I am considering joining a produce co-operative. I’ve never done this before, but I am motivated by a desire to lose some weight, and also by a desire to feed Aaron healthier foods, now that he’s into table foods.
It is rather expensive up-front ($250 for a half-share, which means delivery every other week), but I’m debating if it’s even worth it.
I’d be interested in any experiences any of y’all have had with this.
Robin
We have participated in subscription gardens in the past. We paid about $ 250 and received a weekly organic produce and flower delivery from April to October. Perhaps this is the same as the produce cooperative you are referring to, though the term “cooperative” seems to imply that you either have to contribute some farm labor or share in the total profit at season’s end. Please correct me if I am mistaken.
Anyway, we enjoyed the experience and we ate quite well too. It was always a sweet mystery as to what would show up on the porch Friday afternoon. The next year our community finally developed a diverse and plentiful weekly farmers market and that was just more fun–especially with little kids, so we dropped the subscription.
If you are going to eat all the food and enjoy it, then it is worth it. Good healthy food seems to be a budgeting priority in our household.
I participated in a grocery cooperative. There were no up-front costs, you only paid for your order. It was delivered to a warehouse in Dallas and from there two or three sorted our own group order, and then one of those two or three took the whole shebang home and broke it down to individual orders, and then at a specified time everyone picked up their order from that person’s house. Everyone took turns taking the orders and turning them in, doing the warehouse run, and doing the breakdown. It was mostly produce but we also could get cheese, pasta, tea, and even a few toiletries. I saved a lot of money but it was hard work.