Friday night in box from Eversfield Organic

Whether it’s the end of a long week or you just fancy a treat, the ‘Friday Night In Box‘ from Eversfield Organic will most definitely help you unwind. They very kindly sent me one last week to try and we loved it. With delicious grass fed rump steaks and all the veg you need for homemade chips, griddled mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and crispy salad, what’s not to love?

Eversfield Organic are based in Devon (with farm shops in Tavistock and Totnes) and are fully organic, selling meat and veggie boxes for delivery across the UK.  I don’t know about you but increasingly I’m using delivery services like this rather than the supermarkets. I like the fact that they’re a family run business based in the South West (as I am) and find it a comfort to know that the meat they sell is high welfare and their veggies organic. It’s really important to know where your food comes from, especially as we move into a post Brexit world away from European food standards. This is something I feel pretty passionate about as you probably already know and I’m a big advocate of organic eating.

They work with small family run abattoirs and have a butchery team on site. Since founding the farm in 2002, Mark and his family have planted over 30,0000 trees, reinstated miles of hedgerows and gained organic status. They work with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, rearing their own native Aberdeen Angus cattle fed on a 100% pasture diet. This means the animals feed on grasses and wildflower alone, never grain. The love that goes into their food is clear to see … and taste!

Delivery

The box arrived chilled and packed with woolcool insulation. This natural material is fully recyclable and Eversfield also have a returns scheme so they can reuse it. The only plastic in the whole box was the steak packaging, everything else was in paper bags. They deliver all over the UK and offer free delivery for £80+ orders. This is something I’ll take advantage of in future, perhaps ordering a couple of their different meat boxes and freezing it for the following few months.

This particular box is priced at £19.99 which at just shy of £10 a head is cheaper than a lot of takeaways and certainly in most cases, an affordable treat. Having something this lovely also encouraged us to sit at the table with a glass of wine and enjoy each others conversation which was a nice change to eating a takeaway in front of the TV. It felt quite special, like a date night.

So, what did we think of the Friday night in box?

We loved it. In a nutshell. As you can see from my pictures, the produce was of a fantastic quality. Plump, firm tomatoes, crisp lettuce and fantastic chipping potatoes. The steaks were particularly good and actually, we agreed, the best we’ve had at home for as long as we can remember.

The box doesn’t come with instructions but I went pretty classic and turned the ingredients into steak and chips. I grilled the tomatoes with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar to bring out their sweetness and fried the mushrooms in butter, garlic and parsley.  For the chips, I followed my foolproof method – cut them to size and then boil them for a few minutes before tossing them in oil and cooking in a very hot oven until crisping around the edges and golden in colour. For added luxe, I sprinkled them in smoked garlic granules and maldon sea salt!  It was Friday night after all!

As for the steak – I kept that simple so that the flavours could sing. Oil, salt and pepper and then onto a hot griddle pan for three minutes either side and into the oven under the chips for a further 10. Pink in the centre and charred on the outside. Perfection. I served all of this with the crisp salad leaves and quick peppercorn sauce made with a flour/ milk roux, lightly crushed peppercorns and some of the meat juices.

Why choose organic?

I think it’s clear that we really loved this box and having read up on the company I have great admiration for the company and their values. I strongly believe that we should be buying as much organic food as we can afford within each of our budgets. Organic food is grown without pesticides or sythentic fertilisers and meat is raised in high welfare environments. Whilst the evidence on whether this makes organic food better for you, it certainly has a positive impact on the environment. Organic farming is more sustainable in the long term and on average, organic farms use less energy than non-organic farms and emit less greenhouse gas emissions. And get this: If Europe’s farmland all followed organic principles, agricultural emissions could drop by 40-50% by 2050, with plenty to feed the growing population healthy diets. Pretty important stuff. Read more on the Soil Association website.

*I was sent a Friday Night In Box to review and in return, asked to write a review. All opinions are my own, and I only work with brands I would purchase myself.*