[Leisurely]

I am thinking about starting a vegetable box scheme (selling) in my area, offering home grown or locally sourced veg. Do any others on this site do similar, what do you think, any ideas or suggestions.

[garddwr]

I would love to try something like that so any advice would be great. You'd have to think about prices as well. And I think you would have to wait til harvesting season ? /June/July/August/September

[Beetroot queen]

I used to have a box delivered from riverford

excellent never had any problems with them infact I cancelled to go on hols and forgot to restart again, may have to look into topping up any veg we grow with a box from them, you would have to do alot of research as its a tough market and it comes with alot of competition  

[Yorkie]

Sounds an adventurous idea, but you do realise that you can't use your allotment to grow produce for it?

[peapod]

Sounds an adventurous idea, but you do realise that you can't use your allotment to grow produce for it?

Yes, thats true  :cry:
But you can set up a friends and family veg box scheme,with not neccesarily cash payments.  Thats what I will do if I EVER grow enough (not sure if I can manage enough for me and my immediate, its a bad thing to be addicted to peas)  :shock:  :?  

Paula

[garddwr]

can I ask peapod which varieties do you like best ? And are peas hard to grow ?

thanks

[compostqueen]

you can't use your allotment for it :!:  

Of course you can't  

[DD.]

you can't use your allotment for it :!:  

Of course you can't  

Best re-phrased as "not supposed to!".

[Aidy]

Nowt wrong in swapping, I swap veg for eggs with a couple who have chucks. I wonder if you could get away with swapping veg for cash  

[shaun]

thats one thing about allotments that i love .its a bit like swap shop but without noel  

[garddwr]

you can't use your allotment for it :!:  

Of course you can't  

Best re-phrased as "not supposed to!".

I agree Dave. I mean how are they going to now youre doing it,if they found out then you could deny it.Its not like youre going to be running a buisness empire.

[Oscar Too]

I used to work as a buyer/business developer for a veg box scheme (that shall remain nameless) in London.  I'm off to Moscow for work for a week, but I'm happy to answer questions to the best of my ability when I return.  

For now, suffice to say that it can be a very tricky business.  Depending on your market of course, but people wanted certain staples all year round which were often difficult to source, freshness along the supply chain was a huge problem, and customers often wanted supermarket standards of cleanliness, for local market prices.

I did a bit of business with Riverford, and I know that they invested hugely in their packing and cleaning operation to address some of these issues.

Payment is also a problem.  The best scheme I ever saw never handled a pound coin - everything was done via direct debit.  However this meant that they didn't reach anyone who had low or irregular incomes.  Processing cash, cheques and DDs cost our scheme a huge amount - we had a very large back office.

Another scheme that I admire hugely, based in Dublin, old friends of mine, have a social agenda.  They distribute a lot of boxes via a women's refuge - figuring that people in that situation need good food.

In short, you'll need to do most of your work before you put a seed in a pot.  Who is my market? What do they want?  What spread of veg and seasons can I cover?  How do I control quality?  How is my credit control?  This applies even if it's a really small, local scheme.

I'll be back in a week if you want to carry on the discussion.

Best

Oscar

[Parsnip]

you can't use your allotment for it :!:  

Of course you can't  

Best re-phrased as "not supposed to!".

I agree Dave. I mean how are they going to now youre doing it,if they found out then you could deny it.Its not like youre going to be running a buisness empire.

after all you'd only be accepting contributions towards your expenses...  

[Kate and her Ducks]

Another scheme that I admire hugely, based in Dublin, old friends of mine, have a social agenda.  They distribute a lot of boxes via a women's refuge - figuring that people in that situation need good food.

Oscar

What a wonderful idea.

[Knoblauch]

I started getting a veg box from a local source in Herefordshire, can't remember the name OTTOMH.  The first box, left on the doorstep with no prior warning, was nicked so I just had some documentation shoved through the post box apparently "billing in advance", no other explanation or anything, then for the duration of my using them they kept rebilling for this though they told me they would cover it.  I also wanted no potatoes and even though it said this on the box label I still always got them.  Then got their email address wrong so when they didn't reply got naffed off and cancelled, but it was their fault really.  Not a happy situation.

Then Abel and Cole until a local organic shop opened - their customer service by contrast was excellent but I always wondered if the food was shipped halfway up the country and still get junk mail from them now.