And Bountiful Baskets has finally come to Sunburst. Starting last Saturday, people in the our area can get in on the best buy in town, every other Saturday. The truck rolls into town around 10:30 and volunteers unload the truck and then break down the case goods into individual baskets. It looks like a lot of work but it's more like a lot of fun. It's great to see the satisfied and sometimes surprised look on our participants' faces when they see for the first time what is in their new basket. Participants can then pick up their baskets at 11:45.
Here's what a row of filled baskets looks like after the sort. This photo was taken in Shelby when I was training to open our own site. As you can see, that's a lot of fresh food for what you spend. And you can't get fresher than this. The coop strives to find produce as close to home as possible. Since getting our first basket we have tried some great items we would never have selected at the store. Persimmons were in the first basket and we had to look them up just to see how to prepare and eat them. Turns out they are pretty good. The next new item was eggplant. I have always loved the way an eggplant looks but I've never had the guts to buy one and try it. Part of that hesitation is the fact that I hate to spend money on anything that's not a sure hit. And I can't stand to see food wasted. I'm so thankful that eggplant appeared in that basket. We looked up several ways to prepare it and found some wonderful recipes. Vince sauteed it with cauliflower and peppers for a delicous side dish. I'm saddened that we haven't discovered this great veggie before now. It reminds me of another favorite of mine...asparagus. I never tried asparagus growing up. I remember once when I was young and my parents were invited out to dinner by their close friend, Mac. Our family never went out to eat as we just couldn't afford it. Asparagus was served at dinner that evening and when I asked my parents what it was, I was told that it was yukky and I wouldn't like it. I'm pretty sure now that they were telling me that just so I wouldn't start asking for it since they couldn't afford to buy it for our family. When I did finally try it as an adult, I felt the same way that I did when I first tried that eggplant..."Why have I not tried this before?"
And here is what that basket contained: 5 ears of corn, 1 pineapple, 1 eggplant, 1 bunch asparagus, 7 bananas, 7 oranges, 2 huge lemons, 4 pears, 6 gala apples, 1 large head romaine lettuce, a bunch of broccoli, celery and baby portabella mushrooms. I mentioned recipes before and I've been browsing some great ones since joining Bountiful Baskets. Pinterest even has some recipes specifially appropriate for Bountiful Produce. 
We have tried several of these recipes and I'm happy to say that they've all been pretty good. Kelsey made a smoothie this evening with fresh pineapple and mango and she couldnt stop talking about how good it was. If she doesn't eat all the mangos in good time I'm going to cut them up and freeze them in a bag so she can make a smoothie out of them at a later time. Most recent, and one of the best recipes we've tried is Cauliflower Crust Pizza. Vince is the pizza chef in this family and he eats low carb most of the time. So when we discovered this recipe it was a must-try. Vince whipped it up last night for dinner and reports that it was not only delicious but also very filling. He used the chile peppers from the basket, along with sausage, for the toppings. Kelsey is not a fan of either peppers or sausage, but he did make her a piece with only cheese and she put in a bid for the next pizza to have the same crust but with lots of pepperoni for the topping. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, makes it a hit! I'll try to keep showing you our successes and hopefully I won't have any failures to report! 
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