I am addicted to a great deal…I don’t like to say “cheap” but I bargain hunt to the max; garage sale, estate sales, coupons, clearance,  thrift stores, craigslist…etc….I LOVE a good deal! When we were first married one of the things my husband told me was that he wouldn’t scrimp on food; we could cut our expenses in other ways but he expected to eat well. Now my husband is a pretty lean guy, average height, average weight…but he has an incredible metabolism and can eat and eat and EAT…we used to eat poorly, I had this idea (due to my great desire for a good deal) that the cheaper I could get food the more we could eat -I bought JUNK- ya know the cheap stuff that doesn’t fill ya up and is filled with MSG, HFCS, artificial sugars and processed to the max…very little nutrients rarely had produce except corn and potatoes because I didn’t want to spend the money…we were basically eating CRAP and feeling like it…a few years ago I began having health problems and realized what we were putting into our bodies really did make all the difference. After research, books and blood test…we’ve re-structured our diets and eat much better today! One of the ways we do that is with TONS of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Our family has been a part of a local fruit and veggie co-op for about 18months and we LOVE it! Every other week we pitch in $15 and take turns shopping at the farmers market and/or produce distributor. Depending on the number of contributors we have on shopping days, we get anywhere from 25-60lbs of fresh fruits and vegetables…much of it locally grown and some items organic…just depends on what the shopper chooses! We didn’t get our spring garden in this year… hubby decided to go back to school and hasn’t been around to build my much needed raised garden beds…we are planning our fall garden though (something I love about N. Texas, you get two gardens). We look forward to getting our fresh produce twice a month. I rarely buy produce in the store and if I do, it’s mostly berries, apples and bananas.

Here is our fresh basket for this week (other photos depict previous produce days):

We got approx. 38.5 lbs of fresh fruit and veggies! What exactly did we get?

• 12oz Mushrooms
• 12 Georgia peaches
• 1 Large Texas cantaloupe
• 3  Medium zucchini
• 8 Medium green bell peppers
• 7 LARGE vidalia onions
• 12 JUMBO carrots (over 7lbs)
• 13 Medium Yams
• 4 Large bunches of red leaf lettuce

It’s been fun finding recipes and trying out things we might not otherwise buy! We’ve eaten Kale in ways I’d never imagined, and learned to love it!  Once we used cilantro in everything for a couple weeks, we each got 12 HUGE bunches! The kids love the JUMBO carrots, they’re sweet like garden carrots and HUGE… I measured some today and they’re over 10 inches long and 2 inches around!

If you have the chance to co-op a produce group, I’d highly recommend it. There are many organized ones out their to join or start your

own! We’ve considered joining an exclusive organic co-op but budget wise it doesn’t work right now!

Share on Facebook