The Benefits of Shopping Locally

At Cotswold Veg Box, it’s no secret that we make the most of the incredible produce grown in the Cotswolds and Vale of Evesham. Obviously it tastes better and lasts longer when it’s fresh but there are many more reasons why shopping local is best. Lots of you are becoming more conscious of shopping ethically, so we thought we’d pop all the benefits into a big old blog so we don’t miss anything. 

Food Miles

If you’re looking to reduce your food miles, CVB is a great place to start. One of our suppliers, Drinkwater & Sons, are just over the other side of our village and boy do they know how to grow a good spud, amongst many other vegetables of course! The novelty of having them delivered on the back of a tractor, still warm from being picked in the sun, never wears off. 

There is nothing we hate more than going to a supermarket mid-June and seeing asparagus from Peru when the same produce is available just down the road (not to mention the plastic it’s wrapped in!). At the peak of the British season, we’ll never include produce from abroad when we can get better quality a few miles away. Of course, we still include lunch box staples such as bananas and oranges all year round but if you’re looking for an exclusively British box, we do one of those too!

This goes for flowers too! Did you know that roses aren’t actually in season in February? This means that 8 million stems - 570 TONNES - are imported to the UK via aircraft for Valentines Day alone. This has a huge environmental impact which definitely isn’t our love language! With Debbie at Bumblebee Blooms, we can guarantee that your bouquet was cut less than 24 hours prior to it landing at your door and all the flowers were grown less than 3 miles away. 

Plastic Reduction

Banana bunches wrapped in plastic - why!? They are literally protected by their own skin. They don’t need plastic!

Unnecessary plastic is one of our main bug bears. Unfortunately, it’s an industry wide issue and until the supermarkets start demanding alternative packaging (or none at all!), our cries are drowned out by the tiddly size of our spend vs. ‘the big dogs’. 

However, by working with small, local growers, we have the luxury of requesting as minimal plastic as possible. Of course, this comes with a slightly higher cost but the continued use of single-use plastic has a higher cost on the environment! Our berries are in compostable punnets, we buy lots in bulk and repack into paper bags and we even convinced our mushroom suppliers to switch to compostable punnets too! Top tip: poke a hole in the clingfilm when you receive your mushrooms as they can go sweaty and soft quicker. Some things still require plastic such as rocket and spinach but rest assured, if there is a plastic free option - we take it!

Independent businesses

Having had fingers in many small business pies over the years, there are two quotes that resonate: 

1. “Every time you purchase from a small business, someone does a little happy dance.” 

This couldn’t be more true, I do an actual mini jump every time I see an order come through or make a sale at a market - that’s 14,547 jumps so far! The guys have more of a restrained, internal heart flutter but the smiles never go away, even at Christmas time when we’re still packing your boxes at 2am, ready to start again 4 hours later. 

2. “Roughly 63p of every £1 spent at small or medium-sized businesses stays in the local economy, compared with just 40p at large businesses.”

Two-thirds of money spent locally, stays locally. Whether this is used to employ local people, use local suppliers (who do the same!) or support other small businesses on our (rare) days off. 

Not only are these two wonderful reasons to make shopping independently a no-brainer, but it also contributes to the sense of community that makes where we live so special. We know exactly who we’re buying from (Alex is vaguely related to half of them! #Cotswolds), what growing methods they use and in Gorsehill Abbey’s case, we’ve met the wonderful cows that produce their organic milk! We’re also able to give back to our community in a much more flexible way than the big suppliers, be it working with local Food Banks or supporting local charities/fundraisers. To read more about our lovely suppliers, click here, and to read about our Pay it Forward Scheme, click here.