Bountiful Baskets - Fresh produce without all the work

My half-share of a Bountiful Basket

I love fresh produce as much as the next foodie and every year I put in my own small garden to ensure that I will have vine-ripened tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and other veggies come mid-summer. But gardening, even on a small scale, is a lot of work and sadly, your rewards aren't immediate. I recently found a solution to take care of my desire for fresh produce until my own garden comes to fruition and also to supplement what I didn't plant in my own plot. It's called "Bountiful Baskets Food Co-Op" and my friend Janine was the one who told me all about it.
According to their website "BBFC distributes produce baskets, organic produce baskets, artisan bread and sandwich bread every other week." BBFC is an all-volunteer, grassroots co-op and people who use the BBFC are encouraged to volunteer their time as well to make sure the co-op continues.
According to a BBFC press release "Sally Stevens and Tanya Jolly started Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op in May of 2006. It was a winning combination from the beginning. Tanya and Sally both had experience running their own small food co-ops that were not web based. As their small co-ops grew it challenged them to think of a way to keep up as more families were wanting to save money on healthy food. Adding a little bit of e-commerce technology to the mix was just the trick. Since May of 2006 BBFC has grown from 2 sites and an average of 120 families a cycle participating, to hundreds of sites in 16 states and countless participating families! In April of 2011 BBFC started to offer 100% organic baskets every week at nearly every site. The Co-op offers a conventional produce basket very other week which is generally ½ fruit and ½ veggies. The monetary contribution is $15.00 and is generally worth $50.00 retail. Organic baskets require a contribution of $25. To participate visit http://www.BountifulBaskets.org and check the schedule to see when your state is available to make your monetary contribution using a debit or credit card. Then, pick up your basket on Saturday morning at the time and place you chose when you contributed!"
Janine and I decided to split a basket since we both have small families and we knew we couldn't use all the produce if we bought individual baskets. Since Janine works on Saturday, I went to our pick-up site in Fruitland (no pun intended - it is actually a town in Idaho) to pick up our share. I arrived about 15 minutes early and the line was already stretched through the parking lot with people toting laundry baskets, wicker baskets and buckets. The individual shares were divided into round, white plastic baskets and once you got your share, you transferred it to your own basket. Standing in line I felt a bit like I was in a food line in Russia waiting to get whatever meager food was available. No worries about the contents of the basket though for when I got our share I discovered corn, carrots, onions, peppers, cauliflower, cucumbers, tomatoes, bananas, pears, apricots, blackberries and a honeydew melon. There was enough of each for Janine and I to divide most of it equally although we did have to barter on who was going to get the berries, honeydew and the cauliflower. 
In addition to fruits and veggies, there are occasionally special shares you can purchase such as breads, pantry items like olive oil, rice and beans and produce by the case if you're into canning.
All in all, I was really pleased with my share this week and I can imagine that it will only get better as we get further into the growing season. I also liked the fact that I was participating in something that was a co-operative effort and I wasn't spending my money in the chain grocery stores fattening someone else's pockets. 
And now for the fun part - deciding how to use it