Kristie McNealy, MD

I picked up my goodies from Bountiful Baskets bright and early this morning.  The kids and I always have fun guessing what we’ll get each week, and thinking up items we HOPE we’ll be seeing in our basket when we go to pick up.  This week we found:

• a dulcinea watermelon
• plums
• apples
• oranges
• bananas
• english cucumber
• leaf lettuce
• sweet potatoes (or are these yams??)
• carrots
• radishes
• broccoli
• green peppers

As usual, with 4 kids we’ll probably be able to eat up all of the fruit without too much thought. I have had a bit of trouble with stone fruit I’ve received from Bountiful Baskets in the past not ripening well, going straight from rock hard to wrinkly and unappetizing.  I’ve used Ball Flex Batch Pectin to whip up small batches (1-2 jars) of jam with some of this so-so fruit in the past, and the plums from this week may end up getting the same treatment.  Other tasty looking recipes for this week’s fruits include:

apple crisp

plum skillet cake

plum oatmeal crisp

watermelon slush

If there weren’t so many of us, I’d probably use the bell peppers to make stuffed peppers tonight. With only two, they’ll probably end up in fajitas or chili. My favorite ideas for the rest of the box include:

balsamic roasted carrots

radish tea sandwiches

pickled radishes

parmesan roasted broccoli

tomato cucumber salad with feta

twice baked sweet potatoes

sweet potato cupcakes with honey ginger buttercream

What do you plan on doing with the produce in your baskets?

Yesterday, I wrote a little about Bountiful Baskets, and how it’s been helping keep my grocery budget in check despite the high produce prices in my area.  Today I wanted to share some of the ways we’ll be using up the produce in our box this week.

This week, the conventional basket contained:

• strawberries
• peaches
• yellow plums
• oranges
• bananas
• tomatoes
• potatoes
• broccoli
• leeks
• leaf lettuce
• sweet corn

If the weather has cooled off where you are, there are a lot of great soup fixings in this box.  I made this potato leek soup tonight and it was a hit.  Other great soup choices include:

Broccoli potato cheese soup

Corn chowder

Baked potato soup

Obvious choices with the rest of the box include tossed salad, fruit salad and smoothies.  Most of the fruit in our box will probably get used up sliced up in the kids’ breakfasts and lunches.  All except the strawberries that is – those are getting used for strawberry crepes.  Yum!

I also got a case of almost 40 pounds of pears this week.  I’ve got an ever growing list of things I’d love to make with these, but I’m not sure how far they’ll go.  These are things I’ve got on my list so far.

Pear pie with streusel topping and caramel sauce

Warm pear ginger upside-down cake

Rustic pear tart

Pear ginger and vanilla quickbread

Pear and ginger jam

Spiced canned pears

Lousy produce prices are probably my only complaint about living “in the middle of nowhere”.  Well, that and not being able to get a Whopper at 2am, but in reality that’s probably a good thing.

Before moving up here, we heard about Bountiful Baskets from several different families in the area.  I planned on trying it as soon as we were settled, and we were actually given a box as a welcome gift before I managed to get the whole thing figured out.  Basically, Bountiful Baskets is a co-op that pools the money from participants to place bulk buys on produce and other staples like cases of canning vegetable, breads, oils, rice and beans.  A conventional basket of produce costs $15, and organic boxes are $25.  There is a $3.00 charge the first time you place an order, to cover things like the baskets produce is sorted into, and there is a $1.50 processing fee each time you participate.  Items available for the week are posted every Monday, and pick up times vary  by location.

So, assuming you make a contribution for one basket, what do you get for your $16.50?  Well, it varies, but this is what was in my box this week.

• strawberries
• peaches
• yellow plums
• oranges
• bananas
• tomatoes
• potatoes
• broccoli
• leeks
• leaf lettuce
• sweet corn

I’ve been torn about the value of the baskets I’ve received, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t really do better at stores within 30 miles of here.  Back in Colorado, I’d definitely be better off shopping sales at Sprouts, but around here I can’t count on one hand the number of time I’ve found fruit other than bananas for less than $1 per pound.  Buying the baskets gives us a good variety of produce each week for a fair price.

I also picked up a case of bartlett pears this week.  At around 63 cents a pound, they were less than half of the best price I’ve seen for pears locally.  I’ll be back tomorrow to share my meal ideas for using up my produce box, and how ‘ll be using up all these pears!