Bountiful Baskets

This past weekend I was introduced to something both foreign and wonderful. My mother-in-law recently had a friend tell her about a wonderful national co-op known as Bountiful Baskets. Let me say, before continuing, that I am about as skeptical as one could be about deals that sound “too good to be true.” With that being said, let it also be known that I am an absolute fresh produce junkie. It is one of the main reasons couponing at chain grocery stores leaves a lot to be desired for me personally. Sure it’s great to get canned corn for $5.00 off the original purchase price but, call me crazy, I enjoy the crunch of fresh corn on the cob much more. 

Bountiful Baskets is (as I said) a co-op run solely on a volunteer basis. The volunteers negotiate with local farmers and grocery distributors to buy fruits and vegetables at a highly discounted rate which they then turn around and distribute to their “contributors”. They estimate (and pretty accurately I might add) that you end up getting about $60.00 worth of produce for a flat rate of $15.00. The only caveats are that you must sign up and charge your card online the Tuesday prior to pick up day (which is Saturday). There is a one-time fee of $3.00 and the only other thing they ask is that you help divide up food every sixth visit. 

Now I went to the pick-up location with my mother-in-law and I will admit that I was a little skeptical. I am very picky when it comes to buying fresh produce. I want my fruit and vegetables fresh and unblemished. I don’t want something that looks picked over or like it has fallen off the back of some truck. I came unprepared, hoping a small bag would be big enough to accommodate the order. Luckily my mother-in-law came with two laundry baskets – which I quickly learned was needed as every other person in line seemed to follow suit. 

For $15.00 I received a basket full of very fresh, beautiful fruits and vegetables which included: a head of romaine lettuce, a bushel of spinach, two heads of cauliflower, about five pounds of yellow potatoes, celery, six ears of corn, four nectarines, six pears, a bag of plums, a bag of grapes, a bunch of bananas, and four mangoes. Needless to say that is well over $15.00 worth of produce and will definitely more than feed my family of three until the next pick-up day. 

Because the volunteers work directly with the source the “menu” changes on a weekly basis depending on what they are able to get and what is in season. That being said I fully expected them to go with the absolute cheapest produce available (aka iceburg lettuce, russet potatoes, etc). I was pleasantly surprised to see that that was not at all the case. Anyone who has been to the grocery store lately knows that yellow potatoes are almost double the cost of russet and mangoes sell for around a dollar apiece. 

I am happy to say that I am sold on Bountiful Baskets and refreshed to see that even in a growing city like Tucson, there are still people who are willing to go out of their way to save the members of their community money.