Wyndsong Writes

A couple of weeks ago, a friend & fellow homeschooler, mentioned that she was just getting home from her Co-op with a ton of fruits and veggies for a GREAT price.  Of course I asked her where she got them and how much, and if there was any link she could send me.  She sent me the link to Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op.

This is the way it works.  It’s totally free to register, but to order the food, you have to purchase the “baskets” during a specific window of time.  My slot is Tuesday’s @ 9am thru Wednesday’s @ 10pm.  You can purchase as many baskets as you want, and they also have extras to purchase as well.  Then the following Saturday morning (I had to get up at 6am on a Saturday ya’ll… and I actually did it!), you go to your designated pick up site to pick up your produce.

This is my haul!  I purchased one basket for us, one basket for my Mom & Sister, a case of blueberries, 5 loaves of 9 grain bread and 3 desserts.  The baskets came with the following items:

• 1 Pineapple
• 1 Watermelon
• 6 Corn on the cobs
• 3 plums
• 3 peaches
• 1 bag of grapes (about 1 lb)
• 1 box of blueberries
• 1 romaine lettuce
• 1 bag of russet potatoes (5 lb bag)
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 large cucumbers
• 1 bunch of bananas
• 1 stalk of cauliflower

We split the fruits and veggies up mostly evenly.  I did take more corn and instead of leaving the pineapple & cauliflower with my mom & sis, they gave it to me.  The baskets came with each of the listed items!  And they are all pretty fresh and great.  The cauliflower and bananas aren’t quite ripe, but they will get there soon enough.  All of this cost only $15!!  Can you believe it!?!

The case of blueberries was 12 containers of 12oz each of blueberries.  On top of the container that came in the basket, I left my mom & sis 3 other containers.  We are freezing all of them except for 2 containers, so that we can use them later in recipes.  Steve & I will be using them in our protein shakes.  They are filled with wonderful anti-oxidants and are very healthy!  The case of blueberries cost $21 for the entire thing!

This is a picture of the 9 Grain breads we bought.  For $10 we received 5 loaves.  I gave 2 loaves to my mom & sister and the other three we kept.  I haven’t eaten those yet, because we had some bread still from the store.  So we froze the loaves that I brought home.  They look very yummy though, and I can’t wait to try them.

This isn’t a great picture of the desserts I bought for $12, but it’ll have to do, cuz they are mostly eaten now.   For $12 we received 3 different desserts.  1 pan of chocolate brownies, 1 pan of chocolate chip pan cookies, and 1 crumb coffee cake.  They are all three very delicious!

I have to say that I am very pleased with what I was able to get through this co-op.  There was a little hiccup in the picking up of the produce.  The truck that brings the food to the park where I pick it up was late.  Evidently this has been happening the last month.  However, I was told by one of the volunteers at my site, that they were changing drivers and this wouldn’t happen again.  So hopefully that was fixed.

The park where I go to pick up the produce is less than 4 miles from my house, and it’s in between my place & my moms.  So when I get our stuff, I can pick up theirs as well and drop it off on the way home.  The only problem is that I have to get up at 6am so that I can be at the park by 7am.  They only give you a 20 minute window to pick up your produce or they donate it to a local fire department.  So you can NOT be late!  LOL!  At least it’s on a Saturday when I can for sure get there without a problem.

So far the produce has been great!  Very fresh, sweet, clean, and better than what we get at the local super markets.  I’m definitely going to be using this co-op often.  Probably not every week, because they do give you quite a lot of food for your money!  But we’ll see how long all this actually lasts!

Right now they are in 7 different states.  Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Texas, Arizona, Nevada & Washington.  They don’t have a lot of different sites to pick up the produce yet in each state, but they want to get them up and running in every state!  It’s a totally all volunteer organization, so if you want to start your own site for this co-op, they give you instructions on how to do it.  And if you’re really crazy brave, you can get up before the sun and help to sort out all the produce into everyone’s baskets.  But you have to be there at 5:30am, so you know I”m probably not going to do that.  Getting up at 6 am is too early as it is on a Saturday!  LOL!  Anyway, I hope you’ll check them out.  I’m definitely hooked for sure!