food coops anyone?

[bpgreen]

A neighbor told me about this food coop ( Bountiful Baskets)) awhile back and I signed up. I'm not advertising this or anything and it's not available in all states. I'm just using it as an example.

I belonged to a similar group in Illinois (I forget the name). That one had a wide variety of food and often had meat. This one is only fresh produce.

The way it works is I pay $15 plus a $2.50 handling fee (so $17.50 total) on Monday. I then get two round laundry baskets pretty full of a variety of fruits and vegetables on Thursday. I have no idea what I'll be getting when I sign up. I may get stuff I've never seen or stuff I don't like. If I get stuff I don't like, I sometimes try to mix it with other things, but I'll also sometimes just give it to the neighbor who told me about it. Out of curiosity, I once tallied up how much it would have cost to buy everything in the basket and it was around $60.

I've found it to be good for a variety of reasons. I've gotten a lot of things I wouldn't otherwise buy. I've also been trying to eat a more healthy diet and this almost forces that since I have to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables just to go through them all before they go bad. Since there's a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, I end up getting a better mix than I would if I just bought from the store since I tend to get a lot of the same things when left to my own devices.

I picked up my basket earlier this evening and this one had the following:
5 ears corn on the cob
1 bell pepper
7 banana peppers
5 red onions
2 large cucumbers
1 romaine? lettuce
1 pint cherry tomatoes
>2.5 lbs seedless grapes
6 limes
6 peaches
7 prickly pears
6 apple pears

I've also gotten things like figs, papayas, summer squash, zucchini (and not the huge over ripe ones that give them a bad name), melons, avocados, potatoes, pluots, kale, and other things I'm forgetting.

I've had to google some of these things to find out how to use them (or, in the case of the pluots and "apple pears", to find out what they were).

If you've got access to something like this, I'd encourage you to take advantage of it. You can save money (even when you get stuff you don't like/can't use) and can also expand your horizons in terms of food that you can use. It's also a quick way to force yourself to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet.

[bepier]

We joined a CSA this year at Cane Creek Farm in our area. http://canecreekfarm.net/

I'm not sure we'll actually save money but it sounded like fun way to incorporate some local produce. The farmer also teaches sustainable farming/gardening techniques to others - I'm hoping my wife or I will pick something up along the way.

[Itscold]

We have a csa share at Walnut family farm. We only do the meat share. We are lucky to have a huge garden so veggies aren't something we need to buy. We get 20# of assorted meat(pork, beef, chicken) a month. Also two dozen eggs. If we are smart about what we cook we don't need to buy any other meat. They make larger shares but for three of us this is perfect. The meat is excellent and pastured raised with no junk fed to it. It isn't the cheapest thing but averages about 5 dollars a pound. I'm good paying that because I know where my food is coming from.