Food Co-op: Some thoughts

Our experience with our local food Co-op is drawing near to a close. I have mixed feelings about the entire process and I wanted to ruminate about them some here. Overall, it was a positive experience. That being said however..I won't be signing up again next season. There were some things that I had trouble with:

1. We signed up for a full share of veggies each week. Now this was supposed to be enough to feed a family of four, and most times, it was. But we would get sometimes just one small turnip, or four small beets. I would be okay with this number, but I know that our co-op also holds a weekly farmers market which means they are selling all of their "surplus"...stuff that was technically already paid for by the co-op  members prior to being grown.

2. We got a few things that we wouldn't have bought for ourselves, over and over again. Like basil. I love basil but I also have some growing outside my door. I received a big handful of basil each week from the co-op and it's not something I would have purchased for myself..which means it got thrown away every single week. This is a waste and also...a waste of money. Not getting to pick what you get each week can equal more waste if your family simply won't eat it.

3. Often times what we got...seemed like seconds. I can't say for sure if this was the case or not, but for example, we got a sweet potato that had clearly been hacked in half by a blade. Still edible, yes, but since we only got one sweet potato (for a "family of four?") half of it had to be thrown out...this means we only got 1/2 of a sweet potato. We also got some extremely tiny carrots that were...not quite big enough for rabbit food (One or two bites per carrot). This was very disappointing.

So, the positives:

1. I loved getting farm fresh eggs weekly. If it didn't require such a drive down to the farm, I would consider doing only an egg share.

2. The chickens, always sold as extras, while expensive were definately delicious. Pasture raised birds that you know lead happy, grub eating lives.

3. I loved the IDEA of the co-op. Of farm fresh veggies each week, and I got just that. It just had enough flaws that I think for our family it'd be better to take our money down to the local organic farmer's market...and buy exactly what we want each week (and enough for all of us to have some).

Just my thoughts, I still think the idea is a good one and worth investigating! I still think eating locally and organically is important, but we will have to find another way to do it.