The Co-op

I have been involved with a veggie co-op off an on for years.  The first one was difficult to work with my schedule for various reasons.  But my new one is wonderful and we participate most weeks and even volunteer about half the time.

What is cool about the co-op is that I get a great deal of fresh produce for a real good price  and it forces me to try new things.  We also get to order other things besides produce, but what is offered changes from week to week.  We usually get bread from the co-op as they have a dairy free and soy free 9 grain that is yummy.

We have been introduced to things like purple carrots, oroblancos, fresh artichokes (yes I have eaten artichokes, but never actually cooked them until I joined the co-op).

What is interesting about having the co-op, is that I don't have to or get to decide what produce I am getting.  I get what I get and I have to figure out how to make meals around that.  One of my standbys for the end of the week, is to throw all the leftover veggies into a crock pot and cook it up into a random veggie soup.  It works better some weeks than others.

This week we ordered a basic share of produce, a juicing pack (although I plan on using it for just eating or smoothies) coconut oil and a bread mix, because I thought I should try something other than just the 9 nine grain bread for once.

Juicing Pack
beets (trades for some extra grape tomatoes for the girl child)
celery (also traded for extra tomatoes)
lemons
limes
oranges
apples
kale
spinach
carrots (my college age son took those with him, since he was visiting over the weekend as well as some apples and oranges)
ginger
cucumber

Basic Share
Strawberries
celery
apples
oranges
bananas
brussel sprouts
avocado
oroblancos
grape tomatoes
rainbow carrots (orange, white an purple ones)

The first thing I got to make with this was smoothies using an apple, a couple of oranges, a banana, strawberries, and spinach.  It was very yummy.

Now to figure out what to do with all those carrots, that doesn't involve popping them in the crock pot with a roast.