North East Food Heroes: NEOG

As part of a new monthly feature I'm going to focus on some of my favourite places to buy, eat and shop for food in the North East. I think we've got some amazing producers in this region, and as I hope I'm demonstrating in this blog, it's possible to eat extremely well even on a fairly low budget.

So, without further ado, my first 'North East Food Hero' is NEOG (North East Organic Growers)!

NEOG run a weekly organic veg bag scheme from their farm in Bomarsund, Northumberland. We have been receiving a weekly veg bag from them since June 2012, and even through an appallingly wet summer the quality and variety of veg has been terrific. They grow what they can themselves, and source the rest from a network of other organic farms, primarily local, with the occasional import during the less fruitful months (sourced as close as possible, and never air freighted). Veg bags are delivered weekly to a number of different links across the region (we pick ours up at St Thomas' Church in Newcastle city centre on a Wednesday). Buying our veg direct from growers helps to keep costs down (we pay £11 for a large bag, which provides the two of us with the vast majority of our weekly veg requirements). It also means we're often getting fresher veg than the supermarket could ever offer - carrots that left the ground hours rather than days ago, and sweet tasting freshly cut greens. 

The contents of our NEOG bag in early September

Having no control over what veg we get week to week might seem restricting, but in fact we have found it quite liberating - cooking with whatever the season provides helps us avoid the inevitable banality of mindlessly putting the same things in our shopping basket week after week. It forces us to be imaginative in the kitchen, consulting the cookbooks and throwing unusual combinations together. It also gives us, in the risk of sounding a little hippy-dippy, a sense of being in tune with the seasons - when we eat asparagus we know spring is here, when we eat courgettes we know that summer is in full swing, and when parsnips turn up in our bag we know the frosts have set in. Far from restricting our diet, it gives us ultimately more variety, with our way of eating changing from month to month.

NEOG also offer side orders of things like fruit, honey, organic eggs (we get bananas and lemons as part of our weekly order) at very reasonable prices. We've even had some of their gooseberries, which were delicious! If all this sounds like something you might be interested in then check out their website for information on how to start a trial. For me, they are true food heroes - organic vegetables, cheaper and fresher than you can buy in the supermarket, grown by people who care. What's not to like?!