Bountiful Baskets

Last week, my friend was telling me about a food co-op her dental hygienist told her about. She said you simply sign up at the beginning of the week, pay $15, and then on Saturday morning you go pick up a basket of fruits and veggies. There are lots of different pick up spots around town from which to choose, which meant you wouldn't have to go very far to find one. She said she was going to try it.

I had heard of these co-ops before online, from reading other people's blogs, but I never realized we had anything like that here. I decided to wait and let her get a basket to see how it worked out. Turns out, it was AWESOME! Not only did she get a great haul of stuff, they have add ons like specialty veggie packs, bread, and cases of produce that you can add on. Those change from week to week. For instance, last week she got 48 ears of corn for $10. This week the add on was pears.

My husband and I talked about it and decided that we would go for it this week. If anything, it would force us to eat more fruits and veggies. I also would be challenged to cook different things and also to try new things based on what was in the baskets. One of the add ons this week was an Asian vegetable pack, so we went ahead and got that as well. We signed up, selected our location for pickup, and then this morning, hauled our butts out of bed early to pick up our loot.

They were set up in a park. You had to check in and sign off that you were picking up your stuff. They had one small laundry basket full of fruits and one full of veggies for each person. Most people brought their own laundry basket in which to transfer their stuff to take home. Some brought boxes. We just used our own reusable grocery bags. The thought of having food where dirty underwear had been kinda grosses me out, you know? By reusing the baskets each week, the co-op is able to keep costs down!

Here are our baskets, ready for us to claim.

When we got home I weighed all of our stuff. After taxes and the $3 fee for first timers, we ended up with 39 lbs of produce for only $27!!! That's about 69 cents a pound, which is pretty damn incredible. Sure, some of this stuff will be a challenge to incorporate into our diets (hello Napa Cabbage), some I just don't eat but other members of my household will (pears and raspberries, ew), and some I can hopefully pawn off on the baby (cantaloupe!). Overall though, I think it's manageable.

I see some apple bread in my future, that's for sure. I just need to decide who will get the second loaf!

Now... to just figure out what to do with these dang things!!!