10 great reasons to buy fruit and veg boxes from Abel and Cole

Contents of this weeks Abel and Cole Large Fruit and Veg Box

Abel and Cole sell fruit and veg boxes as well as a range of other products including meat, fish, poultry and store cupboard items.  This week they very kindly sent me a complementary large fruit and veg box as well as their latest recipe book.  This is not my first experience of Abel and Cole and I think there are lots of great reasons to buy fruit and veg boxes from them:

1. You know you are buying organic and seasonal (where possible) produce.
2. The fruit and veg are delivered in cardboard boxes which you leave out for your driver to collect the week after to be reused.  Most of the fruit and veg is loose in the box and the small amount of packaging they do use can be composted or recycled.
3. It is lots of fun discovering fruit and veg inside the boxes that you have never heard of or eaten before. 
4. If there are varieties of fruit and veg you don't like, you can choose a certain amount of them to opt out of.  Equally if there is something you really like you can flag that up as well.  Your likes and dislikes can be changed as often as you like, so you can look to see what will be delivered each week and adjust your requirements accordingly.
5. You can set up a standing order, so you don't need to think about your shopping each week.  This goes for their other products as well and you don't have to order the same things each week.  For example you can choose to order any of their products every week, two weeks, three weeks, monthly or even every 8 weeks.
6. Great customer service.  From my own experiences as a customer, I found if I ever had a problem with anything to do with my delivery they would provide a refund where appropriate and sometimes send me something for free.
7. User friendly website with a brilliant recipe section!  Look under the a-z section if you are unsure what to do with an unusual type of fruit or veg!
8. Trace-ability of the produce.  Each product has supplier details next to it, so that you know who and where your food has come from!  This is particularly relevant in the light of the recent horse meat scandal!
9. My box this week came with a couple of useful information leaflets including handy hints on how to store vegetables so that they stay fresh for longer!
10. A nice company ethos.  You get the feeling that they care - about the farmers they deal with, the produce they sell and the people they sell to!

As you might have gathered I am a fan of Abel and Cole.  There is always room for improvement though and if I could suggest one improvement to the boxes, it would be the option to have an extra portion of something already in the box that week to replace an opted out of item as sometimes more than one quantity of an item is useful.  

Now I want to know what you think - are  they for you or would you rather shop elsewhere?

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Disclaimer - blogger received some fruit and veg and a recipe book from Abel and Cole

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Posted in: Abel and Cole,eco,Food,Frugal,Green,local,organic,recycle,reduce,reuse,seasonal,thrifty,veg box scheme