Terri, this reminds me of when my husband first joined our food coop! (I won't tell you how long it took us to use a case of mayonnaise that he ordered. I don't know why I wasn't making it with the eggs from our hens, but after that I didn't need to. When I was a kid, my Dad came home once with a case of pizza flavored ketchup. They say we often marry someone like our father, and I did!) You're right about ''live and learn''. It all looks really good...I'd like one of those bananas right now! Our Organic Farmer's Market starts soon and I'm looking forward to that. You have to be there by 8 a.m. though, as it goes pretty fast.

I never seem to get through the bag of lemons when I buy them, but lemonade is always a good choice. I used to freeze lemon juice in ice cube trays, and the skins for zest. Sometimes I use them with coarse salt to clean my copper pots.

How often does your coop order?

Claire, Basically there is an order every week of something. But I think produce is every other, cheese is once a month, AzureStandards is once a month...Dairy is every other week...
~I just received an email from the Co op Hostess...someone forgot to order lettuce and she asked it I was willing to sell some of mine. :o) LOL I told her I'd be willing to give up 2, as I released 3 already, and that leaves me 1 if I share with the forgetful one. lol :o)

I just placed an order for farm fresh butter and ricotta. It will be here Thursday. :o)

I dearly wish that I could find something like this near me. The closest that I could come was a local farm where I can "sponsor" a chicken for 5$ a month.

I am advocado green with envy! If you can get some farm fresh marscapone I'll share my recipe for upscale nanner puddin' ;-).

Nina

Terri, lucky you. I could use the cauliflower with no problem, it keeps pretty well and I can eat a whole head roasted in the oven.

Lemons? You can grate the peel and freeze it, and lemon juice freezes pretty well, but I'm in the "make lemonade" camp. Or lemon bars or lemon pie or lemon brownies.....

Bananas also freeze pretty well, I mash them up, put them in 2 cup containers and freeze until I want them.

Garlic keeps and 10 pounds of potatoes can't go very far with all your guys, LOL. The avocados, though, I don't know what to tell you about those, I'd be eating lots of guacamole, I guess. Those little peppers would make cute little stuffed peppers, if I didn't eat them all raw for snacks!

Farm fresh butter and ricotta? So, whatcha gonna make?

Annie

Wow that is some haul. I hope you will post a picture of what you receive each week. Like having the farmers market delivered right to your door.

Ann

Terri, you are so lucky to have such a wonderful opportunity to get farm fresh organic! And for such a decent price, too!

Yep, like Annie said, freeze lemon rind and juice, bananas, even blanch and freeze cauliflower if you need to.

Avocados are another story. It would take me a year to use up all of those!

Can't wait to see what you get next week!

Linda

Great looking produce Terri. I want to tell you that I thinks it's great all the time and effort you put into feeding your guys good stuff!! Looking forward to more pics from you and other members as all of this fresh local produce comes available

David

Super for you Terri! That's a nice load that you got. We have many (and I mean many) organic farms around us plus they sell at the Farmer's Market also so I am very lucky.

Now that we are heading into summer I will gets LOTS of great stuff. I will post what I pick up.

Congrats Terri. It looks like you are going to have a good season.

You can freeze whole lemons in plastic bags - that's what I do when I have excess, although I generally just leave them on the tree until I need them. Avocados are more of a problem, since they don't seem to freeze well, but you could make cold avocado soup and use lemon juice in it. I usually use lime juice, but either is okay. You might have some luck in freezing avocados with lemon juice. I haven't tried it, but if I were in your place, that's what I would do. Whatever you make with the avocados later would need to have lemon juice in the recipe, but it would be fine for guacamole.

Alternatively, you could just throw a party.

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: avocado soup recipe

Right Lars, throw a party!

Well today is my first day at home most of the day, so I'm going to do a little baking..and put some lemon loaves/muffins and things in the freezer for quick snacks and lunch box fillers for hubby.

Hmmm, I also think I'll be picking some greens out of the garden, adding some chopped romaine, cauliflower and some carrots (had those already) and laying on some slices of Avocado for lunch..little balsamic and EVOO...and a few crumbles of feta....

Terri, that is a great-looking vegetable/fruit loot!
But, oh, how I wish I could help you thin out your avocado yield.

You know, I also avoid bananas that have brown spots. Something about their mushy texture once they're fully ripe, tends to trigger my gag reflex.
Once that happens, I will normally put whole bananas (unpeeled) into the freezer, to be used later in breads, ice cream, whatever.

Like Lars, I also freeze lemons, whole. I put them in freezer bags and they seem to do very well for months.

Sol

Sol, that mushy texture of ripe bananas makes me gag too. I mush them up and put them in the freezer, I never thought of freezing them whole.

Annie

oh I always freeze whole..just as is..into the freezer..they look ugly on the outside when they come back out..but the flesh isn't "water" and has a great banana smell.