I recently joined a local produce co-op. I give a woman ten dollars and then she gives me a basket of fruits and vegetables.
I mean, this looks manageable, right?
Then I unpack it. And yikes!
I mean, it is awesome. There are two baskets of raspberries, a basket of strawberries, a basket of mushrooms, four peppers, four tomatoes, two broccoli crowns, two heads of romaine lettuce, six peaches, five cucumbers, three giant carrots, and three ears of corn. But besides being awesome, YIKES. How does this woman expect me to eat FIVE cucumbers in one week? (Because next week, I give her another ten dollars and she gives me another basket of this stuff.)
I’ve started becoming a produce pusher. I’m showing up playgroup with a bag of peppers and shoving them at people. “HERE,” I say, in an overly friendly voice, “TAKE THESE. WE’LL NEVER FINISH THEM ALL OURSELVES.” If Elizabeth asks for a snack, I am like “how about a whole cucumber? I’ll peel it, you can eat it like an ice cream cone!”
The main problem with the excess of fruits and vegetables is that I am really the only one who will eat most of them. Elizabeth is in her picky toddler phase and has even been refusing peaches lately. Matt doesn’t like most vegetables and all fruits. (He did admit yesterday, when pressed, that he might be willing to eat an occasional cucumber. Me: “THANK GOODNESS, I HAVE FIVE.”)
“But, Jen,” you say, “why join a co-op and get all this produce if you are pretty much the only one that eats it?” Good question, internets! Because I was spending at least $10 on the stuff I was buying from the store anyway, we get a bunch more this way, and I still harbor the (probably foolish) hope that someday Matt and Elizabeth will be all like “do you know what I need? A tomato!”
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
How did you find this co-op? I would LOVE to get that for $10 per week! As for what to do with it … while it is too hot to think about it now, just imagine what kind of amazing vegetable soup you could make in the winter!
I found it when my friend Leslie said “give me ten dollars.” So I gave her ten dollars and two days later she showed up on my front porch with a whole basket of produce. Two weeks later, I got an email from the woman who runs it and gave her ten dollars and she told me where to pick up my basket of produce. This is only my second week, I am not quite in on the intricacies of it yet. From what I understand, some woman just decided she wanted to start a co-op and she shops the farmer’s market for sales and buys in bulk and then splits it up.
And we had minestrone soup for dinner last night with some of those tomatoes, broccoli, and corn!
We’re on a major freezing kick at our house right now. I would love to get a basket like that! We’re pureeing most things, some for baby food, but also for going all “sneaky chef” and adding to meatloaf, spaghetti, etc.
That looks great. I just finished chopping up 8 or so green peppers. I put them in the freezer so I can just quickly add them to things. Love it. I need to find me one of those!
Only you could make fruit and veggies funny! Thanks for my laugh today! :)
I eat a TON of fruits and veggies and could down that in three days flat!!! LOL. I would absolutely LOVE to find a co-op like that!
I will take all your peppers off your hands. They are my favorites.
You can keep the tomatoes.
Peppers are number three on my list of Things That Are Gross. And my list only goes to three.
I would LOVE to get something like this. I could easily eat 5 cukes in a week, and make some of it into baby food. The peppers I wouldn’t touch, but I bet my best friend would. Holy moses – I am seriously going to look and see if there is a produce co-op in our area!
YUM!
That’s a great deal, but yeah, it would be hard to eat everything and then I would feel bad for throwing it away.
Wow would love to get this for 10.00 .. This would so make a good gazpacho. There is so many different things you can do w/ these veggies. That is funny peel a cucumber and eat it like an ice cream cone. I love eating cucumber salads.
Doesn’t Dibits know she lives in the PEACH state now she has to like peaches. When I lived there the peaches were so yummy. I now miss GA peaches. Have you tried giving MIss E peaches with a carmel sauce on them or grilled? Oh my favorite.
I have a great receipe for popcicles – take peaches, cantalope, watermelon, and strawberries – puree them w/ a little sugar (depending on the sweetness already) and a little orange juice. Freeze and enjoy. MMMM they are so good.
Enjoy your bounty.
Cucumber sandwiches with mayo, crusts cut off and served with imaginary tea? Cucumber with salt, pepper and vinegar? Salsa? Gazpacho is a good suggestion. Definitely freeze stuff for winter cooking-especially soups.
I could maybe get the berries for 10$ here, and even then I’d think that was a deal. So envious of yourproduce “problem”!
Yeah, I could get the berries here too for $10 if I bought them from a store. So that is why I decided to go for this, even if we don’t eat all of it, I am still coming out way ahead.
When I was on a gluten free diet, I would slice a cucumber and eat it dipped in hummus. It’s really good! Dibits might like it too…since you can dip it…
Chopping or pureeing to put in sauces is a good use for peppers b/c it adds flavor but you can’t really pick out that flavor on spaghetti or vegetable soup.
Hello gorgeous veggies and fruits! $10 for all of that is a great deal.
The Tragic Optimist (Ann) posted this on FB last night after recieving a bunch of cukes from her CSA,
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/cucumber_lemonade_chiller.html
I know what you mean! I keep buying (and eating) all of these vegetables in hopes that someday Skeeter will decide to eat them, too. Right now he just seems to delight in feeding them to me.
I loved the spaghetti squash, BTW!
That is an amazing co-op! I live in farm country and can’t get any deal that sweet. Love all the variety.
Dang I wish I could get in on this co-op! Do you ever read Food Lush? They just posted a super yummy pickle recipe that could solve your cucumber problem.
Right now, I only read Food Lush when someone links to it because I’ve never remembered to put it in my reader. But did you see the thing about washing raspberries with vinegar? I did that to these raspberries. And the strawberries.
And now I will go put Food Lush in my reader.
Here’s the link
http://www.foodlushblog.com/2011/08/easy-refrigerator-pickles.html
I’m going to mail you my children and they will totally help you eat your produce. They are more fruit lovers, but both of them like cucumbers and brocolli too.
keep the dream alive, Jen. Keep the dream alive
For everyone wishing they had something like this where they lived… trying googling “CSA “. CSA’s are “community sponsored agriculture,” which is similar to what Jen is describing, but you get the produce directly from a local farm. Many many US communities have local CSAs these days, but they usually don’t advertise, so you have to look for them. You pay for several weeks or months in advance, then once a week you go to a drop-off site near your home and pick up a basket of whatever was harvested that week. I live in an expensive area, so mine is closer to $20/week instead of $10, but I get a ton of stuff, all organic and super fresh. Also, since they’re run by people who know what they’re doing, they tend to be a BIT better about figuring out appropriate quantities of each item. For example, I would never get 5 cucumbers in one week, but I might get 2, which is much more manageable for a typical family. It’s still challenging to finish it all in some weeks, especially when I get a vegetable that I’m not familiar with (um, still trying to figure out what to do with fennel) but the quality of the produce is amazing.
{ 1 trackback }