A few years ago, my husband's sister-in-law was involved with a co-op. They did a lot of dry foods that they could get in bulk for much cheaper than in the store. The blueberry muffins were sooo good! I bought cocoa powder through them one year and still have some left. Although I am getting to bottom of the bag. That was probably about 6 years ago.
Then a couple weeks ago, one of the young women in our ward was telling us about her home schooling group who she said was their co-op. Much different co-op than I am used to.
Now, I run my own co-op. I call it the Mountain View Produce Co-op, because we have a very beautiful view of the mountains from my house. I had tried off and on for about a year to try to get a "bountiful basket" from a produce co-op, with much stress. I always got on their website to late and therefore had to miss out or try to pick up at a location much to far from my home, or I would forget altogether. It was quite frustrating and I hated having to go to the store each week and decide what produce I could afford or wanted. My family eats a lot of produce, especially lately when my husband and I are trying to lose weight and eat better. Plus my boys love to come home from school and grab an apple out of the fridge. I always felt like I was spening too much money on things that are a necessity in our home, and if you knoow me and know how much I like to find a bargain and shop with coupons, you understand how hard it is for me to buy produce.
In my attempt to find good produce buys and try to get a bountiful basket, I wished that there were some way that I could just have all the things I wanted delivered to my door for me. Well, ask and ye shall receive... I follow the utahdealdiva.com where she finds good deals and is just amazing at saving money, she is also somewhat of a collegue of mine in the Grocery Smarts business. Well, I read on her blog one day how to start your own neighborhood produce co op and it was very inspiring. Thus started my adventure of the Mountain View Produce Co op!
I knew that I needed at least 12 to start but preferred 24. I set the goal to start and have our first co op delivery date Wednesday, August 16, whether I had 24 or not. So having this goal in mind, I set out to find people who wanted to save money as well as have fresh produce every other week, as I did. I talked to everyone, starting with friends, neighbors and people from church. I even asked my chiropractor! Thanks to some effort from me and some good friends who asked people that they worked with, the Monday before I had my 24 people! I couldn't believe it, I was so excited!
Among trying to find people, I knew I needed to find a company that would work well with co-ops and would have the best produce. I started with one company, who another co-op used, and then checked into another. These are wholesale produce companies that deliver all over the state of Utah. I decided upon using Joe Granato Inc. Their produce is delivered on refrigerated trucks and comes fresh. They seemed like a great company and I felt good about going with them.
I must say, I have been very pleased with everything so far. Granato's has been very easy and wonderful to work with! They have helped me every step of the way and whenever I have a problem, they have been great to help me through it! They definitely know produce!! The selection is great! The quality has been great! And I have definitely learned a lot about produce!
Our price is $16.50 per basket and we get a good variety. The picture below shows what we got this week. We got broccoli, spinach, carrots (2 bags), potatoes, nectarines, green apples, raspberries and green grapes (not shown they got eaten last night for dinner.)
If you ask me, I don't think I would be able to get this much in the store for what we pay through the co op. I have a wonderful group of people that go in on this with me and for most of them it is great to get a lot for so little and also the conveinence of picking it all up at one place and not having to decide at the store what you want. I take many suggestions from our group and try to accommadate every one I can.
I have learned many things about produce. 1...how to make green leaf lettuce stay crisp for two weeks, 2...that you shouldn't store apples with other fruit, it makes the other fruit spoil faster, 3...celery is mostly water and can be crispy again if soaked in cold water. 4...broccoli stems CAN be eaten! And they are very yummy! And 5...salads are best with more veggies!
This has been such a huge success for me that I started an "off week" co op as well. Now I have A week and B week. We are working to get the B week up to 24 and I'm hoping that soon this will happen, there is so much more variety when you have more people.
Thanks to all my wonderful friends in the co op, I have learned so much and I love seeing each of you each time you come and to see you all get excited about produce!
Huge thanks goes out to Joe Granato Inc. and especially Kurt Jeffs there who has helped me all along the way and dealt with my stresses and complaints (which have not been many thanks to his help), and thanks to all the staff and drivers that are so great to deliver and be there to help! You are wonderful!
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