PlanetHurley.com

2 dinners 2 lunches, small portions, but can have certian items omitted

5 dinners, 2/3 lunches with good sized portions. But cant restrict items you dont want.

Its cheper when buying 2ltrs else its £1.04ltr. the containers are recyclable and it lasts for 6 days in the fridge. the full fat milk, is almost cream.. very nice!

The bread is a little salty, so I don't feed to the children, but my husband and i enjoy it if eaten on the same day (by the following day its a little too dry for sandwiches this week I ordered a large loaf but only a small one arrived., and as they deliver on a Friday its no good for the working week

The bread is lovely when eaten on the same day. The nicest bread by far is the olive and rosemary bread, which i half, eat some on the day it arrives, and then the rest i thinly slice, drizzle with olive oil, toast and serve with olive oil and balsamic dip. Mmmm

Cheaper when buying a 2litre bottle, nice but sweet. I love the fact they sell large cartons of apple juice (although it is pretty much £5 for 1.75litres).

This is lovely juice, but very expensive, so I tend not to buy it. if it was a cheaper I would buy it every week!

I tried able and cole for 4 weeks this time around. I had tried them a few years ago, but stopped because I didn't find it great value for money. However I thought I would give them another go when I received the "get your 4th box free".

I have been using Riverford for around 8-9 years now, I keep coming back to them again and again after trying different box schemes, but none of them come close to the value for money of these boxes.

I found Able and Cole's website very easy to use, I love the fact you can state what you do/dont like, and shopping on there is very much like shopping on a supermarkets website, as they have a good range of products. although they are lacking on the personal products such as toothpaste etc.

The website has come on in leaps and bounds in the last year. It is much easier to navigate. However they still don't have the ability to say "I don't like XXX please don't include in my box", which is something I would find really useful, as I am intolerant to many Brassica, and I rarely do anything with beetroot other then let it look pretty in the fridge.

I think they are missing a trick, as by having a favourites list (even Love / Like / ok / hate), they would see which items their customers like, and could adjust their crops to cater for the customers likes.

The boxes as a whole are very good, but the amount of product in the box is not good value for money.

This was the contents for a medium fruit and veg box to feed 2-3people costing £17.50

• 4 cooking apples
• 4 pears
• 4 bananas
• 5 small carrots
• 1 medium brocolli
• 1 red cabbage
• 7 small closed cup mushrooms
• 1 bag of spinach
• 5 small red onions
• 5 medium potatoes

How the box is supposed to feed a family of 2-3 for a week I am not sure. Seeing as the apples are cooking apples, it means we have 8 pieces of fruit to feed 3 people over 1 week. so that's 1/3rd of a piece of fruit per day per person. Now we move onto the veg, the mushrooms are tiny, so I could only use them "in" something like a risotto/pasta, which means I could make a risotto with 2 of the onions and the mushrooms. That leaves the carrots, broccoli and potatoes for use on Sunday with the roast and a little spiced red cabbage to top it up, and I could make a coleslaw with the rest of the cabbage, red onion and carrots, and the remaining onion and spinach for a soup. But that's it. nothing left to eat. so for £17.5 you get 3 pieces of fruit each and 2 dinners and 2 lunches. So not great I think this was not helped by the fact they forgot to put an aubergene in the box this week.

I alternate depending on the box contents. To feed my husband and I plus our 2yr old and 5month old I usually order

• fruit and veg box OR
• small veg + fruit box
• medium veg + fruit bag

I always know this will be plenty for us all to have fruit / veg and salad every day. I tend to choose the boxes without potatoes, as I keep a big sack of local potatoes in the larder.

This was the contents for a medium fruit and veg box to feed 2-3people costing £16.35

• 1 large mango
• 8 small pears
• 7 bananas
• 1 cherry tomatoes vine
• 1 aubergine
• 1 sweet pumpkin
• 1 fennel
• 3 small pak choi
• 1 pack cavolo nero
• 1 cauliflower

This box allows each person to have 1 piece of fruit on each working day, and then there is enough to make a fruit salad for the weekend.

I can make a mousakka with the aubergine, a baked fish with the fennel, a stirfry with the packchoi, some of the cabbage and cavolo will go nicely with a roast, and the rest can be made into bubble and squeak. there is enough pumpkin to go into a risotto, and the rest to make into soup. and the vine tomatoes can be roasted and turned into a soup, as well as using some in sandwiches.

I could keep some of the cauliflower cheese for a toddler meal for the freezer. There is so much veg, that i normally keep back a little of everything and pop it into a freezer bag to make stock with, so you have enough veg and fruit for 1 piece of fruit per person per day, 5 dinners and 2/3 lunches + stock.

The Houmous is nice but a little dry, so I actually add more water and lemon juice to mine and decant it into 2 tubs.

I love the Houmous, its just the right consistency, but the pots are rather small for the price.

I have tried 2 of the wines, a PG and a Rioja, both were very tasty and I would buy again.

I have tried a number of the wines, but I have not yet found one I like, and because of the price I have had to stop trying.

The grated cheese is handy, and the fact they sell meat, fish and wine with the shopping is also a bonus.

Its a shame there is a minimum spend on the meat, as it would be nice to be able to add a single pack of bacon or sausages to my order, which shouldn't be a problem seeing as I order other chilled items. I dont really order any cheese, as for the price you dont get very much, so I rely on my local grocer for cheese.

This week I had 2 errors in my order, I had an aubergine missing, and only received a small loaf, when I had ordered a large one. I have been informed that my account has been credited for those 2 items though very promptly).

Errors in my last order were 3 punnets of mushrooms were mouldy the day after delivery, and the 2 orders before that I asked for extra garlic and onions, but both were rotten all the way through and had to be thrown, when i complained i was sent some extra mushrooms and a pepper... but that didnt help as I was out of onions and garlic!

Able cole have the makings of a great system. The website is great meaning I can get pretty much everything I need for the week from them, the favourites list is really handy and the choice is also good, but they let them selves down with the quantities. I would be willing to pay the extra for the boxes if they were a little more substantial.

In conclusion I can not fault the value for money from this box. The only thing that lets it down is not being able to restrict what comes if you are intolerant / allergic to something, and you do get months of having beetroot or spinach coming out of your ears. It would also be great if they had a little more variety. It is also a shame that the range of products is not extensive enough for this to be my sole shopping provider. I have to rely on my local organic grocery to deliver the cupboard basics / ecover refills and bathroom/kitchen basics.