About Us

The faces behind the food

Grow Wild was established in 1998 and has grown from a very small operation (run from a spare room in an Edinburgh flat), to a company with a great bunch of employees, and delivering to customers throughout central Scotland, and now growing their own produce and making our their own preserves. Grow Wild is owned by Lindsay Girvan who was brought up on fantastic home-cooked real food and healthy whole foods.  Good natural food, a love of great tasting ingredients, a concern for environmental issues, and a desire to offer a service that she herself would want to use led to the establishment of Grow Wild.

In 1998, Lindsay was working at The University of Edinburgh, and thought that distributing organic food locally would be a part-time enterprise, but the business took off, and following the arrival of her son Ethan in 1999, and already juggling one thing too many, the decision was made to give up the day job and work solely in developing Grow Wild. As the business developed, bigger premises were needed, and after a couple of expansion moves, Grow Wild moved out to Bathgate more than 12 years ago bringing its longstanding drivers with it.  Since then, we’ve added some great people to the team, have lost a couple of lovely drivers to retirement, and now have a happy bunch of organic people getting great tasting food out to Central Scotland. The move to Bonnytoun Farm, home to Lindsay, Ben and the kids, happened in 2016 after Ben completed the new Grow Wild building which now hosts the packing area, loading bay, cold store and office. It's a fantastic wee building and we are loving being there. If Linda and Davey run short of bits and pieces whilst packing, they just take a walk over to the organic field and help themselves!

Particularly over the last 20 years, awareness of organic principles, and the underlying philosophy of producing natural food without harming the planet has blossomed and become much more mainstream. It has been very satisfying to have been part of the movement- Lindsay is delighted that she no longer gets asked ‘What is organic and can you send me a fact sheet?’, but rather ‘which organic certification body are you licensed by?’ which shows how things have moved on.

The Grow Wild team has worked strongly with local organic growers and suppliers to enable us to offer a fantastic range of produce to our customers. We bring in fresh organic produce several times a week from our own farm, local farms, and from further afield, and our warehouse packing staff quality control, pack, and organise customer orders. With the ever increasing range of general groceries, fresh local dairy, Scottish meat and poultry products, getting all things organic delivered to your door has never been easier. These are distributed by our delivery drivers Iain, Davey, Stuart and Rossano direct to our customers in Edinburgh, Glasgow, West Lothian and Central Scotland.

Our core product for home delivery is an assorted and seasonal box of fruit and veg (various sizes and types to suit every household, potatoes not included). We believe strongly in minimal packaging and recycling. Deliveries to our customers comprises organic fruit and veg packed in re-usable boxes made from 100% recycled material, packaging within the boxes of assorted fruit and vegetables is kept to a minimum, and we ask our customers to return boxes and egg cartons for re-use. We also re-use original wooden crates in which produce arrives to us. We have a strong environmental policy which we revisit regularly. Since we broadened our range to include meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products, we have adhered to a strict animal welfare policy in relation to sourcing.

Our drivers uplift used crates and boxes from our customers each time they make a delivery. Fresh waste is minimal, but what is generated, is picked up by a local organic grower and used for pig feed and compost.

Grow Wild was listed in The Sunday's Telegraph "Stella" supplement (8 June 2008) as one of "The Very Best Vegetable Box Schemes" in the UK (the only listed in Scotland), listed in 'countrylife.co.uk' as one of the best box schemes in the region. We are also listed by The Times online as one of the top 35 in the UK (of which there are more than 500!), and in the Guardian Good Food Guide.

We believe strongly in providing a good service and have a customer-focused approach with a personal touch. We like to get constructive feedback and act upon it. Please feel free to contact us with any comments - we would very much appreciate this, so that we can evaluate and modify the service you are receiving.

The Grow Wild Team is:

• Lindsay Cadell Girvan, Director, and founder of Grow Wild in 1998. Enjoys all things organic and business. Loves working in Grow Wild, enjoys people enormously, loves food & cooking (the recipes are usually Lindsay's), loves the farm, loves a project, has real admiration for the ethics and positivity of the Grow Wild team.
• Linda Swan, Warehouse Manager and right hand woman! Joined Grow Wild in 2004 - an invaluable member of the team - heavily depended upon all round, organising contents of boxes etc. Linda and Lindsay have worked together since they were in their 30s. Now in their 50s, they are wondering what their 70s might bring! A rest perhaps?
• Karen Robertson, Customer Services Administrator Extraordinaire who you are most likely to speak to if you call the office in the late morning, early afternoon. Karen's customer service skills are her super power. Karen has been with us since 2010...if you need anything organised, this is your woman!
• David Rowland, Warehouse veg packer and driver. A friendly face we have been delighted to welcome as part of our Grow Wild team since 2011 who also delivers boxes in Edinburgh and West Lothian. Naughty sense of humour. Always keeps Lindsay on her toes.
• Stuart Murphy, driver for deliveries to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and our wholesale customers. Stu has been with us since 2006, is a wonderfully helpful and kind chap with a big smile. Since helping with the new Grow Wild premises too, he really is in with the bricks of the business! One of the family. Our customers feel that too. Stu really cares about the business and his customers. 
• Rossano Panetta has just joined the team in 2016 - we are so pleased to have him. You will meet him whilst delivering in the Central region.
• Ben Cadell is our resident farmer at Bonnytoun doing a fabulous job of the organic growing in both field, undercover, and in the orchard. You might also get him on the end of a phone in the office, or delivering your veg. Underneath those dungarees, we know he has his superman outfit on. Ben built the new Grow Wild premises in a few months. Aren't we lucky? Ben always has a mountain of projects on, so a multi-tasker.
• Stacey McNab can be seen on a tractor most of the time around the farm, getting the soil prepared for the organic veg growing, rotivating, sowing, and seeing the whole process through to the end - sometimes packing customer orders. At all times, Stacey is smiling! Stacey is very much an integral part of our team.
• Ben has a variety of great help on the farm who all enable the veg to get from the soil to your plate! Keith in particular, and all the other helpers are truly appreciated.

All round a fabulous team