Lucy Siegle 

Where to get the best organic meat and veg

Lucy Siegle sources the best green producers in Britain
  
  


Fruit and veg
Devon's Riverford Farm ( www.riverford.co.uk tel: 0845 600 2311), one of Britain's 400 box schemes, is a four times Soil Association Organic Food Award winner, growing 85 varieties of vegetables. You can check the contents of your weekly box online before delivery. Church Farm ( www.churchfarm.org.uk tel:0151 648 7838 )based in a conservation area on the Wirral also has an impressive farm shop if you want to supplement your fruit and veg orders. And Coleshill Organics ( www.coleshillorganics.co.uk tel:01793 861070) not only grows 70 traditional varieties of veg within the walled gardens but transports boxes using eco-friendly fuel. And finally, if you want to brag to your friends that Sting has lovingly nutured your brussel sprouts head for Britford farm shop ( www.britfordfarmshop.co.uk). Trudie Styler and Sting sell their organic veg (anonymously) at the farm shop near Salisbury.

Eat minority breeds
Not so long ago it was almost impossible to find a meat-eating A lister, but now Liz Hurley is regularly papped snapping up sausages from Here, the organic store in Chelsea, London (125 Sydney Street, London SW3 020 7351 4321). No doubt they're from an organically reared rare breed pig (referred to as minority breeds in right-on circles). In fact bog-standard breeds used in industrial farming are really quite passé now that it's all about Tamworths and Gloucester old spots. Rare breed meat tastes quite fantastic. For proof try chops and sausages from Andrew and Sally Jackson at Lincolnshire Organics ( www.lincolnshireorganics.com tel:01724 844 466). Their pigs forage in fields and woods, their sows only produce two litters of piglets a year and pigs are prepared at the farm butchery, so there's no transport of live animals. Jamesfield Farm might be on the Perthshire and Fife border ( www.jamesfieldfarm.co.uk) but by a feat of delivery you can still get Jamesfield organic beef, lamb, sausages, burgers, pork and bacon in most areas of the UK by the next day. If Helen Browning had a £1 for every time she'd been called Miss Piggy, she'd be wintering in Barbados. Her eponymous produce is everywhere from classic chipolatas in Sainsbury's to 'totally organic speedy sausages' in Morrisons (www.morereasons.com 01924 870 000). Until recently the Kindersleys were known for their books, but now they've turned their hands to farming at Sheepdrove Organic Farm . Buy organic meat online, www.sheepdrove.com or through the family butchers in Bristol, 01179734643. If you want your meat biodynamically-farmed than order from Shedbush Farm ( www.heritageprime.co.uk tel:01297 489304) in Dorset. Michel Roux and Giorgio Locatelli love the pork and lamb. Together with another organic farmer, broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby has set up Bath Organic Farms ( www.bathorganicfarms.com tel: 0845 4309541) selling meat and eggs from his nearby farm. But OFM's favourite farm shop for kids is Ashlyns, between Epping and Ongar in Essex (tel:01992525146). While you shop, the little darlings can roam outside with pigs, goats and hens.

 

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