Cultivate Oxford
Residents of Oxford, rejoice! The dedicated team at Cultivate has been prioritising customers with Covid-19, those undergoing chemotherapy, the elderly and the immunosuppressed. Now, they are cranking up their system – using volunteers to pack and deliver – and hoping to get out a higher number of delicious, locally sourced fruit, vegetable and store-cupboard boxes. You can do a whole weekly shop via Cultivate, which works mainly with farms, local businesses and producers within 25 miles of Oxford.
New Covent Garden Market
The various businesses of New Covent Garden Market are currently offering home delivery to families with a London postcode. A staggering choice of suppliers of fruit, vegetables and dairy products is listed alphabetically on its website. Online wine merchant, Swig Wines, is on there, too.
The Gluten Free Bakery
This lovely artisan bakery is still delivering across the UK – and working hard to keep up with demand. Why not fill your bread bin and freezer with its delicious GF bagels, loaves of sourdough and even hot cross buns for Easter? Hand-crafted in London, using responsibly sourced ingredients, all its creations are all seriously good and you wouldn’t know they were gluten-free.
HG Walter
This super family butcher in west London – beloved in normal times of the capital’s finest restaurants – is currently delivering brilliant ‘survival boxes’ within the M25. Choose from the Meat Survival Vac Pac Kit, the Patty & Bun Lockdown DIY Patty Kit, the Native Breed Steak Box (which thoughtfully and charmingly includes garlic and thyme), a Staple Veg Box, a Green Veg Box and a Fruit Box. The contents of each is glorious. Describing themselves in ordinary times, they say: ‘From the Michelin-starred River Café to the highly acclaimed Kricket, our meat and pantry products supply hundreds of restaurants, and we are the go-to butcher for many of London’s food writers, chefs and critics.’
The Crosstown Collective
At The Good Web Guide, we’ve long been fans of Crosstown, purveyors of exquisite doughnuts. Now, there is even more reason to love them. They’ve responded to the corona crisis by creating a collective of local suppliers and using it to deliver food boxes across London. Crosstown has joined forces with a dairy, a bakery and a greengrocer whose wares make up The Original Collective Box and The Vegan Collective Box. Both contain a huge selection of fruit and vegetables, regular doughnuts (or vegan doughnuts), bread, eggs, butter and milk (or plant milk). Delivery is available seven days a week. Treat yourself in these testing times.
Daylesford Organic
If you’re in the mood for luxury, Daylesford Organic is currently delivering to anybody with an address near its London farm shops and to those customers who are self-isolating, at high risk or vulnerable within five miles of their Cotswold flagship. The Daylesford Delivered service includes fresh fruit and vegetables, organic cheese, fresh meat and fish, artisan bread and pastries and their award-winning real meals.
Pale Green Dot
Based in High Street Kensington, Pale Green Dot is a group of farming and sustainability champions which now delivers fruit and vegetable boxes (cheese, meat, fish and more is coming soon) to your door if you live inside the M25. Demand is so high at the moment that you can’t choose what goes inside your box – but you can be sure that it will be fresh, seasonal and sumptuous.
Brassica Mercantile
This delivery service is niche: you have to live within eight miles of Beaminster in Dorset to avail yourself of it. But it is such a lovely service that it deserves a mention, just in case you do live within eight miles of Beaminster and you don’t know about it. Brassica Mercantile is an award-winning restaurant and shop in, you guessed it, Beaminster. It is currently delivering (for a £5 fee) mouthwatering dishes from its restaurant, as well as enticing store-cupboard goods like premium pasta, Dorset sea salt, really good tinned tomatoes, beautiful bars of chocolate, Union House Roast coffee and the best crisps around.
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By Becky Ladenburg
April 2020
