Fresh loot!

I was talking to my wonderful sister on the phone the other day and she mentioned how she had just started purchasing produce from a local co-op. I thought "what a great idea!" and soon after found one in my own area to participate in. Here are just a few of the things I love about it:

1. I'm patronizing local farmers - or at least regional ones. I love being able to spend my money on businesses in my community rather than "the man".
2. Because the items are grown closer to me, the end user, the carbon footprint is minimized.
3. The food is fresher and allowed to ripen properly. Due to the shorter transport time it can be picked closer to the consumption date.
4. It was cheap! All the items you see on my island above were only $20!
5. Probably the most fun reason of all - it's kind of a "grab bag" so I'm challenged to cook things I wouldn't normally choose. I get to cook eggplant and acorn squash! It kind of makes me feel like I'm on Food Network's "Chopped" but with more normal ingredients!

Here's how the co-op works... I placed my order online within a specified window (mine was 9am Tuesday through noon Wednesday). There are only a limited number of baskets available so I ordered first thing Tuesday. Behind the scenes, all the participating farmers bring their goods to a centralized location where volunteers sort through them and assemble the baskets. Next, the baskets are loaded onto trucks and brought to the pickup locations - in my case, I only had to travel 1/4 mile though my sister's co-op delivers. As a participant (also called a "contributor"), I had a 20-minute window in which to pick up my basket. If I'm not there by the time that has lapsed, my basket would be donated to a local food shelter.

Of course I didn't want to take any chances, so I arrived at the very start of my pickup time frame. I simply checked in with a nice lady with a clipboard who directed me to another area where they had two baskets waiting for me. I transferred the contents into my own boxes and bags, then brought everything home.

Once home, I wanted to take inventory and of course was curious about the contents. Discovering all the goodies in my grab bag was so much fun! We received lettuce, broccoli, acorn squash, mushrooms, zucchini, tons of onions, garlic, eggplant, celery, cilantro, okra, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, bananas, apples, Asian pears, Concord grapes, peaches and plums. I'm sure I probably forgot something but that's at least most of it.

I won't be participating next week because I know that (a) we have plenty to hold us over for 2 weeks and (b) our upcoming schedules won't give us much time to make use of any new stuff. I love that I can just participate as needed.

If you're interested in participating in a co-op in your area, you can do a Google search like "produce co-ops Arizona" or visit this link which is where I ultimately found mine.