How it Works
Each week you'll receive a bag of lovely, seasonal, organic vegetables. We put together a tasty assorted bag for you using the best available produce sourced from farms as close to Haringey as possible.
1. select a bag
The weekly selection will vary depending on what our farmers are growing and what's at it's best. We will make sure you get a good mix of different things, plus recipe ideas each week.
the small bag
Ideal for 1-2 people.
You can expect 5 varieties of seasonal veg.
Carrots or onions (we alternate each week)
Leafy veg (eg. salad, spinach, kale, cabbage) plus other seasonal veg e.g courgettes, tomatoes, broccoli, beans, beets, etc.
with potatoes £8.40 per week
without potatoes* £9.45 per week
the standard bag
Suitable for 2-3 people.
This contains 7 varieties of seasonal veg.
Carrots, onions
Leafy veg (eg. salad, spinach, kale, cabbage) plus other seasonal veg e.g courgettes, tomatoes, broccoli, beets, cucumbers, etc.
with potatoes – £13.30 a week
without potatoes* – £14.70 a week
the large bag
Suitable for 2-4 people.
This contains 8-9 varieties of seasonal veg.
Carrots, onions
Leafy veg (eg. salad, spinach, kale, cabbage) plus other seasonal veg e.g courgettes, tomatoes, broccoli, beets, cucumbers, etc.
with potatoes – £15.50 a week
without potatoes* – £17.00 a week
fruit supplement
Suitable for 1-2 people.
This bag contains 3 varieties of seasonal, organic, local & regional produce.
The fruit supplement bag is only available to veg bag subscribers.
£5.50 a week
The number each veg bag feeds is just a guide as it does very much depend on how much veg you use and how much cooking at home you do.
*The no potato bags are slightly more expensive as spuds tend to be very affordable compared to other veg.
2. join
To become a Crop Drop member you pay on a monthly basis for a month of veg. A small commitment from each of our members translates into a big deal to our farmers. It means we can provide a stable and consistent market for their produce. It means less worry for them and more delicious veg for you. That's why we take payments on a rolling monthly basis.
3. pick up your veg
We deliver your bag to a community drop point for you to collect. Check our Drop Points to find your closest pick up point.
Questions
How much do I need to order?
This depends on how much you eat. A small bag is aimed at one person and a standard bag for two or more but if you don’t often cook from scratch at home during the week, you might find a small bag suffices. If you find a standard bag is too much you can swap to a smaller bag whenever you like.
Can I ask not to have a certain item in the bag?
Unfortunately we are a small box scheme and we don’t have the resources to organise and offer bespoke bags. However there is usually a SWAP BOX at each drop point that you can use to rid yourself of unwanted veg in exchange for something you do.
Do I have to have a bag every week?
At the moment we don’t offer the option of ordering a one-off bag, we operate on a month by month basis. But if a weekly bag may be too much veg for you, there is a fortnightly delivery option. We encourage people to commit to a regular order as part of the point of the scheme is to support small-scale farmers by giving them regular orders and stable income so that they can plan and scale up appropriately. This requires a level of commitment from all of us.
Can I buy one bag before I commit to a direct debit?
We ask that you try it out for a minimum of a month. There is so much variation from week to week that just one bag would not give you an accurate picture of the Crop Drop experience. Plus it creates extra admin for us, which we try to avoid as a very small team with limited resources.
Can I use another payment method?
If you'd like to pay by a different method please contact us on 07432588734 to discuss.
What if I’m going on holiday and don’t need a veg bag delivered?
If you’re not going to be able to collect for one or more weeks, let us know by 11pm on the Thursday before, and we’ll cancel your delivery for the week's you want to miss and refund you.
You say you buy local but your fruit & veg list includes produce from Europe and beyond. Why is this?
We’re committed to ordering vegetables as local as practicable. However there are certain times of the year where UK produce isn’t so readily available. This is particularly the case in the UK ‘hungry gap’ – a regular time each year where the stores of last season’s vegetables (potatoes, onions, apples etc) have run out and the new season produce isn’t ready. At that time we buy in produce from Europe via our wholesaler. This produce is shipped, not air-freighted. At other times of the year farmers may experience freak weather conditions (prolonged droughts or frosts) that have depleted their harvests meaning we have to source extra produce from further away (in the UK or Europe).
For much of the year there is very little UK grown fruit available so we source the majority of fruit from Europe and sometimes bananas from the Dominican Republic. Again, the fruit is shipped not air-freighted, and we source from fair trade organic suppliers.
What happens to your surplus produce?
The way to operate means there is minimal food waste as we order exactly the amount from the farmers that we need. Any surplus that we do end up with, including uncollected veg from drop points is donated to Martha House in Tottenham, which provides temporary accommodation for forced migrants who have become destitute.
Food and accommodation are provided for guests who have no recourse to public funds and are not allowed to work. The house is a welcoming environment where everyone is encouraged to participate in cooking, cleaning and they try to eat together every night so no-one becomes a stranger. Some of it also goes to the Haringey Migrant Centre for their soup kitchen.
Crop Drop is a social enterprise. What does that actually mean?
Crop Drop is an organisation that works to bring about the environmental, social and economic change it desires directly through its trading activity. Any surplus we (eventually) make is invested back into the organisation to further our aims, which are to increase the amount of local, seasonal and organic produce consumed, improve the market for small-medium scale organic producers, support urban growing sites and increase demand and trade routes for urban growers. We put these values first before generating profit.
Crop Drop is run by some paid staff and some volunteers. As our income grows we increase the amount of paid staff proportionately. We’re a London living wage employer and aim to contribute towards the local economy by providing local jobs.
