Barbara's Blog

DON'T SCOFF...IT'S LOCAL FOOD

02-06-2009

Barbara Panvel celebrates the growth of a delivery service bringing locally sourced food and drink to the doorsteps of the West Midlands. If you're fed up of Tesco, here's a practical alternative...

It is good to hear about a new small business delivering regional produce, saving food miles and keeping money circulating locally.

After talking to hundreds of people two years ago and finding that many wanted to have a reliable doorstep delivery of local produce, Phil Meredith set up Morefresh to deliver milk, cream, cheese yoghurt, juices, fresh bread and potatoes produced in the West Midlands region by independent suppliers.

On 4th September 2007 deliveries started from Solihull Lodge to Highfield Rd Hall Green. As trade grew, three more vans were hired and deliveries are now made in Solihull, Shirley, Yardley and Olton. Morefresh now has a depot and office in Bordesley Green.

The same enterprising spirit was shown by Morefresh's milk and cream supplier, Wells Farm in Bradley, which could not survive on the low prices given by supermarkets and set up a dairy, processing and bottling milk, now sold directly. Other suppliers are:

• The Dairy House in Weobley: organic yoghurts and cheese made with milk from their Jersey and Friesian herds.

• Free-range eggs from Nick’s Chicks in Church Eaton: offered at lower prices than those in supermarkets

• Purity soft drinks and juices: a family owned business in Wednesbury, established in 1892

• Wenlock spring water: filtered through the rock strata of Wenlock Edge -with ‘dramatically fewer food miles than most of the ‘big brand’ mineral waters and tastes great too’.

• Lewis’s family bakery founded in 1899 at Northfield, later moved to Catherine de Barnes for many years and then relocated to Garretts Green - managed by the founder’s great–grandson: seven varieties of fresh bread and cobs.

A few months ago Morefresh introduced a new service, teaming up with Carol from the Local and Organic Veg [LOVE] stall in the Bull Ring to deliver veg boxes. Recent highlights were the first English strawberries and tomatoes and, unusually, straight kale. Out of season fruits and vegetables come from the wider European region: no produce from further afield. There are two options: a fully organic box and a box of non-organic but local produce. Weekly deliveries are the norm but there is the option of having a box on alternate weeks.