Good, home cooked food from sustainable, traceable sources, is something we really care about here at abigail*ryan... we're both keen home cooks (sweet and savoury), and, for a long time now, have been committed to only buying free-range / outdoor reared / organic meat and as much locally grown produce as we can (I often buy the savers/everyday vegetables packs, because it's from UK farmers, and they use their out-size and unusually shaped produce which was, in the past, rejected by the supermarkets and a drain on farmers profits)...
A lot of the time, we can't afford to buy the free-range organic meat we want to (chicken, especially) so it's simple. We don't. We always buy Free-Range eggs, though, without exception. We feel quite strongly that the only way to fight the ethically devoid meat industry is to vote with your wallet... buy good meat when you can, and if you can't, then don't invest your pennies in to cheap meat and give the supermarket bosses that old excuse of 'there's a market for it!'. You don't have to eat meat every day. But that's just us, and our views!
ANYWAY - for a long time, we've been trying to find a box scheme (initially for Veg) in Northern Ireland, as we thought it would be a good way to support local growers, eat seasonally, potentially save a little money, or at least know the money we were spending was doing more good... a few weeks ago, Ryan came across the
BOXA scheme, run by Rita Wild.
Rita works with Northern Irish farmers, together doing all sorts of good things to produce organic free-range and delicious meat boxes, buying and raising the animals from infancy through to slaughter in the best environment possible. The meat is then flash frozen in to family pack bundles, of mixed cuts, and it's even insulated with wool rather than nasty polystyrene! They do all sorts of boxes, from Beef to Pork, recently adding Free-range Chicken, Fish and more... you can read all about Rita and the good work she does over on their facebook page > https://www.facebook.com/boxagoodness
Today we took a trip down to Helen's Bay near Bangor to pick up Ryan's Mum's box (she had ordered a Beef Box, with extra cuts, and a Pork Sausage Bundle - it's BBQ weather, you know!). We went along to have a nosey, and to pick up some organic Veg, which we were told was sold from the little farm shop... BOXA also deliver all over Northern Ireland, but Rita is at the farm for a pick-up window for those local enough to stop in themselves.
I couldn't help snapping some photos of the gorgeous Gardens and Crops growing everywhere, of course I got carried away with the flowers... but it was a lovely wee day out, and Ryan's Mum is very excited to try her meat! Children would love it too, as there are chickens on site, horses and lots of fruits and flowers growing to look at, and a little picnic bench too. Blogger
Belfast Mummy also recently wrote about the BOXA scheme, so you can read her post too to find out a little more from another perspective! Belfast Mummy, Clare, mentions that the sausages are 85% meat, which she felt left room for a lot of fillers... however, as you struggle to find sausages in the supermarket that have much over 69% meat, we think 85% is amazing, and 'fillers' doesn't mean bad ingredients, necessarily, and certainly not in this case...we've done a bit of research, and, in fact, most top chefs recommend that sausages have a mix of breadcrumbs, herbs, seasoning, or a little fat in them, otherwise, the sausages are too dense and dry. So, for us, 85% meat sausages are something we are VERY happy with. Again, everyone is different...
REALLY glad there's something like this happening in Northern Ireland, so I wanted to give it a big shout out here! Well done Rita for all your good work with BOXA. We look forward to buying boxes from you in the future ourselves...
Abigail xo
