Tree Hugging Mom

A year ago, if you would have told me I’d be trying to eat Vegan, I would have laughed in your face. Even though we were trying to eat organic, I had no intention of giving up meat and dairy. I barely ate veggies so how on Earth was I supposed to live off of them? And I’m sorry, but Chicken Wings are freakin delicious.

But fast-forward a year. A year in which I have learned so much more about the meat and dairy industry and read Alicia Silverstone’s book the Kind Diet and here I am. In the last 10 days, I’m proud to say I’ve only consumed meat products a total of 4 times. And while I’ve eaten less dairy, it’s still a work in progress.

But this is not a post about going Vegan. It’s about Bountiful Baskets and why I love this Food Co-op so.

If you haven’t heard of them, Bountiful Baskets is a volunteer run produce co-op currently serving the following areas:

AZ, CO, GA, ID, KS, MT, NM, NV, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, UT, WA and WY.

If your area is not listed, check back with them often because new sites are constantly opening.

Here’s what I love about them. Each week, a time frame opens up where you can “contribute” to a basket. Once everyone has contributed, the money is used to purchase fresh fruits and veggies from farms and farmers as local as possible. And on Saturday morning, I get to get up nice and early to go pickup my basket! I love the surprise and anticipation of not knowing ahead of time what I’m going to get.

There are conventional and organic baskets. And because the produce is purchased locally, you get what’s in season for your area. And that’s where the fun is. We get variety now. For me, a person who hasn’t even tried most veggies, I love the challenge of having to come up with a dish to use these little treasures in. There is no way I would have purchased some of the veggies from the grocery store by choice. But here they come, and so I have to use them or lose them and I hate wasting money!

Check out the goodies I’ve recently received:

Wow! That’s a lot of food! Some of it we use right away, some we freeze for later and some is donated to family!

Because my goal is to go as Vegan as possible, I love that I get to experiment with new veggies. It reaffirms my thought that I CAN have yummy delicious food without torturing animals in the process. Each basket is a step closer to Vegan for me and a chance to expose my son to good healthy whole foods that have a much smaller impact on the planet.

Anyone else around here tried Bountiful Baskets or something similar? What did you think?

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