Q and A on Bountiful Baskets previous post

Check out the post prior to this one if you haven't read it.

Q: hey breonne i saw that they have a pick up location in idaho falls too and im interested in trying it out. do you get to choose the fruit and veggies that go in your basket?? once you sign up do you have to do it every week or 2 weeks? its usually just me at home and i dont think i will need too much stuff but definatly want to give it a try. thanks for your help.

A: They do have a site in I.F., Malad, and Rexburg. It will expand to other areas as they get emails from volunteers to help find and run the sites.

You sign up for the basket, pay for it, and then they go to the suppliers on Thursday, or something like that, and get the best deals. The best deals will usually be whatever season you are in. Summertime is all of the berries and tree fruit (peaches, pears, oranges, etc), fall is squashes, pumpkins, etc. Then the produce is shipped to the sites. There the volunteers take all of the produce and divide it out equally to everyone who is participating. So you don't know what you'll get and you don't get to pick and choose but you'll all get roughly the same things. If there is an unequal amount of something than the volunteers get to divide it amongst themselves for volunteering! If they do it like here there's usually not a lot left over.

*For example if they have 20 people participating and they have 13 cucumbers and 10 squashes left after everyone has gotten some, then they will add one cucumber or squash to each basket and have 3 left. The volunteers than get to split the remaining 3 items. So the baskets vary only slightly, person A will have one more cucumber than person B who will then have one more squash than the person A but they'll both have 6 oranges (or whatever else is in the baskets). The volunteers though will usually end up with 1 or 2 (or 3, etc) more pieces of produce than the others. One of the benefits of service!

As far as how often you have to do it, it's up to you. They will provide it every other week (with holidays being exceptions). So if you sign up for it for next Saturday and decide you don't like it than you don't ever have to get it again. If you do like it than you sign up again in 2 weeks and pay the $15. I did every other week here during the summer. We didn't go through it fast enough so I ended up freezing or canning some of it. Then by the end of the summer I had a lot of frozen and canned produce so I decided to save the $15 per basket and eat what we had. So I didn't get any baskets for a few months. Then last Saturday I decided I wanted a basket so I got one. It's simple and easy. No one is forcing you to get one and you get it whenever you want it (given that it's available of course!).

Make sure you pick it up on time though or else they give it to a fire station. Yes this happened to me ONCE! It was the 3rd time I got it and I forgot. My phone with my reminder had gone swimming the night before and by the time I remembered it was an hour after my pick up time and they were already gone! So my biggest tip is to not be late, even be a few mintues early, because it only takes about a 1/2 hour to get through everyone (and my site has almost 100 people picking up there). It's quick and organized, usually. My site is about a mile from my house and it takes me about 10 minutes from the time I leave my house, get my produce, and walk back through my door. It's fabulous.

If you are an adventurous eater or looking to expand your tastes this can be really fun since you sometimes get weird things like brocc-a-flower or brussel sprouts (both I'd never had before but were fine for a once a year thing!). I never eat squash but because I got it in the basket I'll find a new recipe. Most of the time though it's normal enough stuff. The fruit we always eat, the veggies vary. We'll eat at least 1/2 of it because who doesn't use lettuce and tomatoes on a regular basis (and they're almost always in the basket)? I've gone to the store, randomly throughout the year, with the list of stuff I've gotten in the basket to compare prices, and the baskets have almost always been at least 50% less. So if I throw some of it away I don't feel too bad since I would have spent more at the store for the things we did eat. If you are pretty strict about the produce you want to eat this may not be the best way for you. I usually plan my meals on Saturday (after I get the basket) or Sunday for the following week so I use all of my produce.

Sorry this was so long winded.