Our Story
A family directory built from personal experience, rooted in North Yorkshire and driven by a simple belief — that what we eat matters more than most of us are told.
The Organic is a directory of organic and sustainable food producers, retailers and suppliers across the UK. Every recommendation on this site has been researched independently.
Born and raised in North Yorkshire, our site finally went live in 2025. The story behind The Organic started much earlier, when in 2022, my lovely mum was diagnosed with incurable ovarian cancer. A known control freak, I found myself researching everything I could about nutrition, organic food and what we put into our bodies at the hardest moment of our lives, in order to retain my mum's quality of life and keep her spirits high.
North Yorkshire shaped how we thought about food long before my mum's diagnosis. We grew up surrounded by some of the most beautiful farmland in England, the Dales, the Moors and the coast. As a child my diet felt somewhat restricted, as an adult, I realised my mum prioritised the best quality meat and treats were associated with fulfilling days out in some of our favourite places. We made trips to Whitby for fresh fish and chips at Trenchers and visiting the Wensleydale Creamery for copious free samples was a must in school holidays.
This site exists to make sourcing organic food easier for people who share the same interest and love for it that I do. It is a directory, a guide and an honest attempt to cut through the noise around organic food, what it means, what it costs, where to find it and why it is worth seeking out.
Since adulthood I became interested in good quality cotton clothing, sustainable fabrics and adopted my mum's love of wholefoods, I sought the kind of longevity my grandparents and their parents managed with little medical intervention. Growing up in North Yorkshire with access to good producers and soul quenching scenery gave me a foundation that I did not fully appreciate until later.
When I started researching seriously in 2022, I realised two things. First, that the evidence for organic food, not as a cure for anything, but as a meaningful reduction in chemical exposure and a genuine improvement in the conditions animals and plants are raised in — was stronger than I had understood. Second, that there was nowhere to go to find all of this in one place. No directory. No honest guide. Nothing that brought together the producers worth trusting and that subsequently explained why they were worth trusting.
That gap is why this site exists.
What we learned
when it mattered most
My mum was not someone whose diagnosis made obvious sense, alike so many others. She was disciplined about food and exercise, she did not drink or smoke and was conventionally healthy in a way that most people are not. She walked miles each day, she ate well, she cared about what she put into her body and she enjoyed the small things in life. She was one of a kind, brave, beautiful, funny and deeply rooted in North Yorkshire. Cancer did not fit her, and like so many other desperate family members I wanted to know the why. Unfortunately, my mum had a genetic predisposition to her disease that only private testing years into her journey had highlighted.
When the diagnosis came in 2022 I threw myself into research. Not because I believed food could cure cancer, I never believed that and I want to be clear about it now, but because I needed something to do with the fear, and because it quickly became clear that what she ate during treatment mattered enormously. Her diet and nutritional needs were changing constantly as her treatment evolved. Chemotherapy can be brutal and sudden bowel blockages, even more so.
My mum endured a procedure known as debulking, one of the most significant operations that exists and it was extraordinary in its scale. She came through it with the same quiet determination she brought to everything. Working alongside impressive doctors and a carefully considered supplement programme, we treated food as part of her treatment. Not instead of medicine. Alongside it. Always!
What we found was that food made a measurable difference. Food influenced her energy, her mood and gave her resilience and strenght when needed, helping to retain her prior quality of life during the hardest periods of treatment. The research I was doing was no longer abstract. It was personal and urgent and it worked in ways that surprised even the people treating her.
In the ten days before she died, through diet alone, we managed to increase her haemoglobin by eleven points. Eleven points in ten days, when she was that ill. That is the detail that stays with me most. It was a testament to what food can do, not as medicine in a clinical sense, but as something that the body responds to in ways that are real and measurable even at the very end.
My mum died in September 2024 from a blood clot, whilst awaiting a targeted clinical trial that would almost certainly have given her more time. She had faced everything with more grace and discipline than I could have managed. She loved North Yorkshire with a completeness that I understand better now she is gone, coastal walks with her friends were some of her most cherished days. She would have found this site useful and I hope it does her justice.
I want to be a mum, I want to pass on the ethos she lived by the discipline, the care, the belief that how you live and what you eat is worth taking seriously. I want my children to grow up knowing where their food comes from, why it matters and how to make good choices without it feeling like a burden. This site is part of that. It is also, honestly, something to get my teeth into when the grief needed somewhere to go.
The values behind
every recommendation
These are not marketing claims. They are the principles that guide every decision we make about what goes on this site and what does not.
Everything we have built
is here for you to use
The Organic is a free directory. It always will be. We do not charge producers to list and we do not charge visitors to use it. The only thing we ask is that if you find something here that is useful, you tell someone else about it.
We cover organic meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, fruit, vegetables and wine. We cover certifications and what they mean. We cover the producers and retailers we trust and why we trust them. We are adding new content regularly as we research more categories and more producers.
If you are a producer or supplier who would like to be considered for the directory, you can get in touch. We will research you the same way we research everything else — independently and without payment changing hands.
My mum would have used a site like this. She was exactly the kind of person who wanted to know where her food came from, who produced it and whether they were doing it properly. She would have had opinions about every producer on here and she would not have been shy about sharing them.
This is for her. It is also for everyone who cares about this stuff and has found it harder than it should be to act on that care. We hope it makes things a little easier.
With love from North Yorkshire.