Saturday, February 6, 2010

Bounty Hunter

Have you heard of Bountiful Baskets? Kayla blogged about them a long time ago and my interest was piqued, they weren't available in Texas though so I moved on with my life. Bountiful Baskets are a food co-op in the Western US (mostly Arizona, Utah...I think like Washington too), you make a contribution on Wednesday and then go pick up your bounty on Saturday morning. You don't really know what you are going to get, you just know you'll get fruits and vegetables. It's kind of like Christmas morning really. The bountiful baskets are $15, with a $1.50 handling charge, and then there is a first time charge of $3. They also have add-ons that you can do; bread, granola, cookies, different "packs"-- like an Italian pack, or hostess pack, which have different foods in them. This go around I ordered the regular Bountiful Basket as well as a "dip" pack that was hopefully going to have all sorts of good things in it to make dip with.


So, you ready to see my Bounty?





1 pineapple


6 corn


11 bananas


some type of fancy lettuce


jicama


head of cauliflower


2 packs of asparagus


8 pink lady apples


4 zuccini like squash (are they zuccini? Not sure)


4 Asian Pears


3 cloves of garlic


8 tangarines


Sweet mercy, I am excited!


Okay and the dip pack?



2 Onions

celery

pkg grape tomatoes

1lb carrots

cilantro

5 little bitty limes

7 avacados

I think the dip pack was like....seven bucks or something.

I am pretty darn happy about it and best of all, I went and volunteered to unload the truck and get the baskets ready and it felt SO good to get out and do something besides clean my house and parent (not that I don't love those things). There isn't much time in my life for volunteering, which is sad because I would love to do it. Well, I do have lots of time, but there isn't much that I can do with my three children in tow, so it was nice to get up early and have some alone time and do a little service for the world.

And the OTHER best part is that I am excited to see how this will challenge me as a chef. I normally wouldn't buy things like jicama (but my Grandma used to and I love them!), or tangerines or asian pairs; but I am excited to try them! I am going to get my BB on Saturday mornings and base my menu around my produce and see what I can come up with and hopefully be able to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our diet!

P.S. Texans, have you heard of Angel Food Ministries?It's a similar type co-op but with things like meat and stuff. I never tried it but really wished I would have!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

the little bitty limes are probably key limes, which make great pie! no, i don't have a recipe.

can hardly wait to get there and share in the bounty!

Anjuli said...

You might also want to try Azure Standard, which unfortuanately isn't available in Texas either.

http://www.azurestandard.com/

If I do ever move away from this dear state it had better be one which gets delivery from them.

TheMoncurs said...

So glad your inaugural experience with BB was a good one!! I've really had to stretch my cooking thanks to them and we always end up trying something new whenever I get a basket. It's awesome.

Laurie said...

Funny! I just heard about this and almost signed up for it for this week, but wasn't sure if it would be cost effective. Guess I was wrong. Where do you pick up?

Jules said...

Yummy! Our ward here has a produce co-op group. Every other week a couple girls go down to the produce wholesale company and buy tons of produce (everyone contributes $25 each)and sort it out into our own "baskets". It is amazing how much stuff we get, and you are right it does force you into cooking new things!

PS. I love jicama and asian pears. Though I haven't been brave enough to force jimcama upon the rest of our co-op.

Anonymous said...

we used to do angel food food but the quality just wasnt there. A lot of processed meat and preseasoned stuff. way to much sodium in my opinion. I wonder if we have this vegetable one out here?

Anonymous said...

we used to do angel food food but the quality just wasnt there. A lot of processed meat and preseasoned stuff. way to much sodium in my opinion. I wonder if we have this vegetable one out here?