Bountiful Baskets!

Today I discovered the best thing since sliced bread! It’s called Bountiful Baskets, and I’ve heard about it from a few friends and family members who’ve participated, but finally jumped on the band wagon. It’s a food co-op that is run by volunteers (if you participate, you’re asked to volunteer once in a while), which provides many communities throughout the West with fresh local (when available) fruits and veggies. You order and contribute online between Monday morning and Tuesday at noon. Then, Saturday morning, you go and pick it up at the location where you ordered from (there are many locations in Utah). They have a list of all of those who have contributed, and you go sign it. You bring your own baskets or bags, and go collect from two laundry baskets five or six fruits and five or six vegetables. For more information on the program, check out their website at bountifulbaskets.org.

I love a good deal, and I love fruits and veggies and serving them to my family. Produce can be so expensive, though! But it doesn’t have to be!

For $15, check out all of the food we got…

A head of romaine lettuce
6 tomatoes
2 broccoli crowns
1 lb. bag of baby carrots
1 lb. bag of green beans
2 avacados
One 7 lb. cantaloupe
6 bananas
7 peaches
19 plums
3 lbs. red, seedless grapes
2 ½ lbs. of cherries

A little more information about this program:

It was created by two women, Sally and Tanya. Good job, ladies!

They say, "In the conventional basket we focus our buying as follows: High Quality, Low Cost and As Local as Possible… So, how hard do we try? Pretty hard! Most bananas are from Central America or the Carribean and are grown by a couple gargantuan conglomerate growers. We get all of our bananas from small farmers in central Mexico. This saves the co-op between $4 and $7 a box, keeps money with small farmers, and helps keep the carbon footprint small. Their slogan is "Together We are Changing the World One Dinner Table at a Time"

For each order, you do have to pay a $1.50 handling fee, and also if you’re a first-timer, there is a one-time $3 additional contribution fee. But still, for $19.50 for all we got, that’s amazing! This would have cost us double at the grocery store!

They also offer different things. We haven’t tried those yet, but hope to in the future.

Mexican Food Ingredient Pack $6.50 Contribution
These ingredients are sure to spice up your cooking this week! We’re hoping for tomatillos, Grey Squash, Serrano Peppers, Avocado, Cilantro, Mexican Limes, Garlic, Green Onions, Yellow Onion, and Jalapenos! Green Salsa here we come!

Tortilla Pack $10 Contribution
7 packs of tortillas – a dozen tortillas in each (Freezes well!)
3 packs 13″ Flour Tortillas
2 packs 6″ Flour Tortillas
2 packs 6″ Corn Tortillas
Flour Tortilla Ingredients – flour, soybean oil, water, salt, calcium propionate, baking powder, dough conditioner, tortilla stick no masCorn Tortilla Ingredients – corn masa flour, sorbic acid, cal pro, CMC, fumaric acid, guargum, enzymes, trace of lime

9-Grain Bread – 5 loaves $10 Contribution

Then they have other things, like this week they had granola and snack bars and a few other things available also, which are all-natural and I’ve heard they are delicious.

Are you hungry yet?