THE Gazette has the opportunity to try one of RIVERFORD's new recipe boxes - which contain organic ingredients supplied by Hampshire's Upper Norton Farm

And one its four key farm sites is Upper Norton Farm in Sutton Scotney.

The company's new innovation has upped the game substantially, offering a choice of one of three new recipe boxes: original, quick and vegetarian.

These can be ordered on a one-off basis from the website, and will be delivered to your home free of charge on a Monday.

I was able to sample one of the original recipe boxes, which provides three meals for two people and costs £39.95.

We have never felt that our family budget could accommodate such a delivery, despite my dreams of being able to sign up for a weekly delivery of a veg box, so this was a little bit of a foodie dream come true.

Opening the box, I felt a surge of delight taking in the goodies all at once.

Two of the recipes in every original box contain meat and the third is vegetarian. Our box offered two bean chicken pappardelle, ratatouille, and baked sausages with cumin potatoes. All of the recipes are seasonal and organic, change weekly, and have been developed by Riverford's cooks.

Other recent offerings have included Asian spiced pork belly, Portobello rarebit and pork tenderloin and tomato with an Italian white bean puree.

The box's organisation was extremely pleasing for a neat freak Virgoan such as myself; the vegetables were neatly stacked on the left, beside three neat little card compartments marked one, two and three. These held the individual components of the meals, and ranged from a can of chickpeas or a clove of garlic or little pot of the exact amount of cumin required.

The chilled bag - an ingenious combination of natural fibre insulation, surrounding the meat and a little ice bag - was neatly tucked in on the right. All this careful preparation means that there is no need for you to be home when the box arrives as everything will be in perfect condition for several hours.

Also included were the recipe cards indicating which parts of this bounty you should use for which meal.

I cook practically all of our family meals from scratch and I am always trying to think of something which isn't just one of the usual suspects. This box removed that agony, especially on a stressful Monday evening, and it was so lovely to go about preparing something when all the thinking and shopping and measuring had already been done for me.

And I also began to think how useful the box would be for someone who didn't cook, or was reticent with new ideas or about trying new foods.

My husband, who does not cook, had no problem following the extremely clear recipe cards, selecting from the box the things he needed, and then following the instructions to end up with a hearty and healthy evening meal. The cards even directed him as to which pans and kitchen implements he needed!

He was also able to include herbs and to learn to cook items which he had never had the opportunity to try previously, and he was so chuffed with what he ended up producing.

I asked my daughter to help me get the right things out of the box using the recipe card and it became a fun educational game, too, during which she met her first runner bean.

Our four year-old (who loved the excitement of what she called the “present”) and I swiftly set to making the pappardelle and it was easy, healthy and delicious. The single chicken breast, which came already cut into pieces, seemed to stretch much farther than it had initially seemed it would.

And, because we used all of the pasta, really, the recipe would have easily served four.

Looking back over the whole experience of having the box, as working parents we discussed that we really did think was fantastic option to have available, especially considering the quality of the fresh, organic produce.

The cost, when we considered what it saved us in terms of shopping, waste, planning and, essentially, stress, seemed like very good value for money.

Find out more online at riverford.co.uk.