want). There are different, seasonal veg in the box each week alongside the old faithfuls like potatoes and carrots. Whilst ordering the boxes you’ll be asked which ‘hub’ you want to pick it up from as Louise drops the boxes off at hubs throughout the delivery area in the morning. At first I thought this was a slightly odd way of doing things but actually it works out really well – it means that you can arrange to collect the box around your plans for the day (as opposed to the other way round if you had to be in to receive a delivery). and at £6.50 for enough veg for around 3 people a week it doesn’t really work out any more expensive that the supermarket.
As you can probably tell I’m totally sold on this idea – I mean how can supporting local farmers and growers and eating more healthily for the same price as you’d normally pay be a bad thing? Louise also gave me some veg (the ones in the pictures above) when I went to visit and I have to say it’s blimmin’ tasty, so I’d say give it a go!
Cornish Food Baby 