Good Natured Salads review

Well, the weather may not have been all that great this summer but here at The Madhouse, we still enjoyed many a salad for lunch, so when we were asked if we'd like to try out Good Natured Salad Vegetables, we were really keen. I'd never heard of the brand so I set off to do some research as I awaited my £5 Asda voucher.

Good Natured offers a range of Salad Vegetables, including the brilliantly-named (because they appeal to the kids who then actually get excited about eating their 5-a-day) Tantalising Tomatoes, Cool Cucumbers and Perfect Peppers. This range of pesticide residue-free vegetables are grown just as Mother Nature intended using an environmentally friendly production system to keep the produce healthy. The wording did make me wonder if pesticide residue-free is actually the same as pesticide-free. They are sold in Asda stores nationwide.

Good Natured explain that they use only natural predators (good bugs) to control pests (bad bugs) and disease, so you can be assured that the range is grown in tune with mother nature. The produce is both good natured by name, and good natured by nature as the packaging is both biodegradeable and recyclable.

When I popped to the supermarket to investigate, I was surprised by the wide range of options available. Good Natured Tantalising Tomatoes come as Baby Plum Tomatoes, Loose Tomatoes (with 5-6 fruits per pack) and Vine Tomatoes (with 4 fruits per pack). Cool Cucumbers can be bought as whole cucumbers and mini cucumbers and Perfect Peppers come in twin packs. I also spotted Good Natured potatoes and carrots in the fresh produce aisle.

As this is all organic, I was actually expecting some pretty manky looking vegetables but I was surprised to see that they looked just as visually appealing as those farmed using chemicals ! Tastewise, they are just as good too, with lovely crispy, juicy cucumber and pepper and succulent, sweet tomatoes (we tried the baby plum tomatoes).

Good Natured is a sub brand of Angus Soft Fruits based in Angus, Scotland – a family-run business established in 1994 by growers Lochy Porter, his father Willie and cousin James Gray. To reflect the ‘good natured’ brand philosophy the Fruit and Salads are sold in the UK’s first fully compostable punnets - herbs are sold in fully biodegradable pots and sleeves, potatoes are sold in biodegradable and recyclable 1.5kg paper bags with cotton string handles, all from fully sustainable sources.

The produce is a bit more expensive that I usually pay but not prohibitively so and I would expect to pay more for organic anyway. I'll definitely pop some into my trolley when we go to Asda, as well as look as the other products in the range, but I would like to see them stocked in other supermarkets, especially Sainsbury's and Tesco, that we use more often, too.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : baby plum tomatoes £1.17 for 200g, cucumber £1

for more information : http://www.goodnaturedfruit.co.uk/salads

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