Fruit and Veggies Galore!

From the moment we started the construction work on our house, our next-door neighbors have been amazing. They were so warm and welcoming – and put up with us banging hammers around until 10 pm on week nights. Best Neighbors Ever. End of story. One afternoon after we moved in I was conversing with Barb and she mentioned this thing…Bountiful Baskets. She explained it briefly and told me how awesome it was. I left slightly confused, but most of all intrigued. Next is where Google comes in. Yep. I googled it (how else do you find out information these days). So I read up on it and debated for weeks about doing it.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. My friend Lorraine had emailed me asking my thoughts about food co-ops and locally grown food. Lucky for me I actually learned all about this in college (no joke!) and took it as an opportunity to bring up Bountiful Baskets and see if she thought it was as interesting as I did. And sure enough, she jumped on the bandwagon. Just what I needed – a little shove to actually try this out.

So I’m sure you’re wondering what this alleged basket is that I speak of. Well it’s a food co-op (and volunteer run), where you contribute $15 ($25 for all organic) for a basket of produce. So whats the catch? You don’t know what is going to be in your basket each time you order one, it’s whatever is in season (I have pictures below of what I received in my basket last week). If you live in Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, or Texas you should check it out! We get one every other week since there are only two of us, but it can work for large families too.

The Veggies: 2 bags of carrots, celery, lettuce, 2 artichokes, 3 onions, and 3 tomatoes

The Fruit: Cantaloupe, 10 kiwi, a bunch of bananas, a bag of grapes, 1 pint of strawberries, and 7 apples

Let me tell you, it’s so awesome! Great value for your money aaand you get normal stuff. Its like Christmas every other Saturday! Or at least it feels that way with how excited Lorraine and I get when we go pick them up.


Oh! Oh! Also I just got this fabulous cast iron dutch oven :) And I mean I literally just got it in the mail about 30 min ago. I am in love with the color too! I’m sifting through some recipes to decide what I should make in it first…

And I’ve been canning like crazy recently, so look for a post later this week on my canning adventures :)

For now I will leave you with this delicious recipe for a honeydew granita! Granita are great because you can get a yummy frozen treat even if you don't own an ice cream maker! This recipe can be easily changed to utilize cantaloupe as well.



Honeydew Granita
Ingredients:
1 – 2 lb honeydew
2/3 cup sugar
Teaspoon of lemon (or lime) juice
¼ cup water
Pinch of salt

Directions:
Cut melon in half and remove seeds. Cut it into chunks removing the rind. Purée melon in a food processor or blender with sugar, lemon juice, water and salt until smooth.

Pour mixture into a 2 quart dish (preferably with sides that are about 2 inches in height) and place in the freezer. About 1 hour after placing it in the freezer, take a fork and break up the ice crystals around the edges of the dish. Stir mixture, moving frozen pieces towards the center. Return dish to the freezer, checking the dish and mixing every 30 minutes until the granita is frozen and has formed fine crystals.

Source: The Perfect Scoop