Sarah

              Eyes shine,

              green

              olive

              sunshine

                             Lips part,

                             

                             dimples

                             smile

                             heaven

                                           Laughter,

                                           one

                                           two

                                           three

                                           

                                                         Heart Melts,

                                                                       

                                                                       This is perfection.

:) I feel the need to pause life and say that this nice weather outside is wonderful! Has it not been beautiful? Summer is coming... I can almost taste it... just.... so..far.. out.. there... I know it will come someday and even though when it does I will still be sitting in my office from 8 to 5 then in class til 8 or 9 at least when we finally escape there will still be bea-Utiful glorious sunshine outside! I'm so excited for weekends of picnics, floating the river and going on hikes and eating shakes OUTSIDE instead of cuddled in a blanket with the car heater going full blast. :) (I appreciate Matthew's understanding that shakes are an all year necessity for me.) Thank you Mr. Sun for showing us your handsome face these last few days! I adore you!

I have been working on cutting down our grocery bill while trying making sure that we are eating healthy.  One day while blog surfing I ran onto someone talking about the produce co-op she was part of – “We get TONS of fresh fruits and vegetables for so cheap!” she said. BINGO! I thought – whatever this is – I want in!

So I started asking around and searching online and I found impressive things! A produce co-op is a group of people who put a set amount of money into a “pool”. They then take that pool of money and go to the same stores that supply places like Macey’s and Smith’s with their produce and buy bulk quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables – at grocery store quality and super cheap prices (because foods are bought in bulk). They buy the most they possibly can with the pooled money – and the produce is divided equally between the contributing members!

This week I ordered from a Co-Op called Bountiful Baskets. For $16.50 this is what we got:

1 Pineapple
1 head of califlower
1 head of green leaf lettuce
1 giant Jicima
6 ears corn
1 bunch asparagus
9 bananas
6 garlics
7 Murcott tangerines
5 Asian Pears
4 Mexican Squash
7 Pink Lady Apples

I was really impressed that everything was in good shape and so far really delicious. What you get varies by what is available, so you will always be getting a good variety. I looked at a lot of different Co-Ops, but chose Bountiful Baskets because you only order when you need to. There are not fees or contacts to force you to contribute every week or month. I just wanted to try it before being tied into something! I was also really impressed to find out that all of the people to work with Bountiful Baskets are volunteers - so that every cent of the money you contribute goes straight to getting more food.

If you are looking for a better way to buy fruits and veggies I totally suggest ordering with Bountiful Baskets! You can read more about them at www.bountifulbaskets.org. You can order Monday mornings through Tuesday nights and then you pick it up on the following Saturday. They have a huge list of pick up spots so I'm sure that there will be one near you! We are thinking about splitting an order with someone as it is almost too much food for us! (So if you are interested in splitting with us let me know!)