Best ethical turkeys for Christmas 2024: The sustainable farms to buy the best tasting birds from
British farming, at its best, is renowned the world over – and for good reason. Farming in tune with nature means native breeds have evolved naturally to grow strong and healthy on the landscapes they are born on. This type of farming creates the healthiest, most nutritious and best tasting meat.
Sheep and cows fatten up nicely by foraging in fields, and the resulting lamb and beef taste of the terroir when they are allowed to do so. Truly free-range and organic chickens are meatier because they have developed good muscles. Similarly, the firmness of texture and depth of flavour is unparalleled in pork from pigs that have been free to roam and fed a healthy diet.
Buying direct from the farms is the best way to achieve this quality in taste and nutrition. Of course, not all of us are lucky enough to live near farms or have easy access to good butchers or farmers’ markets.
Fortunately, these farms are now being brought directly to our doors as meat boxes become ever more popular.
Here, we recommend some of our favourite organic, free-range and Pasture for Life meat delivery companies in no particular order, it just depends on what you’re looking for. All are brilliant in their unique ways!
The Live Frankly seal of approval:
These are really good food companies, doing good things. To be included in this list, each organic meat delivery company and free-range meat delivery company has been given the Live Frankly seal of approval. We are not a certification, but we talk with every brand and ask them to complete a comprehensive questionnaire about their ethical standards before we feature them. No brand is perfect – we’re all operating in an imperfect world – but only purpose-driven brands that are working to change things for the better are allowed on Live Frankly.
We ask that animal welfare and workers’ rights and pay are ensured across the supply chain, and want to know about their governance structures. This means you can be confident these brands are some of the most ethical and sustainable around. If you have any questions, please get in touch.
8 Organic meat delivery services – and the best regenerative and free-range options
Wylde Market
Why we love Wylde Market:
Wylde is an online farmers’ market where you can shop directly from producers without having to get out of bed!
Each week, fishermen, farmers, hunters, foragers, and artisans upload what they’ve caught, grown and made. Crucially, they set the prices of the products they sell on Wylde.
Wylde won’t always have everything you intended to order. They proudly stand by this and say: “We’re not a supermarket. That’s because what our producers bring to the market is by definition highly seasonal and weather dependent.”
However many producers you order from, all produce is packaged into one convenient box and sent directly to you – in recyclable packaging, naturally.
Where delivers: Nationwide, not yet to Northern Ireland.
When delivers: Every Friday
Market opening and closing hours: Opens every weekend and closes at 2pm GMT on Wednesdays
Delivery cost: Flat fee of ÂŁ10
Minimum order amount: No minimum order
Meat arrives: Fresh meat and fish comes vacuum packed, ready to go straight in your fridge or freezer.
SHOP NOW: wyldemarket.com
eatTelfit
Why we love eatTelfit:
eatTelfit is an online farm shop and artisan butchery that partners with a number of small mixed farms practising regenerative farming in and around Yorkshire.
Their meats are prepared nose-to-tail by their artisan butchers and delivered to your door.
eatTelfit believe nature-friendly farming is key to landscape recovery across the country by minimising pesticide and synthetic fertiliser use, improving soil health, renewing woodlands, and utilising biodiversity to kick-start natural systems. The producers they work with all directly utilise this ancient method of farming and implement its techniques.
Where delivers: Most of the UK mainland
When delivers: Tuesday – Friday
Delivery cost: ÂŁ5.95 or free for orders over ÂŁ60.
Minimum order amount: ÂŁ30
Meat arrives: Frozen
SHOP NOW: eattelfit.com
Helen Browning’s Organic
Why we love Helen Browning’s Organic
This pioneering farm is named after farmer Helen Browning, who switched to farming organically at the family-run Eastbrook Farm in Wiltshire in 1986 – way before organic farming was trendy.
Their organic meat delivery offering includes a range of meat bundles featuring premium organic beef and pork products, perfect for a BBQ, from their free-ranging, dairy-bred, grass-fed animals.
The farm and the meat produced are 100% Soil Association organic certified and Helen says:
“I see first-hand the difference farming my land organically makes – from more bees and hedgerows, to contented, healthy animals, to lots of people gainfully working here and enthusiastic customers.”
Where delivers: Nationwide – but double check details if you live on the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scilly Isles, some remote areas of Scotland, and the Scottish islands
When delivers: Three days a week
Delivery cost: ÂŁ4.95 for mainland UK addresses
Minimum order amount: ÂŁ20
Meat arrives: Fresh
SHOP NOW: helenbrowningsorganic.co.uk
Pipers Farm
Why we love Pipers Farm:
Devon-based Pipers Farm is a 50-acre family farm working in tune with nature. They have a network of 50 small-scale, family farms who are aligned in their mission of farming regeneratively. Pipers Farm also have their own on-site team of artisan butchers, to ensure everything is prepared to their exacting standards.
Tasty is the key word here. Genuinely free-ranging chickens have a depth of flavour you will have forgotten chicken could have. And the same can be said for the other meat. Pipers Farm is widely recognised for its succulent meats and creative cuts, and has won a whole host of accolades to prove it.
Where delivers: Mainland UK, the Channel Islands, and parts of the Scottish Highlands.
When delivers: Order by 1pm for next day delivery
Delivery cost: from ÂŁ3.95
Minimum order amount: ÂŁ30
Meat arrives: Frozen
SHOP NOW: pipersfarm.com
field&flower
Why we love field&flower
Looking for free-range and/or grass-fed British meat and locally caught fish delivered straight to your door?
field&flower was co-founded by fifth-generation farmer, James Field, and food-lover, James Flower (field&flower, geddit?). While Field assists in the farming of their produce, Flower helps source and approve all other suppliers. field&flower partner with some of the best independent West Country farmers and fishermen who share their value of high animal welfare and sustainability.
Operating as a subscription service means Field & Flower are able to source to order. To minimise waste they ask their customers to confirm their order four days before delivery. The day before delivery a butcher trims each cut to order and the kitchen teams press the burgers by hand and hand-tie the sausages, which is a nice touch. If there is excess, they send it to FareShare South West to provide meals for vulnerable people.
Where delivers: 99% of the UK
When delivers: Every day, Monday – Sunday
Delivery cost: Weekday deliveries are ÂŁ4.95. Weekend delivery is ÂŁ5.95.
Minimum order amount: ÂŁ39.50
Meat arrives: Fresh
SHOP NOW: fieldandflower.co.uk
Abel & Cole
Abel & Cole
One of the pioneering food box schemes, Abel & Cole started with organic vegetables more than 30 years ago. They now also sell non-organic products, and most match its sustainable, local and seasonal ethos.
If your aim is to eat less meat and better quality, the organic options are a no-brainer. And the fish is a good way to change things up even more.
Delivery is weekly, and your box gets dropped off by one of the brand’s signature vans.
As for the box, the company offers a recycling service with its subscription, which includes plastics, so the packing your food comes is guaranteed to be recycled properly.
Where delivers: Enter your postcode on this page to check if (and when) Abel & Cole deliver to you
When delivers: Once a week, delivery day and time depends on where you live.
Delivery cost: ÂŁ3.50
Minimum order amount: ÂŁ12
Meat arrives: Fresh and frozen
SHOP NOW: abelandcole.co.uk
Fosse Meadows
Why we love Fosse Meadows:
The USP of Fosse Meadows chicken is that they are grown to 81 days. Why is this significant? Well, an average supermarket chicken is grown to around 35 days, so a Fosse chicken lives more than twice as long.
This allows them to grow at a natural rate, antibiotic-free. They are also free-ranging and foraging in meadows that aren’t sprayed with fertilisers or pesticides.
When it comes to taste this means the chicken has a deeper flavour and firmer texture, which makes for a satisfying and nutritious eat.
Where delivers: Mainland UK. Currently postcodes they can’t deliver to: KW15-KW17, HS, ZE, JE, GY, BT, IM
When delivers: Order by 9am Wednesday for a Friday delivery
Delivery cost: From ÂŁ5.95
Minimum order amount: No minimum
Meat arrives: Fresh
SHOP NOW: fossemeadows.com
Riverford Organic
Why we love Riverford organic
When it comes to organic meat box delivery, Riverford offers some of the highest ethics on the market – it’s organic, British and 100% grass-fed. Riverford are arable farmers so they work with a small group of West Country farmers to source their organic meat, and prepare it at their butchery. It operates with very little food waste and puts animal welfare at the forefront of everything it does.
Where delivers: Enter your postcode on this page to check if (and when) Riverford deliver to you
When delivers: Once a week, delivery day and time depends on where you live.
Delivery cost: No delivery cost
Minimum order amount: ÂŁ15
Meat arrives: Fresh and frozen
SHOP NOW: riverford.co.uk
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