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Bright-eyed, fresh-faced and enormously energetic, Ella Heeks is the perfect poster girl for the benefits of good food. Just as well, as Heeks is the 29-year-old director of Abel & Cole, the original vegetable-box delivery company. Back in the late 1980s, when Abel & Cole first launched, organic delivery-box schemes were the preserve of radical hippies and “north London” types. Oh, how things have changed. Nowadays, the company’s founder, Keith Abel, who started out selling spuds door-to-door, is happy to take a back-room role, and has allowed Heeks to become the face of what is now one of Britain’s best-known organic brands.

And it has paid off. When Heeks joined the company in 2000, fresh from university, it has a modest turnover of £500,000 per year. Its annual sales now stand at £28m and have been given a boost by the announcement that a private-equity firm is to “share our risk, support us and make sure we can fulfil our potential – it is a natural evolution”, says Heeks. “We’ve proved that there is a better way to sell food, but we are still very small compared with, say, Tesco.”

Still Abel & Cole is now a household name, and buying veg that is organic, seasonal, boutique, impeccably sourced and delivered direct to your door (along with some quite delicious recipe suggestions) seems nothing less than normal.

And last month’s findings, from a Newcastle University research project, that organic fruit and veg really do contain more health-enhancing antioxidants, vitamins and minerals than those produced by regular farming methods is just the good news companies such as Abel & Cole have been looking for. It could make for a seismic shift in the shopping habits of the nation.

Passionate without being preachy, Heeks knows her stuff. Always a campaigner for environmental issues – she protested against the motorway development at Twyford Down while still at school – she decided in her final year at New College, Oxford, that she was going to set up her own ethical food business. But she never got there. In the course of researching her start-up, she came across Abel. At that time, his company was small and struggling, but Heeks loved it. “I thought Keith was great. I thought, if I was going to create a business, this is exactly what I would want – great product; wonderful people”.

Abel and Heeks instantly clicked, and he invited her to join. “I couldn’t have gone to work with them if I hadn’t believed in what they were doing. It’s a simple idea – food you can feel good about on all levels. People are thinking more about food than they did 10 years ago. They’re also becoming aware of the complexity of it all. We answer their questions about how to reconcile organic with fair trade, or buying locally with food miles. We treat our suppliers decently, as we would want to be treated. I’ve always wanted to run a business as myself, not adopt a crazy iron-lady persona – it’s not who I am.”

Being immersed in food all day – talking to farmers, developing Abel & Cole’s own-brand grocery range, trying out the recipe suggestions that are sent out with the boxes, discussing the ever-changing ethics of food production – Heeks sensibly gets her boyfriend, Tom, to cook during the week. The weekend is when she claims the kitchen to rustle up the type of recipes shared here. “I love food, I love cooking and it gives me enormous pleasure,” she says. “I’m a glugs-and-dollops person, and I find that the more simply you cook something, the more fun it is, because you can enjoy it without martyring yourself in the kitchen. It’s about using good ingredients that speak for themselves.”

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

“Autumn is not a time for weird and wonderful things. It’s much more about great British staples,” says Heeks. In Abel & Cole boxes this month, you will find:

Apples and pears

Lots of different varieties will be coming in over the next few weeks: apples include bramleys for cooking and falstaff for eating. “Both apples and pearstaste wonderful thinly sliced and served with a good cheese and some oatcakes for an instant snack,” says Heeks. “Otherwise, try them in simple puddings, such as an apple-and-pear compote served with yoghurt and biscotti, pecan-stuffed apples with crème fraîche, or pears stuffed with goat’s cheese.”

Root vegetables

English carrots, parsnips, swedes and beetroots are all in full flow right now. “They all taste great when roasted, as it brings out their innate sweetness,” says Heeks. “Sliced and roasted swede can also beserved as healthy ‘chips’ for children.”

Leafy vegetables

It’s all about dark green leaves. Spinach is good in November;kale is also around and colourful january king cabbages will make their appearance. Heeks’s cooking tips? “The cabbage tastes delicious mixed into mashed potatoes, as the crunchiness nicely offsets the texture of the potato. Kale also tastes good with mash, and if you get some kale with small, tender leaves, stir-fry it, then add a dash of Tamari [a type of soy sauce] at the end. Spinach mixed with ricotta and stirred into pasta is a really easy and delicious midweek supper.”

www.abel-cole.co.uk

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