Bountiful Baskets

Today was the pickup day for Bountiful Baskets. We have been getting these all summer and what a huge blessing! The way this works is that it is a co-op staffed by volunteers. Orders are taken on Mondays a www.bountifulbaskets.com I have learned that although they are open for taking orders for over 24 hours, the baskets in our area frequently sell out after about 15-20 minutes. No time for procrastination with these. This morning the kids and I went to volunteer and they were such a blessing in getting the food unloaded, getting the items distributed through the baskets and breaking down boxes. They really worked hard. For volunteering we got a couple of extra pears, a cucumber and honeydew melon. This week I only purchased 2 baskets (each basket is designed around a family of 4) We recieved collard greens,english cucumbers, fresh yams, honey dew melons, tomatoes, carrots, bananas, limes, avocado (they were huge!!) celery and pears. Because of the quantity, some of this fresh goodness went to my mom :) She love avocados and no one here does. All this for $15 a basket, and easily it would run $40-50 in the stores. Tonight I cooked up our dinner and realized that none of it was purchased in a supermarket. Venison backstrap that had been marinated in garlic and pepper (okay the pepper was storebought), corn on the cob (left over from last week) and baked sweet potatoes. For dessert the last of the water melon we got last week. With the baskets there are offers of extras, I have purchased their tortilla packs, however there are a lot of corn tortillas which are not favored around here. I have purchased cases of blueberries, apples, peaches and pears, making a variety of jams and jellies. I even made a batch of orange jelly, and we had so many mangos at one point I made peach mango jam...we will not have to buy jelly for a long time! I have also canned just plain peaches and pears for us to enjoy throughout the winter, along with a case of pineapple (that cost was only $20). On Tuesday I am going to take one of the cucumbers and make refrigerator pickles (since they aren't true pickling cucumbers. My darling has started hunting season...bow hunting, and has started stocking our freezer with our first deer. Normally we like these to hang for a few days, however the temperature has been so warm we dare not lest it spoil. SOOOO last nite we had Family Game Night around the table...cutting up the "game" for the freezer...games on!!!! We pulled off a couple of beautiful roasts, steaks, and ground over 10 pounds of meat. I had my beloved cut up the bones, and when it is a little cooler I will take those out of the freezer and make and can broth. I have not done this before, but IF it works out I will continue to save the bones. My prayer is that both he and the oldest will fill their tags. I hope to put one up for ground only (since I use it most) and one up to have pepperoni stick made. We shall see what God will provide my hunters with this year.