I’m always looking for ways to save money but still put good, fresh food on the table. It’s not that easy. I eat a lot of fruit and want to encourage Hailey to do the same but fruit is so expensive at the grocery store. Then a friend told me about Bountiful Baskets, it’s kind of a co-op for fruits and vegetables. It’s all volunteer run and the produce is wonderful.
The cost is $15 a week and one lady told me that she had priced her produce at the grocery store the previous week and it came to $48. That’s quite a savings. All of the produce is in season and local if possible, if not local then it’s regional. They also have specials available every week. These differ depending on what’s in season. I got a case of blackberries once and made jam. You can usually get bread or cases of whatever fruit is available in abundance. Since it’s a co-op they do ask that you volunteer when you can but no one is going to call you and make you volunteer.
Bountiful Baskets has a blog that has recipes for the fruits and vegetables you find in your basket. This has been a wonderful experience for us, we’ve tried things we had never tried before, two that I can think of off the top of my head are eggplant and figs. I absolutely love figs, I had no idea what they were at first, having never seen one outside of a Newton I was confused! They tasted nothing like I imagined, they are wonderful!
I’ve started to plan our meals around what is in the basket. Right now, for example, we are eating a lot of sweet potatoes so I’m always on the internet looking for sweet potato recipes. I haven’t bought produce at the grocery store since I started purchasing my basket, I haven’t needed to, I just use what is on hand and it always lasts the full week, usually with some left over.
Food co-ops are one way to stretch your household budget. If Bountiful Baskets is not available in your area search for others that are near you. Your family will get wonderful produce at a great price, and you just might be able to get the kids to try something new.