I'm pretty sure most of you have already heard about Bountiful Baskets, but if you've never heard about it, or you've never tried it, I wanted to give you a little more info! We have done Bountiful Baskets twice and so far I have been really impressed. I think it's a great way to eat healthy and save money.
Bountiful Baskets is a food co-op. Basically when you buy a basket from them you are pooling your money with other people in order to buy the produce in bulk for a much cheaper price. They also get their produce as local as possible. Each basket you buy is 50% fruits and 50% vegetables. It costs $15 (plus $1.50 handling fee) and is usually about half the price of what you would pay for all that produce in a regular grocery store.
This is what we got in our basket today (it's a lot... sometimes we split it with our friends):
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| strawberries, peaches, plums, mangoes, bananas, tomatoes, yams (or maybe sweet potatoes?), green beans, cantaloupe, english cucumber, lettuce, and celery. Pretty good for just $15! |
It's always fun because you never know exactly what you are going to get in your basket. I find they usually have a lot of common items and then they always throw in a few items I wouldn't normally buy (such as yams and i'm interested to try the peaches, they are called saucer peaches... shaped differently but supposedly taste just as good!) So... if anyone has some good yam/sweet potato recipes, I'm gonna need it! It's always a fun challenge trying to find ways to use all this produce.
It's pretty easy to order a basket. Here's what you do...
1. On Monday or Tuesday (that's the only days you can purchase a basket) go to their website and make an account (
bountifulbaskets.org).
2. Then choose a site where you would like to pick up your basket (most cities offer lots of locations and all pickups are for the following Saturday... oh and this is not just a Utah thing, lots of states have sites).
3. Choose exactly what you'd like to order (they also offer bread, tortillas, occasionally cookies, and specialty baskets like mexican packs or asian packs).
4. Then pay :) and save $$$$!
5. On Saturday morning head to the site you chose at the time specified and pick up your food! Also remember you have to bring your own container to put your food in to bring home. It's pretty simple and fun! I highly recommend it! If you have other questions you can check their website or ask me.
Also... notice the fruit bowl in my picture... we found that today for $3! We were at this furniture store just browsing for fun and they had a table full of accessories they were clearing out for 3 bucks. I was excited b/c I almost bought a fruit bowl at Ross once for $6 but ended up not getting it. So happy I waited! Who knew you could find cheaper than Ross???? Well it is possible!
