Food for thought…

I’ll confess, I’m lazy.  Which means the thought of lugging my weekly food shop home is not an attractive one.  We’ve all been there.  When you’re browsing the shopping aisles the temptation is vast and I rarely spare a thought for the long journey home, with aching arms and plastic bag handles cutting off the blood supply to my hands.  Not to mention the dreaded bag split.  Nobody wants their apples and loo rolls making a last bid for freedom and rolling off down the high road.

Which is why I can proudly say I am an online grocery shopper.  At present the sector is dominated by the major supermarkets, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco and Waitrose.  In the year ending May 2009, the total UK grocery market was valued at approximately £146 billion.

Yet I’ll admit I do get the odd twinge of guilt when I see all the packaging that gets thrown away.

A delicious Nearly Naked veg box

The trend among urban professionals is the ‘Grow your own’.  A little piece of rural heaven in your own back garden.  So what happens if you have a 6×4 block of concrete that your landlord has passed off as garden? Or you have the space but, like me, you’re just not the green-fingered sort?

Well the next best thing to growing your own are fresh boxes of produce picked the day before and delivered to your door from companies like The Nearly Naked Veg Company.  Order online and before you know it, this farming company will dig you up a selection of fresh veg and have them to your door before you can say fertiliser!  They can also deliver freshly baked bread, jams and joints of meat sourced from local butchers.

And even better, no over the top packaging and almost no nasty chemicals.  The Nearly Naked Veg Company is based in Devon but if you want to support your local produce, these businesses are springing up all over the place.

So next time your pesky ‘green fingered’ neighbour looks smugly over the fence whilst digging up his home grown carrots, you can pass these beauties off as your own!

Founder Ben with his dog Cooper

Ben Brunning, founder of The Nearly Naked Veg Company told us  “We are truly and genuinely obsessed with our veg! We love to plant it, grow it, pick it and most of all deliver it. We passionately believe that local produce is best, and that there is no need to spray crops with un-necessary preventative chemicals, or preservatives.   Key to our business is having our customers order on-line so we don’t have to have a member of staff sat in the office taking phone calls! This is where Sage Pay has come in, allowing us to take one-off payments, or set up repeat orders for those customers who want veg delivered on a weekly basis – which is most of them!”

I’m really pleased to announce The Nearly Naked Veg Company as September’s Business of the Month.  These guys really know their onions.

(Couldn’t help just one!)