Riverford Organic Food Delivery Eco Product Review

Riverford Organic Vegetables is a delivery service of food to your front door. Although it has ‘vegetables’ in the name, it also delivers fruit, meat and a multitude of other things - fruit juices, organic beer, eggs etc.

Riverford is the name of the farm where it all started in Devon, in the UK, but it’s now a franchise scheme with various farms around the country delivering fresh, organic fruit and veg to your door. Although pictured is their mini fruit and veg box, we started off with their summer box - full of calabrese broccoli, aranca tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms and so on. The boxes change every week and you can check out the website to get a box that suits you.

Prices range from £7.90 for the mini to £14.95 for the large. You can get extras on top and there’s even a meant box starting at £48.95. That initially seems quite expensive, but once we added it up - and saw the amount we got - it works out quite reasonably.

Probably the best compliment I can give is that although we received out first box free for reviewing purposes, we’ve now become fully signed up members and have a box delivered every week. We’re still working out the ideal size box for the two of us and I think most people will go through that and set up a regular order, if not every week then every other week - the flexibility of the scheme is a great attraction. You can cancel orders while you go on holiday, order more if you have friends round or change the type of box you want each week.

The quality of food is exceptional too - everything’s fresh and tasty. It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve never tasted a salad so flavoursome - the mixed salad lettuce had quite a kick. We’ve also found it ‘forces’ you to eat healthily. Every time we look in the fridge we have vegetables to make dinner from. In fact it’s been a bit of a challenge to know what to cook. What I thought were spring onions turned out to be wet garlic, which I didn’t have a clue what to do with. A quick Google search and what site came up second in the list? Riverford Organic Vegetables of course - with a recipe for potato cakes with wet garlic which I duly made. In fact the website is full of ideas what to do with your veg, although I found the search function not to be very effective and Google worked much better.

While some of the fruit and vegetables do come outside of the UK, they have introduced a UK only box so you can choose where your food comes from. All the food is organic though and delivered staraight to your door. While some of the products come in plastic bags - pak choi, lettuce etc, the boxes it arrives in are returned and reused. And our local guy is very friendly too - we’ll be interviewing Chris on Life Goggles soon.

Green People Organic Formula Day Solution Product Review

The thing about doing reviews is that it can be very subjective. Or not. Some products either work or they don’t, but others may be a personal opinion - while I might not like the smell, someone else might. So when I gave Claire this Green People Organic Formula Day Solution I thought she’d like it, after all she loved the Green People Organic Formula Gentle Cleanse. But she didn’t. So in fairness I gave it to my girlfriend to review as well – not knowing whether she’d like it or not. And she did. It’s a funny old world.

Anyway, their contrasting views are below, but a little background is that the day solution is basically a moisturiser that’s “suitable for all skin types. Gentle, alcohol-free day cream rich in antioxidants and essential fatty acids, formulated to balance, nourish and moisturise your skin”. It’s also made from 93.5 per cent certified organically grown ingredients and 30p of every one sold is donated to Penny Brohn Cancer Care.

Claire’s view:
“I’m not quite as impressed with the results of the moisturiser, though my skin is very, very fussy when it comes to moisturisers. Products are usually not effective enough, my skin dries out relatively quickly after applying the moisturiser, or it is too oily, and my skin ends up with a ‘nice’ greasy sheen to it by the end of the day. I found this product very thick and heavy, it didn’t rub in very well and left my skin feeling slimy.

“I find a good moisturiser also works well as a makeup primer, this product however, was not. Because it left my skin feeling slimy, it affected the application and look of my makeup. I also didn’t notice the scent of fairly traded rose geranium!”

The girlfriend’s view:
“I liked the smell, it smelled of plants, a bit herby but really nice. I didn’t find it greasy at all, though it was quite light and rubbed in well. I’ve been using it in the morning and at night and it soaked in well and a small amount goes a long way.

“The bottle is fantastic – pump action works really well – not too much comes out and is great compared to a lot of other products I have. It compares very well with non-organic moisturisers but I will be going back to my old brand as I like one with some sun protection in as well which a lot of moisturisers do have but not this one.”

However, she won’t be going back to her old brand as Green People do have a version with factor 15 sun protection here, it’s just the version I got to test didn’t. Happy days.

So there you have it. Green People Organic Formula Day Solution without SP15 costs £11.99 and with is £12.99 for 50ml.

Beyond Organic Hydrating Body Oil Eco Product Review

Following on our look at some of the Beyond Organic Skincare products is the Hydrating Body Oil. Part of their Sensual Massage Gift Pack which costs £29.92, it can also be bought separately for £14.50.

Once again I roped in Claire who looked at the Firming Eye Cream and asked her about this 60ml bottle of body oil which contains a host of ‘good for you’ ingredients such as horse chestnut, fennel, cornflower, green tea, sea buckthorn and macadamia nut.

Do you use a different product normally?
My skin tends to get neglected during winter because it’s always covered in layers of clothing. During the summer I usually use a self-tanning moisturiser. But during winter my legs become very dry and itchy.

How does this compare to that one or nothing at all?
Big improvement to nothing at all. After applying the oil, my skin stayed hydrated for a couple of days, they soaked up the oil and felt nice and smooth and looked really good. No flakyness, no itching.

It claims to ‘deeply nourish and tone the skin, leaving it with a lovely silky feel. Great for bare arms and legs, giving skin a warm glow’ - any good?
Yep, my legs looked and felt soft and hydrated. Once it was rubbed in my skin felt firm and and did have a nice glow to it.

It says it’s not slippery and easy to rub in - was it?
Rubbed in as easily as any moisturiser. It is quite runny though, slips between you fingers and drips on the floor when your trying to get it out of the bottle and onto your arms or legs. I was able to put my clothes on straight after applying it.

What was the smell like?
When I first opened the bottle I didn’t really like the smell, I found it very overpowering. But I found when I rubbed it into my skin, it was still quite strong but it became quite pleasant and relaxing.

It contains… ‘Horse Chestnut helps to increase circulation. Fennel is said to be good for cellulite. Cornflower is very emollient and nourishing. Green tea is detoxifying. The synergy of these herbs and flowers make this an excellent toning and firming body oil. The Macadamia nut oil base is high in Oleic fatty acid which has an affinity with the skin’ - did it do any of that sort of thing?
No. Didn’t really notice any of those amazing effects. I never really look for those kinds of things in an oil or moisturiser, because none of them actually work. I just want my skin to be hydrated and look healthy and have a glow, and it did that.

It says you can put a teaspoon in your bath - did you give that a go?
No. I don’t have a bath.

How would it be to use as a massage oil?
It has a similar feel to massage oil, gives the skin the same sort of ‘oiled up’ feeling (can’t believe I just said that), but also absorbs into the skin easily. And the smell is quite relaxing.

Beyond Organic Hydrating Body Oil is available to buy here.

Latest Green News

Happy New Year everyone! All the best to you all for the coming year

Lots of little pieces of news to pass on to you today.

According to the Red Cross, the number of global disasters has soared by 60% in the past 10 years. Between 1997 and 2006 there were 6,806 disasters, affecting over 1.2m people.

The amount of Arctic sea ice at the end of the summer was half the level of what it was four years ago, raising fears that it could disappear by 2012.

A new process called PDX uses 40% less energy in the manufacture of beer. It uses steam to speed up the brewing process.

Bob Gedolf has strongly supported the use of nuclear power as the only viable alternative to fossil fuels for our energy demands.

New York’s taxis are to to be forced to achieve at least 25mpg if bought after October 2008, and 30mpg if bought in 2009. Whether this will just mean older and older taxis on the streets will remain to be seen.

The UK Government has announced plans to build 7,000 wind turbines along Britain’s coast which would supply one third of the country’s electricity needs by 2020.

Organic turkey sales will top £1m at Marks and Spencer alone in the UK over the Christmas period.

Researchers from the World Land Trust warn that growing biofuel crops could harm the environment as up to nine times the carbon dioxide will be released. This is because biofuel crops are oftne grown on land that is burnt and reclaimed from tropical forests.