Oddbox Review

My review of Oddbox, an innovative company fighting food waste by delivering fresh wonky and surplus produce to London homes. Keep reading to learn more about Oddbox, what’s included in your box, prices and delivery, and for a 50% discount code if you’re in London and want to try out your own box!

A Little Bit About Oddbox:

Oddbox is an exciting London-based fruit and vegetable delivery service that is taking a stand against the massive food waste problem we have in the world. Deepak and Emilie founded Oddbox when they discovered that a shocking 20-40% of produce in the UK is wasted before it even leaves the farms. Now they take perfectly delicious but slightly misshapen and surplus produce and deliver it in over 25,000 boxes across London.

How it Works:

• Oddbox buys odd and wonky produce from local farmers and growers.
• They then curate seasonal fruit and veg boxes using the fresh produce.
• That box is delivered straight to your front door overnight – it’s almost like Christmas, waking up to a box of fresh fruit and veg!
• Oddbox also donates produce to charities, furthering the cause in fighting food waste and food poverty.

What’s in the Box:

I received my box bright and early one morning, and it honestly felt like Christmas! Fresh fruit and vegetables are the best kind of delivery. I started with the letter included in the box (printed on 100% recycled paper), which gave a lovely narrative of the autumnal fresh fruit and veg I would find in my box. I particularly loved how the letter included where the produce came from, and what made them particularly wonky or in danger of being wasted. Plus, the abundance of food puns throughout the letter made for an enjoyable read.

The produce varies depending on the time of year when you order, but my box included:

• Red kale – one of the most gorgeous veggies in the whole box; the kale would have been ploughed back into the ground had it not been bought and redistributed by Oddbox
• Apollo lettuce – the growers had a big surplus of lettuce
• Kentish rocket – another surplus vegetable due to weather related growing conditions
• Cambridgeshire Georgina potatoes – deemed ‘less-than-pretty’, but they tasted just fine
• Suffolk carrots – too tiny to be sold, but still enjoyable to the last bite
• Tomatoes – their size didn’t fit with supermarket, but they were super juicy
• Essex spring onions – deemed ‘outrageously oversized’, and definitely the largest spring onions I have ever seen!
• Lincolnshire cauliflower – surplus cauliflower going by the name McCauley Cauli
• Lea Valley cucumbers – the bendy Q shape means that supermarkets can’t wrap these in plastic to sell; they’re just as edible, though they may have a shorter shelf life
• Portuguese Passionfruit – too small or dented to be sold in supermarkets
• Nectarines from Spain – meant to go to a British supermarket until orders failed to meet availability
• Kentish apples
• Clementines – some of which were too green, or had some unsightly marks on their outer skin

Cooking with Oddbox:

Oddbox also includes a couple of plant-based recipes using the abundance of produce in the delivery, in case you need any extra inspiration. I immediately saw the Kale, Potato, and Carrot Curry and knew I had to recreate it – especially with the days getting cooler, we’re definitely entering curry weather. You can check out the post I put up on Instagram of how this curry turned out, as well as a few other dishes I’ve experimented with too:

• Kale, Potato, Carrot and Tempeh Curry
• Passion Fruit Porridge
• Vegan Korean BBQ Cauliflower
• Salad Bowl

Prices and Delivery:

Oddbox delivers boxes straight to your home or work place, and have a number of different sizes on offer to best suit your needs. You can check out more information on their website, but here’s the breakdown of prices:

Veg Boxes:

• Small Veg Box (ideal for individuals/couples): £8.99 per box
• Medium Veg Box (ideal for 3): £10.99
• Large Veg Box (ideal for 4-5): £13.25

Fruit & Veg Boxes:

• Small Fruit & Veg Box (ideal for individuals/couples): £10.49 per box
• Medium Fruit & Veg Box (ideal for 3): £13.75
• Large Fruit & Veg Box (ideal for 4-5): £17.25

Currently Oddbox Delivers to:

• Homes in East London (E), West London (W) and some South West (SW) postcodes – Wednesday 11pm – Thursday 7am
• Homes in South East (SE) London postcodes – Thursday 11pm – Friday 7am.
• Other homes in South West (SW) London postcodes – Friday 11pm – Saturday 7am.

They also encourage you to get in touch if you’re nearby as they might be able to reach you: Shoot them an email at hello@oddbox.co.uk; they’re a super friendly team!

Fast Five Reasons to Try: Oddbox

1. Fresh fruit and veg delivered from the farm straight to your front door.
2. Explore and discover new/different fruits and veggies which are curated and seasonal
3. Help fight food waste by supporting Oddbox and local growers, by using perfectly good produce which would otherwise have been wasted.
4. Reasonable prices – especially if you use the code BEKAHBOX for 50% off!
5. Oddbox also partners with local charities to donate up to 10% of their produce, and at the time of writing, Oddbox customers have helped donate the equivalent of 90,565 meals!

*Not a sponsored post, but I was kindly gifted an Oddbox to try (with no obligation to do a blog post, that was my idea!). All opinions are my own and I would not be sharing if I did not genuinely love what Oddbox does. If you live in London and are interested in trying out your own box, you can use the code BEKAHBOX for a 50% discount when you order from their website. You can check out more of Oddbox on their Instagram as well.

Check out my Instagram for an exciting collaboration with Oddbox starting on the 15th Oct as well (involving something fun for you if you live in London)!