Crazy for sure!

Most people have normal hobbies. My newest hobby is collecting fresh fruits and vegetables. While my husband may call me obsessed, I say that I am passionate about cooking with a variety of produce. I ended up taking over the PV site for Bountiful Baskets Produce co-op, and every 2 wks, my co-conspirator, Bekah, and I have a fun time volunteering and distributing produce for the participants. Yes - that sounds weird, but it brings me great joy. Just looking at these pictures - knowing that I am greatly improving the health of our family - brings me satisfaction. In conjunction w/ the food habit changes, I have maintained an exercise program nearly the entire summer and have never felt better! Don't laugh, but I just had to post pictures of the fun stuff we are eating. I don't have pictures from every pick-up, (sad that you didn't get to see our acorn squash or asparagus- ha, ha), but this gives a pretty good idea of the variety. In addition to the co-op, I have been collecting produce from my mother-in-law's garden, my sister's neighbor's fruit tree in California, and just random stuff from the grocery store. It's quite funny. I will never be a farmer, or a master gardener. But I am a great volunteer and avid fruit and vegetable lover. I would encourage anyone to add more quality foods - especially fruit and vegetables and high-quality grain to their diets. Each of the shares I've posted pictures of cost $16.50, and the co-op is every 2 weeks. If you went bare minimum, you could buy a basket each time and spend $33 a month. That's a fantastic deal for this much produce. I usually spend more though because I love buying cases of things to give away; plus, the bread is fantastic, and the ethnic packs are really fun to try. Spinach, broccoli, gala apples (my fav.), bananas, celery, green onions, radishes, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries.

This was in the tropical pack at our most recent pick-up. It cost $7.50 and included a pineapple, kiwi, mangoes, coconut, bananas, and key limes. Talk about fun to try new stuff! I am chilling the coconut and we plan to crack it this weekend.

Red cherries (burried), 4 lbs grapes, cucumbers, roma tomatoes, bananas, cauliflower, green-leaf lettuce, pluots, strawberries, apples, celery.

Broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, yellow squash, tuscan melons, plums, apricots, bananas, apples, oranges.

Mexican pack (I believe it was $5.50) - cilantro, green onions, jalapeno peppers, garlic, tomatillos, limes, onions, and corn tortillas. I made green enchiladas with the tomatillas. I still can't believe I made an authentic dish!

This is 9-grain bread. It's $10 for 5 loaves (that is pricey to me when I can buy bread for $1.25 at the Sara-lee store. However, this is healthy bread - awesome stuff).

Cantaloupe, spinach, bananas, corn, atalaufa mangoes, corn, tomatoes, avacado, fuji apples, apricots, pineapple, romaine lettuce, celery.