A vegetable box scheme is an operation that delivers fresh fruit and vegetables, often locally grown and organic, either directly to the customer or to a local collection point. Typically the produce is sold as an ongoing weekly subscription and the offering may vary week to week depending on what is in season.
Some of the organic veg box schemes in the UK were created by growers such as Guy Watson and Charles Dowding. These schemes are usually operated by the grower or a small co-operative. [1] By early 2007, according to the Soil Association, retail sales via such schemes were in excess of £100 million per annum. [2]
Many schemes are run on a local or regional basis, delivering food direct from the producer to the consumer. Other schemes offer a nationwide delivery, with produce supplied by a network of growers, co-operatives and wholesalers negating the local food affiliation of these schemes. Some British supermarkets have also begun offering vegetable boxes. [1]
A box scheme often works by subscription. A customer signs up to a weekly or fortnightly delivery of fresh vegetables and/or fruit. The contents will vary week to week as selected by the box scheme provider on the basis of seasonality and availability. Some schemes offer the option of purchasing extra goods to be delivered along with the vegetable box, such as dairy produce and meat. [3] [ failed verification ]
A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box market. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is synonymous with supermarket, and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries.
Countdown is a New Zealand full-service supermarket chain and subsidiary of Woolworths New Zealand, itself a subsidiary of Australia's Woolworths Group. The first Countdown store opened in 1981 and the chain has expanded to 180 stores as of 2018. It is one of two supermarket chains in New Zealand in terms of number of stores, although the rival Foodstuffs chain has a larger number of premises including smaller retail stores in rural areas.
Community-supported agriculture or cropsharing is a system that connects the producer and consumers within the food system more closely by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming. The model is a subcategory of civic agriculture that has an overarching goal of strengthening a sense of community through local markets.
Waitrose & Partners is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still sells groceries under the brand. Its head offices are located in Bracknell and Victoria, England. Waitrose & Partners has 332 shops across the United Kingdom, including 65 "little Waitrose" convenience shops, and a 5.1% share of the groceries market, making the company the eighth-largest retailer of groceries in the UK. They also export products to 52 countries and have locations in the Middle East.
Eliot Coleman is an American farmer, author, agricultural researcher and educator, and proponent of organic farming. His book The New Organic Grower is important reading for organic farmers, especially market gardeners. He served for two years as Executive Director of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), and was an advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture during its 1979–80 study, Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming, a document that formed the basis for today's legislated National Organic Program (2002) in the U.S.
Odwalla Inc. was an American food product company selling fruit juices, smoothies and food bars founded in Santa Cruz, California in 1980 and from 1995-2020 was headquartered in Half Moon Bay, California. Odwalla's products included juices, smoothies, soy milk, bottled water, organic beverages, and several types of energy bars, known as "food bars".
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under one acre to a few acres, or sometimes in greenhouses, distinguishes it from other types of farming. A market garden is sometimes called a truck farm.
Riverford is an organic farm and UK-wide organic vegetable box delivery company founded by Guy Singh-Watson in Buckfastleigh, Devon, England, but with sister farms in three locations around the country.
Food Conspiracy is a term applied to a movement begun in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968 in which households pooled their resources to buy food in bulk from farmers and small wholesalers and distribute it cheaply. The name came to describe a loose network of autonomous collectives which shared common values and, in many cases, suppliers. Many participants were seeking an alternative to supermarkets and became involved to obtain direct control of the quality and type of food they were sourcing, with a strong focus on wholefoods and organic produce.
SmartFresh is a brand of a synthetic produce quality enhancer containing 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). It is marketed by AgroFresh Solutions, Inc., a publicly held (NASDAQ:AGFS) U.S. company with global operations. SmartFresh technology halts the fruits and vegetables' natural ripening process to prolong freshness.
Microgreens are vegetable greens harvested just after the cotyledon leaves have developed. They are used as a nutrition supplement, a visual enhancement, and a flavor and texture enhancement. Microgreens can add sweetness and spiciness to foods. Microgreens are smaller than “baby greens” because they are harvested very soon after sprouting, rather than after the plant has matured to produce multiple leaves. Among upscale grocers, they are now considered a speciality genre of greens, good for garnishing salads, soups, sandwiches, and plates. They can be used as a main vegetable as well in certain recipes for intense flavor and nutrition. Many recipes use them as a garnish while some utilize them as the main ingredient. For example, garlic pea shoots, pea shoots or micro cabbage in cabbage soup, or coleslaw made with radish microgreen instead of cabbage. As microgreens become more popular for their intense flavor and nutrition, innovative chefs and cooks create new ways to use them.
An online grocer is either a brick-and-mortar supermarket or grocery store that allows online ordering, or a standalone e-commerce service that includes grocery items. There is usually a delivery charge for this service. Online grocery delivery services are available throughout Europe, Asia and North America, mostly in urban centres. The online ordering is done through e-commerce websites or mobile apps.
Unicorn Grocery is a co-operative grocery store located in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England. As a workers co-op, it is controlled democratically by its member/owners, who run the business with a flat management structure and with an equal rate of pay. Ethics form the foundations of the business, and Unicorn's Principles of Purpose are the framework within which the business operates.
The Student Sustainable Farm at Rutgers is located at Rutgers' Horticultural Research Station in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on the G. H. Cook campus of Rutgers University.
Known as The Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire is a county of rich, fertile farmland and productive seas and estuaries, that give it a range of foods that motivate many home cooks and restaurateurs. There is a local tradition in brewing, milling, gathering shellfish from the coasts and meat production. Carmarthenshire has been described by The Daily Telegraph as a "worthwhile destination for foodies" with the county having a modest matter of fact excellence. Carmarthenshire has ambitions to become the premier food-producing county of Wales, based on its strong reputation for first-class products. and Carmarthenshire County Council produces its own on-line and hard-copy recipe book called Taste from Carmarthenshire, for those interested in learning more about the county's cuisine.
The cuisine of Christmas Island can best be described as an eclectic combination of traditional Australian cuisine and Asian cuisine, particularly meals from Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Duchy Home Farm is an organic farm operated by the Duchy of Cornwall. The farm is part of the gardens of Highgrove House, the country home of Charles, Prince of Wales. The produce is used as ingredients in Duchy Originals products, sold in vegetable boxes, and wholesaled to supermarkets and restaurants. Prince Charles is credited with using "pioneering agriculture techniques" to produce this organic food.
Robinson Fresh, a business brand of C.H. Robinson, is a global produce company, marketer and distributor of fresh produce in both conventional and organic varieties.
Retail food delivery is a courier service in which a restaurant, store, or independent food-delivery company delivers food to a customer. An order is typically made either through a restaurant or grocer's website or mobile app, or through a food ordering company. The delivered items can include entrees, sides, drinks, desserts, or grocery items and are typically delivered in boxes or bags. The delivery person will normally drive a car, but in bigger cities where homes and restaurants are closer together, they may use bikes or motorized scooters. Recently, autonomous vehicles have also been used to complete deliveries.
Pembrokeshire has been called "the cottage garden of Wales", due to its good soil and the beneficial effects of the Gulf Stream, which provide a mild climate and a longer growing season than other parts of the country. The good climate and soil meant that the south of the peninsula was coveted by the Norsemen and Normans because it had "great plentie" of corn and cattle The county has prime agricultural land, much of which is located at about 70m above sea level, while to the north, the Preseli Hills rise to 500m above sea level and form uplands that are made up of heather and bracken, which are used for grazing sheep. Consequently, Pembrokeshire is classed as one of the most fertile counties in Wales, with its 392,300 agricultural acres having 14% of its land classed as of good quality, 67% being classed as medium quality and 19% being classed as poor quality. However, agricultural production is subject to market forces and in the 1890s, as a result of the Panic of 1893, a deep agricultural depression led to the area under cultivation falling by a third. Many labourers and farmers had no option but to emigrate to the New World and many of the large farming estates were sold. World War I brought prosperity again, but by the 1930s, as a result of the Great Depression, there was another agricultural depression which lasted until World War II. During the Post-war period agriculture has benefited from marketing schemes and marketing boards, which have helped in the regulation, marketing and distribution of the county's agricultural production.
