Just before Christmas I joined a local food co-op. I know, you're thinking that with fees, minimum requirements, and massive amounts of food that co-ops are not a great investment.....especially for a household with only two people! Due to the holidays and a few other things (like my forgetting to order before the deadline) we hadn't actually ordered anything.
Some of the reasons I decided to sign up are that for this particular co-op
- there are no buying requirements. If you decide you never want to buy anything, you don't have to.
- orders are done by the "basket", so you can purchase one basket or multiple baskets depending on how much produce you want.
- they offer extras that can be purchased for an additional fee, but you are asked to inspect those, and if you don't want them you don't have to take it and your money will be credited back to you.
- you have the option to purchase organic produce if that is your preference.
- they cross their fingers that participators will volunteer now and then, but it's not mandatory.
What can be better than that! The only hiccup is that you don't get to actually "shop" for what you put in your basket. They do that for you. That means that you get what they can get that week and then divide it up among the people who have preordered and prepaid for a basket. I have to admit I find that kind of exciting. It's like a treasure hunt, and it forces you (ie: me) to try new things and learn new ways to prepare food so it doesn't get thrown into the garbage can. For instance, I learned this morning that you can freeze bananas! I doubt that I'll ever do that, but who knew?? (If you decide to try it, peel them first. There is your helpful hint.)
Okay...so today we picked up our "Newby" basket. For $15.00 ( the price of one basket) we got: a mini watermelon, a pineapple, 5 lbs of potatoes, 5 onions, 2 green peppers, 8 pears, 5 bananas, 4 lemons, 7 tomatoes, celery, and 1 lb strawberries. (We also got 8 more pounds of strawberries for an additional ten bucks.) Not too bad I'd say....and we picked them up in our own little town!
We haven't tried everything, obviously, but what we have sampled, has been really good. I'm so excited!
-Gratitude for:
- Friends who share great ideas!
- A new food saver vacuum sealer, and a freezer.
- Good produce in the middle of winter.
- A newly painted kitchen ceiling with no view into the attic.....Oh Yeah, life is good!
- Posted using BlogPress
No comments:
Post a Comment