Paving Paradise... BOO! Organic Buying Club... YAY!

Not that you would be able to tell by my ever-increasing blobular form, but I'm a bit of a health nut. My latest obsession has resulted in a series of  freak outs about the pollutants, pesticides, growth-hormones, GMOs, etc. in our food and water supply. In these parts, it's difficult to find a local grocery store that carries a variety of organic food-stuffs and doesn't require an appendage and your first-born child as payment. I suppose I could drive to the city to the nearest reasonably priced health food store, but wouldn't traveling in the Jeep for an hour spewing unnecessary pollutants out the tailpipe and into the atmosphere sort of defeat the purpose?

Two steps forward, two steps back. Might as well just eat the steak from the two-headed calf at that point.

Enter the local Whole Life Buying Club.

For $50 every two weeks, our fearless leader (let's call her Jen) travels to the city and picks up our giant bags of organic produce from the local Urban Organics group. She brings the orders back to town and we converge on a central spot to retrieve our reusable grocery bags full of goodness. The list of available fruits and veggies changes with the season and you can, for an additional fee, add in an extra veggie or fruit "share".

This is my second pickup and I am once again extremely pleased with my haul.

The odd plum-shaped fruits between the pears and the red onions are called pluots.
And for some reason I got one beet. What does one do with a single beet??

This time Jen also added a bread order from a local bakery that specializes in organic, non-GMO products, and extra bunches of basil from a local grower ($1 a bunch!! What a bargain! Pesto for everyone!! YAY!). So in the picture, there are two loaves of bread and an extra handful of basil that wouldn't normally be in the regular $50 share but it's still a fantastic deal.

I busted into the bread this morning. It was a little slice of honey whole-wheat heaven. I also ate my first organic pluot. Yeah, that was my question, too; What the hell's a pluot? Whatever it was, it was delicious.