Last week was my first experience with Bountiful Baskets and I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical, but boy was I surprised. First of all, it was like the whole county showed up to pick up baskets, I felt like I needed another set of hands for all the produce I was getting, and I was excited to see so much product!Sally Stevens and Tanya Jolly started Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op in May of 2006. It was a winning combination from the beginning. Tanya and Sally both had experience running their own small food co-ops that were not web based. As their small co-ops grew it challenged them to think of a way to keep up as more families were wanting to save money on healthy food. Adding a little bit of e-commerce technology to the mix was just the trick. Since May of 2006 BBFC has grown from 2 sites and an average of 120 families a cycle participating, to over hundreds of sites in seven states and around 70,000 participating families! In June of 2008 BBFC started to offer 100% organic baskets every other week.
The Co-op offers a conventional produce basket very other week which is generally ½ fruit and ½ veggies. The monetary contribution is $15.00 and is generally worth $50.00 retail. Organic baskets require a contribution of $25 and are usually about the same amount of produce as the conventional baskets. To participate visit http://www.BountifulBaskets.org and check the schedule to see when your state is available to make your monetary contribution using a debit or credit card. Then, pick up your basket on Saturday morning at the time and place you chose when you contributed!
I was picking up two baskets - one for myself and one for my sister and we had both ordered "extras" - I ordered 9-grain bread and she ordered a guacamole mixer (basically all the ingredients for guacamole). Everything looked great and in our baskets we received the following: a box of strawberries, a bag of pears, a bag of clementines, apples, bananas, a cantaloupe, a head of broccoli, a head of cauliflower, celery, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, and maybe some other stuff that I am forgetting about. Talk about a bargain - and it is definitely a way to make sure you eat healthier.
My husband and I had nibbled on the fruit, taking some with us as snacks, but last night I cut everything up and made a huge (and yummy) fruit salad - sans a few pears as I am going to make a galette. We have eaten the spinach and tomatoes in salads, I baked the cauliflower with EVOO, salt, and pepper for about 20 minutes at 350 on a cookie sheet (yum), steamed the broccoli and served it with a cheese sauce, I have cut up the celery and taken some of it to work for an afternoon snack, and that leaves the peppers - which my husband plans to eat (since I'm not a fan) with his salad. You should check to see if there is a Bountiful Baskets in your area - it is wonderful and I can't wait to see what is in my basket this weekend! I'll post a picture of my next basket - since I forgot to take any this week!