Bountiful Basket from Today

A few months ago, my mom invited me to participate in Bountiful Basket's cooperative effort to bring affordable fruits and vegetables to our area.  I didn't.  I was invited again by a friend, than again by a different friend.  With a huge sigh, I participated.  I was expecting to have to sign up for a repeat order (now I wish they had one so I didn't have to go in and order every week), I was expecting it to be a huge chunk of my time every week, and I was expecting to spend more than I wanted to.  I was so wrong!  I've been participating every week for a couple of months now and I LOVE it!

The variety is amazing, the quantity is great, the quality has been better than I expected, and even though I spend more on produce than I did before, I spend less on other stuff.  The variety gets me out of my comfort zone, makes me try new things, and keeps me from getting bored.  The quantity keeps me having to USE it at every meal, so we are eating so much healthier.  And the quality has surprised me!  I'm not saying that I don't have some waste, because I do.  I've had a bad batch of bananas that never did ripen.  I've had spinach that wilted too quickly and became chicken food.  However, with as much as bring in, I've been surprised at how little is thrown out.  Because I have to use it up so quickly, my meals are often made around the veggies so I don't have the opportunity to forget them, and I have less waste that way. 

I think my favorite part of participating is looking in my healthy fridge! 
My second favorite part is the volunteering.  I participate every week and try to volunteer every other week.  So far it's worked out great.  I love that we get to choose an extra piece of produce and I love talking to the other volunteers.

Here's how to participate:
Go to their website www.bountifulbaskets.org.  Register.  Pay a $3.00 basket fee for your first participation, then only $15.00/ basket for participating, plus $1.50 handling fee.  There is only a small window to state your participation and only a limited number of baskets for each site.  Bountiful Baskets has sites in several states and several sites in each state.  You can also check into opening your own site on their website.  Everyone is a volunteer, from the ladies that run the website to those that order the fruit, and from the truck driver that delivers the produce, to the person running the pick up site.

In this weeks basket we received one bunch green leaf lettuce, nectarines, strawberries, a pineapple, garlic, avocadoes, grape tomatoes, oranges, bananas, melon, and broccoli.  And this was one of the smaller baskets that I've received.  My basket was still more full of fruit and vegetables than I would have normally bought prior to participating, and costs less than I would have paid full retail for at the grocery store.  Did I mention that I LOVE it?