October 30th Bountiful Basket Produce Co-op – With Pomegranates

We were excited to get our Bountiful basket of produce this week.  We were out of town and really missed not getting last week.  We went to a local grocery store, Winco, that generally has great prices on their produce (and not bad quality either) this week to make up for it.  If anyone has been following these posts you might realize that we’ve purchased the organic baskets in the past – which generally turn out to be a great deal.  The mystery does continue a bit where they have gone, but the site coordinator told me this morning that we should be seeing them every other week from here on out.  Maybe next week we’ll be able to share with you one of their organic baskets.

We love our co-op – Bountiful Baskets, which is in many western states. You can see previous examples of what we have received in our baskets before.  Being a part of a produce co op or grocery co op means that you never know what you are going to get! Each time it is something different, which we happen to love! They are usually 50% fruit and 50% veggies.

Here’s what we got this week:

• 1 large bunch of bananas
• 1 bag black seedless grapes
• 5 tomatoes
• 6 pears
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 big pile of green beans
• 10 yams
• 6 apples
• 1 pineapple
• 1 head green leaf lettuce
• 2 yellow squash
• 1 pint blackberries

In addition, we purchased one of their extra goodies they have available on a weekly basis.  Not only can you purchase the basket of miscellaneous produce but they also offer either specialty produce or homemade breads and other miscellaneous treats (healthy style of course!).  We have really been enjoying some pomegranates that we first received on our bountiful basket from a couple of weeks ago and have found on sale a couple of places around town.  However, Bountiful Baskets was offering 24 lbs for $18.50 – compare this to a price of 2/$5 (each – not lb) we saw last week at Smiths, our Kroger affiliate.  We jumped on that deal and you can see them below.  However, 32 pomegranates present us an interesting dilemma – share with us some of your awesome recipes for making use of these awesome pomegranates!

We would love to hear if anyone else participates in a produce co-op or community garden. What are your thoughts on this way to save and have healthier eating options for your family?  Is it worth it? For us, we really feel like this has been a key for us to be able to stick in our budget and to receive great quality fresh organic produce.

As usual, we did want to mention a few words about how to get involved in a produce co-op.

There are many produce co-ops and grocery co op groups and it’s various forms across the nation that you can join and be a part of.  A good place to start looking is at a the site localharvest.org (which id going to help you get organic local food) or coopdirectory.org (I am not sure how updated this site is as our area’s listings were old and many not listed, but at least worth a shot!) or search produce co-op your state under google and see what listings come up. Also, Money Saving Mom posted an article on how to start your own produce co-op, especially if you could not find one in your area.