Life is busy, decision-making is hard, and eating well can sometimes feel like a chore. But if I have a veg or two in the fridge, I can usually pull together a healthy dinner, even if it’s just a simple soup or an omelette with a green salad on the side.
However, more often than I'd like to admit, come Wednesday, Thursday if we're lucky, our fridge tends to run low of fresh produce. To combat this, I wanted to automate my veg (and fruit) supply by arranging a weekly delivery. I want the convenience of sitting back and letting those boxes roll in. No more research, no more empty veg drawer.
Reasons to get a weekly fruit and veg box delivered
Other than the convenience of a full fridge, there are other great reasons to subscribe to a veggie box. Your produce is going to be seasonal, for a start – that means fresh and more affordable. Plus, it feels special getting those once-a-year treats – the persimmons for your winter salad, the asparagus to grill in summer.
There are a lot of options out there, so I've done the work for you, and tried and tested every Auckland fruit and veg box delivery I could find. I'm knackered, and have spent way too much on delivery fees - you're welcome.
Methodology
I wanted to spend around $50 for each box, and while a small amount of fruit is fine, I leaned towards veg-heavy boxes as that's what suits my household. I was happy to pay delivery fees for the sake of this experiment – which were usually around $15 – but I wouldn't pay that on a weekly basis.
In terms of customisation, some of the boxes I tried were fully open to customisation, others were not. Personally, I enjoy the surprise and the challenge of cooking whatever shows up, but in case you don't, I've made notes on how bespoke each of the boxes that I tried are.
What I was looking for
Below you'll find notes on price, customisation, contents and more. Sometimes I made notes on what I made with the contents of the box, but only when the result was interesting enough to do so. You don't need to hear about my root vegetable soups and carrot batons.
All boxes were paid for by me, none were gifted.
So which fruit and veg box delivery is Auckland's best?
Best for value (and sustainability)... Perfectly Imperfect
Best for your full weekly grocery shop... Supie
Best for fresh, homegrown greens... Clevedon Herbs & Produce
Best family-owned business... Harvest to Home
Best for organic... Ooooby
Best when you need it in a hurry... Paddock to Pantry
Best for family favourites... Foodbox
Best when you don't want to make any decisions... Fruit Guys
The details: This family farm only sells what they grow themselves – herbs, veggies, herb and flower seedlings and produce boxes - it all comes from their farm in Clevedon. There are three boxes to choose from – small, medium, and large. The produce is not organic, but only organic sprays are used.
They also sell at markets at the Howick Village Market on Saturday mornings, and you can arrange a collection if you fancy driving to Clevedon.
Price:
The medium box is $45, and delivery is $6.80.
Delivery: North Island, except Barrier Island. Deliveries go out with Courier Post every Wednesday – Aucklanders will receive their orders on Wednesdays or Thursday (depending on courier schedules), and the rest of the country by Friday.
The experience: I ordered the medium box for $45 (the site suggests this box for 3-4 people and promises $50 worth of produce).
You can check what's coming each week by checking the large box page, where everything available is listed. Produce is more interesting than most sites – the week I ordered, there were microgreens, pak choy, cavolo nero, and red salanova lettuce listed, as well as choho, which I had never heard of before.
Orders close 6pm Sunday unless sold out prior. Guest checkout was fast and easy, and delivery is only $6.80. However some planning ahead is required – on the day I placed my order (July 19), the next available dispatch day was July 27.
The box delivered to me was bursting with green goodness, all clean and even wrapped with tissue on top. The produce had evidently been handled very delicately.
Pros:
It's pretty special eating only from a single farm – that certainly appealed to me.
Packaging is worth a note – there is no plastic here, just lots of carefully laid out loose leaf produce, home-compostable bags for any micro greens, a paper bag for tomatoes and the cardboard box your order comes in.
And delivery is only $6.80.
Cons: The produce is mostly greens so may not represent a broad enough range for some households, and certainly won't keep you going for a week (but customers would be well aware of this when they order).
What did we get: 10 varieties of veg (including flat-leaf parsley)
Vegetable varieties
- 2 green salanova lettuce
- 1 red salanova lettuce
- 1 bag of microgreens
- 6 tomatoes
- Italian flat leaf parsley
- Big bunch of loose leaf spinach
- 2 pak choy
- 1 head choho
- 1 bunch radishes
- Head of brocolli
The details: Fruit Guys is a corporate fruit box delivery service that has expanded into home delivery boxes. It is a division of a fruit & veg export and import business servicing international markets so you're getting export quality produce. They deal directly with growers rather than wholesale distributors – like a farmers' market that delivers, in their own words. They aim to send out mostly local fruit, super fresh (often purchased the morning of your delivery) but sometimes offer imported items such as bananas and pineapples.
Price:
$50 including delivery.
Delivery: Main centres around NZ. They also offer milk and coffee delivery to Auckland. Deliveries happen Tuesday to Thursday – you need to order by 9am for next-day delivery.
The experience: Fruit Guys offers just three boxes – a fruit & veg box for $50, a medium fruit box (around 30 pieces for $37.95), and a large fruit box (around 55 pieces of fruit for $58.65). Delivery is always included.
As someone looking to minimise decision-making, Fruit Guys is a great experience - I added the fruit & veg box to my basket, and was checked out and on my way in about 2 minutes.
The site tells you what's in season right now, without making any promises about what you might receive. My order came by 11am on delivery day, and I received 11 of the 16 possibilities they had listed in the week I ordered.
Pros:
Delivery is included, so the flat price was an easy $50, and it's great value.
Cons: You get what you're given – no customisations are available.
What did we get: 11 varieties of veg, 5 varieties of fruit
Vegetables:
- 1 packet Shanghai bok choy
- 1 fancy lettuce
- Head of broccoli
- 1 butternut squash
- 2 kumara
- Punnet of mushrooms
- 6 small carrots
- 6 large potatoes
- 2 yellow onions
- 4 beef tomatoes
- 1 avocado
Fruit:
- 6 large bananas
- 6 red apples
- 4 mandarins
- 3 pears
- 2 golden kiwifruit
The details: Harvest2Home is a family-owned business that delivers locally grown fruit and veg to the Auckland region. Previously an organic offering, they shifted to spray-free (and organic where possible) some years back in response to increasing prices. They work exclusively with local growers.
The experience:
The website is very straightforward – on the homepage you will find the three box options, prices, and the contents of that week's boxes.
Customisation is easy, with up to four substitutions allowed for each box with a simple tick/untick option, so I swapped out Granny Smiths and fancy lettuce for celery and a salad pack. You can also add extra items from what's available that week.
Price: $49 for the smallest option, the Humble box, including delivery.
Delivers to: Thursdays to west and central Auckland, Fridays to North Shore and the Hibiscus Coast.
Pros: Harvest to Home is a bit of a bargain. Delivery is included, and the smallest box contained plenty for two keen adults and a not-so-keen kid.
The cut-off time for orders is generous - Monday afternoon for the Thursday delivery (for west and central Auckland) or Friday (for North Shore and Hibiscus Coast).
With just three boxes available - Humble, Hearty and Heroic - your research time is kept to a minimum.
Cons: The simplicity of the website led to a user error - I accidentally signed up for repeat orders, meaning I had a double up that week. On the site, it wasn't immediately clear to me what date my order would come, but this was cleared up with the automatic confirmation email.
What did we get: 8 varieties of veg; 3 varieties of fruit
Vegetables:
- Cavalo nero
- 2 bok choy
- Broccollini
- Celery
- Baby carrots
- Salad mix
- Green beans
- 6 medium potatoes
Fruit:
- 3 persimmons
- 6 kiwifruit
- Bunch rhubarb
What did we make with it? The rhubarb was stewed with pear, cloves and vanilla. The kiwifruit were the best green kiwis I've had for years, so devoured as is. The persimmons were added to breakfasts, and sliced into salads. The bok choy went into chicken broth when we all caught colds. The cavalo nero was sauteed with lots of butter and served alongside some venison.
The details: Ooooby is an online grocery service offering bakery goods, meat, dairy and artisanal grocery products, as well as fruit and vegetable boxes. Ooooby works with farmers and small producers around New Zealand, and you can see their profiles on their site.
The experience:
Ooooby's mixed boxes are veg-heavy, with just a few fruit varieties, which suits me perfectly. Communication was excellent – I received confirmation emails and text about when my order would be delivered, and when ordering deadlines were approaching. They also send weekly reminder emails when the order window is closing and the cut-off time of Sunday evening is generous compared to other boxes.
Customer service is also top notch - I accidentally ordered a second box, and only noticed once the payment had been taken from my credit card. I called Ooooby before 9am on a Monday, and the refund and cancellation of the box was no problem.
Price: A 'Lil organic mixed box' is $48, delivery is $14.99 for delivery (this decreases the more you spend).
Delivers to: Auckland, Waikato and Christchurch. Launching in Tauranga soon.
Pros: Great communication, produce is organic and/or spray-free, and there was no packaging in here other than the box itself.
Cons: All organic means the box is pricier than others for what you get.
What we got: 8 varieties of veg, 1 variety of fruit
Vegetables:
- Bunch spinach
- Bunch coriander
- 1 capsicum
- 5 small beets
- The most enormous fennel I've ever seen
- 1 daikon radish
- 4 small kumara
- 1 medium cauliflower
Fruit:
- 4 small pears
What did we make? The daikon radish required some googling. I was advised to pickle it, but in the end I used it in a gratin, and the rest was grated into lots of salads. Spinach and coriander became a Green Goddess salad dressing. Fennel went into salads and the fronds used as garnish.
The details: Supie is an NZ-owned online supermarket that burst onto the scene just last year with an aim to disrupt New Zealand's supermarket duopoly. They stock around 6500 products from 350 suppliers, with a philosophy of making groceries fairer for everyone – that means cutting out the middleman to create lower costs for consumers, and higher profits for producers.
Price:
The small family fruit and vegetable bundle is $49; delivery is $15 (if you join Supie for $14 per month or $99 per year, you'll get free deliveries on orders over $70, plus cashback on every order).
Delivery: Supie deliveries Auckland-wide 7 days a week. Choose your day, and Supie will deliver between 3pm and 7pm. If you're a paid-up Supie member, you get priority booking.
The experience: Supie is a fully stocked online supermarket, so you can order just a box (known on the site as a 'bundle') or a full grocery shop if you like. You can filter by 'diet' or 'values', so whether you want plant-based products, no packaging, or just to buy directly from farmers and family-run businesses, Supie has the niche for you.
They offer a range of bundles other than fruit and veg – including cheese, winter roasts, meat and no waste bundles, which offer good deals on food that's close to its use-by date.
Supie offers a rough rundown of what you'll find in the box, but notes that this can change week to week, so it's a bit of a mystery bag.
A confirmation email came immediately detailing the order and delivery time. My order arrived at about 5pm, and was thoughtfully left at the neighbour's house, thanks to my dog getting a bit barky.
Pros: Great value - this was the second-most generous box in our experiment, and I was able to order for a next-day delivery.
Cons: The 3pm-7pm timeslot may not work if you need the box in time for dinner. We'd recommend ordering your box for the day before you need it. No customisation is available for the bundles, but you can tack on any extras you want.
What did we get: This was a real haul – 12 varieties of veg; 5 varieties of fruit.
Vegetables:
- Box of baby potatoes
- Button mushrooms
- 2 pack of bok choy
- Fancy lettuce
- Sweet stem broccoli
- 3 red onions
- 1 orange capsicum
- 3 large carrots
- Big bag brussels sprouts
- 3 large kumara
- Celery
- Punnet cherry tomatoes
Fruit:
- Sweet tango apples
- Bag mandarins
- 3 persimmons
- 4 golden kiwi
- Bunch bananas
What did we make with it? The persimmons, lettuce and celery went into a wintery salad. Celery became a gratin with breadcrumbs and cheese. The mushrooms were eaten on toast. The brussels were finely sliced, then mixed with vinaigrette and parmesan. The red onion was pickled.
The details: Paddock to Pantry is an online (and Karaka-based) speciality grocer that offers gift and veg boxes as well as a full range of grocery products. They work with small suppliers such as farmers, chocolatiers and butchers to provide high-quality local produce.
Price:
There are three boxes on offer (fruit, a veg, and fruit and veg, all for $49.50, and $15 delivery.
Delivers: Nationwide. Auckland-based orders placed by 11am get same-day delivery.
The experience: The site is great, and easy to shop, with groceries, flowers and more available. Ordering the fruit and veg box was a three-click process. Select the box, add to cart, checkout. Bosh.
I ordered at 4pm on a Wednesday, and the box was on my doorstep by 4pm the next day.
Pros: This is a fully stocked grocery store, so you can get your whole shop done at once. There was a good variety of produce in there, and that same-day Auckland delivery 7 days a week is a pretty strong pitch.
Cons: The generosity of the box was on par with a supermarket spend - but this is a boutique store, so that was to be expected. No customisations can be made, and the contents are a mystery, but you can easily add extra products to your order.
What did we get:
10 varieties of veg, 7 varieties of fruit.
Vegetables:
- 1 telegraph cucumber
- 3 carrots
- 3 beef tomatoes
- 9 new potatoes
- 1 orange capsicum
- 2 courgettes
- 1 small Cos lettuce
- 1 kumara
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 small brown onion
Fruit:
- 1 lemon
- 1 avocado
- 1 red apple
- 2 green apples
- 2 pears
- 4 mandarins
- 4 green kiwifruit
What did we make with it? With the abundance of fruit, we snacked our way through the week.
The details: Perfectly Imperfect is a non-profit that arranges the redistribution of fresh food that wasn't deemed up to scratch for the supermarkets. That means broccoli that are too small, lettuces that are too big, or apples that are weather-damaged – all perfectly good for eating, but not always pretty. Their site claims that 122,000 tonnes of food (or 45 per cent of what is grown in NZ) is wasted in this way each year, and are on a mission to save this produce.
Perfectly Imperfect runs a community shop out of Mt Roskill's Owairaka Community Hub, Weds to Friday, 2.30-5.30pm. From 4pm to 5pm on Fridays, the store operates on a 'pay what you can' basis. And home deliveries are made once a week on a Wednesday. The organisation also deliveries fresh produce for free to community projects such as Everybody Eats to feed people in need.
Price:
Three box sizes are available – small for $16, medium for $21 and large for $36. Delivery is $13.60.
Delivery: Auckland-wide. Enter your address, and then the website will generate your delivery day.
The experience: The website is pretty basic, but does the job. There are three 'mystery boxes' on offer – small, medium and large. Since the rescued produce changes week to week, no clues are given as to what is inside. Adding to the mystery, there is no information on how much produce a small, medium or large box might offer – I ordered the medium to be safe.
Pros: All of the produce that Perfectly Imperfect sells is destined for refill. The organisation saves thousands of kilograms of produce each week, so you're doing good by ordering this box. And it's cheap - even with delivery included, this was the most affordable and generous box we found.
Cons: You'll have no idea what's coming - whether you're getting fruit or veg or a baker's dozen of beef tomatoes like I got.
The site can be glitchy - a couple of times I tried to order another box, but it just wouldn't add my selection to the cart. I eventually worked out that this was because there is a compulsory field to complete about allergies. Type in 'none', and you'll be on your way.
You need to be organised because orders need to be made about a week in advance (or you can set up a regular order to receive boxes weekly or fortnightly).
What did we get: 10 varieties of veg, 2 varieties of fruit
Vegetables:
- Large cauliflower
- 1 enormous and 6 small kumara
- 1 enormous suede
- 3 small onions
- 5 small potatoes
- 5 small carrots
- 13 tomatoes, big and small
- 4 avocado
- 2 bok choy
- 1 branch of curly kale
Fruit:
- 7 golden kiwifruit
- 4 large mandarins
What did we make with it? The potato, kale, bok choy and broccoli went into a broccoli, feta and walnut soup. The tomatoes and onions became a tomato sauce and a ragu.
The details: Foodbox works with NZ suppliers to offer a whole range of groceries – from bakers, to coffee beans, to meat and dairy, and of course fresh fruit and veg.
Price: Big Bang fruit and veg box $47; delivery was $14.
Delivery: Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga and Wellington.
The experience:
Ordering is straightforward, but there were complications for this newbie. Foodbox offers 'grocery foodboxes' and 'fruit and vegetable foodboxes', but take note that both of these contain groceries. Having ordered a Big Bang fruit and veg foodbox, I was surprised to find bread, milk and eggs in my delivery and initially thought this was a mistake.
If you are after just fruit and vegetables, you'll need to manually remove the groceries from your order each week. Doing so is pretty easy – just unselect them from the customisable list of inclusions.
The site offers 8 boxes to choose from, and each is labelled with an indication as to how many people they will feed. The Big Bang box says suits 3-4 people, but I didn't find the fresh produce quantity very generous – 7 mushrooms and 2 mandarins between 3-4 people doesn't seem quite right.
Pros:
The delivery came in good time, arriving just after midday. And if, like me, you want to minimise decision-making, these boxes are designed to fill your fridge and pantry without having to think too much about what you're eating that week.
Cons: Not a very generous box, and confusing labelling led to unwanted groceries arriving.
What did we get: 8 varieties of veg (including parsley and garlic), 5 varieties of fruit.
Vegetables:
- 2 carrots
- Fancy lettuce
- Small head of broccoli
- 6 large mushrooms
- 1kg potatoes
- 4 small kumara
- Packet of parsley
- Head of garlic
Fruit:
- 4 large bananas
- 2 red apples
- 2 mandarins
- 2 golden kiwifruit
- 1 Granny Smith apple
What did we make with it?
The potatoes and kumara became oven fries with paprika mayo, the mushroom were fried up for a breakfast, the broccoli was steamed for dinner, the parsley was scattered across various meals through the week.
