Bountiful Baskets

Well purchased my first basket from
Bountifulbaskets.org, a food coop in AZ, UT, ID, and Washington State.
It's primarily produce, but a great deal.
You go to there website and sign in and make a donation ($15 for the bountiful basket) and choose the pick up location you want. This is all done during the time period stated on the website. For Idaho it's Monday at noon I think and goes for about 36hrs, although very few locations last that long. Since each location has a certain number of baskets.
I picked up my basket on Saturday at the location specified. Interesting process; you get in line, they take your name, point you in the direction for your purchases and you go fill your basket, bags, or boxes (I use the reusable grocery bags since those are always in my car) most used a laundry basket. For the fifteen plus 1.50 handling charge that pays to keep the website running and ccard charge fees, my basket included the following;
1 pineapple
1 honeydew melon
3 pomelo (large grapefruit, sweeter though)
box of strawberries
8 ears of corn
7 bananas
3 baby cucumbers
6 small yams
8 apples
2 squash
3 tomatoes
1 bag of spinach
A great deal! Now for me and my family we would not need to do this every week, but every other week, probably. They also offer an ethnic food pack with varies every week, I bought that also for $7, it included;
2 onions
1 elephant garlic
2 baskets of mushrooms
1 bundle of parsley
bunches of basil, rosemary, etc.
I think this week it was oriental.
They also offer a 20lb fruit box that changes, right now its citrus. Then they offer some bread to.
Check it out www.bountifulbaskets.org !! But remember they do sell out. Give it a try once. The value is really good.
PLUS if there is not an area right near you, get enough people interested and they will try and add a location.
Now you will not know what each week brings, it changes, but it is fun to see what you are going to get. I noticed quite a few people that I had seen at the pickup at the grocery store later. Smart, you find out what you have then go grocery shopping to make it work for you or look up some recipes first then do your shopping.
Now, my typical grocery shopping does not include buying lots of produce, which in it self is not a good thing. For some reason I feel compelled to make sure we use everything up that we got in our basket, although I admit to passing on the yams.
Also I have eaten more fruit this week than typically I do. So thats a good thing, now with this co-op you need to volunteer now and then since thats a co-op, run by volunteers. But it's a little more than an hour on a Saturday every once and a while.
Also, you only have a brief window to pick up, and if you don't pick up its passed on to the local firehouse. No refunds.