FAQs

What is considered low, middle or high income (for our pricing scale)?

In the name of food justice – ensuring good food is accessible to a wide range of people – we’re offering veg boxes on a solidarity pricing scale. If you need some guidance on where you might fit on the income scale then we’ve borrowed this table with examples from Fire in the Mountain Festival website, where solidarity pricing is also applied.

High income	Middle income	Low income
I am comfortably able to meet all of my basic needs.	I may sometimes worry about meeting my basic needs but still regularly achieve them.	I frequently worry about meeting basic needs and don’t always achieve them.
I may have some debt but it does not prohibit attainment of basic needs.	I may have some debt but it does not prohibit attainment of basic needs.	I have debt and it sometimes prohibits me from meeting my basic needs.
I own my home or property or I rent a higher-end property.	I have a stable housing situation. I may own a home or rent.	I rent lower-end properties or have unstable housing.
I can afford transport. If I have a car/access to a car I can afford petrol.	I can afford transport. If I have a car/access to a car I can afford petrol.	I sometimes can’t afford transport. If I own a car/have access to a car, I am not always able to afford petrol.
I have access to financial savings.	I am employed and might have access to savings.	I am unemployed or underemployed. I have no access to savings.
I have an expendable income.	I have some expendable income.	I have no or very limited expendable income.
I can always buy new items.	I am able to buy some new items and I buy others second hand.	I rarely buy new items because I am unable to afford them.
I can afford an annual holiday or take time off.	I can take a holiday annually or every few years without financial burden.	I cannot afford a holiday or have the ability to take time off without worry.
		I qualify for government and/or voluntary assistance including: food banks and benefits.

Can I try out the veg boxes before I commit to a year?

Yes, we offer a trial period of up to 4 weeks between 17 May and 14 June.  You can pay for one month of vegetables and at the end decide whether you want to sign up for the full year, which starts on 21 June. Sign up for the trial here.

What happens if I’m away on holiday?

You can arrange for your share of vegetables to be collected by a friend or family member. Or you can email us and tell us to donate it to the local food hub, that we have an existing relationship with. Or if it is only a matter of a few days, you can collect it later in the week from the collection shed.

Can I request the veg that I prefer?

The contents of the veg boxes depends on what’s ready for harvesting at that time and all members receive a share of the same items (except when Mother Nature provides us with just a small amount of something and it’s better for some of the members to have a full portion and the rest a full portion of something else. No-one wants just 3 french beans!).

We operate a swaps box system where there are extra veg items left out each week. If there’s something that you don’t like in your veg box then simply remove the offending article and swap it for a similar amount of something in the swaps box. Someone else might love it!

The only case where we alter individual shares is if you let us know upon sign up that you’re allergic to something – otherwise, we ask you to use the swaps box.

Members tell us that they enjoy learning to cook and eat with veg they might not usually buy and feel more connected to the seasons and the landscape with what grows well at that time. One of our members is a nutritionist and provides regular recipe suggestions for using the produce in the boxes.

What if I’m late to pick up my veg?

There is no ‘late’ here really. All veg is ready for collection from 4pm on a Wednesday (fortnightly Jan to June). However, we don’t take the veg away, it’ll be there until you collect it. Some members choose to collect on the Thursday or Friday instead. We don’t refrigerate it, so in the summer it will spoil more quickly. The closer to 4pm on a Wednesday that you collect it, the fresher it will be.

What if I need to leave the scheme before the end of the year I’ve signed up for?

Although the farm’s model is based on year-round support from the membership, we do understand that unexpected things happen in life. If you really need to leave the scheme, for an unavoidable reason, we will first ask you to see whether a friend or family member would take up the rest of your commitment until June 2024. If not, we ask for 3 months’ notice so that we can make plans. It is difficult for us to take on full new members half-way through the vegetable growing season as they have not received the summer/autumn abundance. If you are paying monthly you may be asked to pay a cancellation fee to balance out the amount of produce received because the monthly payments are equal, but the vegetable provision varies with the seasons, with more at the beginning than the end of our year of veg.

Can I have my veg box delivered?

We don’t offer a delivery option as standard for several reasons: firstly, collecting from the farm means that members are more connected to where the food comes from. Secondly, we often leave out extras of what has been harvested so that people can take what they like and would use and there’s the option to swap out produce they won’t use. Finally, we’re a small operation and our growers are needed at the farm tending the produce. The cost of delivery is higher than often expected given the time taken, the fact we’d need a specialised vehicle and to incorporate the cost of a new box each time. But it’s not a ‘no’. If you really want or need your box delivered then please ask and we can give you an individual cost for it and you can decide if that’s viable for you. We’re also exploring the possibility of other central collection points in future.