The Best Yet

Here’s a look at the produce I purchased from the co-op last Tuesday.  I believe that this is the best batch I’ve picked up yet!  The bananas were actually yellow for once and not green.  In fact, I bought an extra pineapple and an extra container of strawberries.  I’m so glad that I did because they are amazing!!!

Now I’m trying to grow my own pineapple with the top of the one I cut up.  We’ll see what happens.  I have a black thumb…  But that doesn’t stop me from trying to grow things in the spring!  I’ve just planted some basil seeds and nasturtiums.  I recently purchased a hanging strawberry plant and a lovely tomato plant also.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep them alive long enough to enjoy their bounty.

This is the list of items in the produce box this week:

STRAWBERRIES

APPLES

ORANGES

BANANAS

AVOCADOS

LETTUCE

TOMATO

CUCUMBER

SNOW PEAS

POTATOES

ONION

CARROTS

MUSHROOMS

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This Week’s Bounty…

J’s been in LA all week for work.  LA, where they got the 4.4 earthquake this week.  Yeah, that LA…  In the back of my head I just knew that they would get an earthquake when he was there.  Call it intuition or just bad luck.

Anyway, I had RSVP’d to my monthly bunco game weeks ago and did not want to back out at the last minute so I asked my mom if she wouldn’t mind babysitting the boys for me since J is out of town.  She agreed and then began questioning me about my organic produce co-op.  I suggested that we split an XL box this week so she could try it out.  My mom recently discovered that she has a gluten allergy and is trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.  Splitting the co-op produce was a perfect solution for this week since we don’t need as much with J being gone.

This is what was supposed to be in this week’s box:

Strawberries

Apples

Oranges

Bananas

Mango or Peaches, if avail.

Avocados

Lettuce

Tomato

Cucumber

Green beans

Broccoli

Carrots

Cauliflower

The shipment of lettuce was completely rotten and had to be sent back.  So, no lettuce for us…  The broccoli and cauliflower was supposed to have been a head of each instead of a package of mixed florets.  There were no oranges.  I had to ask for another avocado since I only received one.  My apples were tiny and egg-shaped.  It just was not a good week at all.  Certainly not the best week for my mom to try it out either.  The coordinator sent out a long e-mail on Tuesday night apologizing for the produce.  It’s not her fault I guess.  But I think she needs to search for another supplier.

Here’s what I sent home with my mom:

The picture at the top of the post and the one below show what I kept.  It’s a pretty good assortment given all of the mishaps.  There wasn’t anything to strange that would require an exhaustive recipe search to prepare.

Adventures in Produceland

So, I gave the organic co-op another try mainly because of the $6 credit they gave me for my missing produce from last week.  I did not have any expectations this time around.  But I did come armed with the list of items to check the inventory of my box.  Happily, everything was accounted for and looked wonderful.

The volunteer running the pick up yesterday was someone I’ve chatted with at the boys’ preschool.  She was very friendly and made the experience pleasant.

I also helped that pick up was scheduled an hour earlier this week which did not impede on Cutie Pie’s nap time.  We headed over to the abandoned shop (the front this time) after lunch.  The boys were so well behaved and interested in checking out the fruit and vegetables.

There you have it: one not so great experience and one good one.  I guess I’m even!

Here is the master list that was sent out on Monday:

1pt blueberries

.5# strawberries

4apples

1.5# tangerines

2.5# bananas

1 head romaine

1-2 tomatoes

1 cuke

.5# green beans

1.5# zuchinni

.75# red bells

.5# mushrooms

1# onion

2.5# sweet potato

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I have a boat load of sweet potatoes this week.  Much more than the 2.5 lbs. listed…  Anyone have an amazing sweet potato recipe?  I mean a really, really good one?!  I don’t particularly care for sweet potatoes so I need something that will revolutionize the way I perceive this vegetable…  No pressure.