We've been buying organic produce for many years as we think it's better for the planet to not overuse chemicals and better for us and the kids to not be eating those chemicals. I'll admit to not knowing all the facts about what goes into food, but I like the organic principle.

Of course a lot of the organic food is being shipped to our supermarkets from all over the world, which causes various forms of waste. We had considered using a local organic box scheme, but none was available in our area. Now there is and it is provided by River Nene up in Cambridgeshire. They can provide valious size boxes or individual products. They try to source most of it from their own farm, but to give a reasonable variety they have to source some from abroad, but they avoid anything that uses air freight.

We've had it for a few weeks now and are happy with the service. We get some very tasty items that include some we would never buy otherwise, such as celeriac. It definitely costs more than the equivalents at the supermarket, but we think it is still good value.

I see they are now doing some reasonably priced organic beer. I'll be giving that a try.

Last night I gave away a couple of girl's bikes to someone who had put a request on the local Freecycle. My daughter had outgrown them, so they will be going to someone's twin granddaughters. We got both bikes second hand, so they will be giving joy to yet another set of owners. At the local dump you can see bikes being thrown in the skip, which seems such a waste. If more people used Freecycle then a lot less stuff would get thrown away. There are over 300 people on the Letchworth list and nearly 800 in Stevenage.