Earlier this year I asked people for recommendations for a good veg box in Dublin 8. It can be a little hard to get clear info on what’s available, or what the value is like, so I wanted to share my experiences with them so far.
Especially given the cost of living at the moment, I’ve also done a price comparison on how it compares to a normal shop.
We don’t get it every week, but we get a 100% Irish organic box regularly enough from Beechlawn Farm in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. We collect from Small Changes in Inchicore (no delivery charge).
UPDATE: As of December 2023, Beechlawn Farm have stopped offering a veg box. The below may be useful for informational purposes, but the company no longer offers this service. As they withdrew from the market, they recommended Green Earth Organics.
What you get
Contents for each box vary, but below is the one we collected today.
The box (which they take back and reuse) contained:
- Kale 228g
- Chard 250g
- Scallions 120g
- Chestnut mushrooms 381g
- Celery 751g
- Green cabbage 1,580g
- White cabbage 1,586g
- Red cabbage 1,120g
- Carrots 1,016g
- Potatoes 968g
- Cherry tomatoes 322g
- Cucumber 501g
- Courgette 537g
- Broccoli 508g
- Onions 668g
The cost
The box we get is the 100% Irish Veg Box. It’s a good amount for a two-person household (or maybe larger) and costs €30. The same crowd have other options which are cheaper or smaller.
You don’t need to subscribe, you just order during the week and it’s ready for collection on Friday. For home delivery (which I haven’t tried), there’s an €8 charge.
How does it compare to a supermarket shop? I looked at similar prices in a few supermarkets for the same quantity of the same/comparable veg:
- Supervalu (cheapest possible): €27.58
- Supervalu (buying 10 out of 15 veg as organics): €33.61
- Tesco (cheapest possible): €19.78
- Tesco (buying 10 out of 15 veg as organics): €29.68
- Lidl (cheapest possible): €17.25
- Lidl (buying 12 out of 15 veg as organics): €24.11
Not every supermarket had all the vegetables that came in the box (none had chard, for example), so I substituted them with similar products. There weren’t organic options for every veg either for a more “like with like” comparison.
On the whole, the price was comparable to buying organic in a supermarket, similar to buying any veg in SuperValu, and more expensive than Lidl or Tesco.
I’ve set out all my figures for the comparison in case you want to quibble or spot any errors!
Overall
If you are looking for 100% Irish-grown veg, and want to try a few different things you wouldn’t normally cook, I would definitely recommend trying it.
A veg box like this won’t win on price alone (but it is surprisingly comparable to some shops), but the quality is certainly miles ahead.
I won’t be using it for every shop, and this won’t suit or be of interest to everybody – especially given the cost of living at the moment. But I wanted to share the experience and price comparison info I had so that people can decide for themselves.
Hopefully it’s of some use!