The little food co-op

I recently joined a small, home-based fruit and vegetable co-op. One week we receive an overflowing basket of fruit and vegies, and on the alternate week, I've chosen to get fruit only. This arrangement seems to suit our family and of course, I already have lots of tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, capsicums and herbs coming from the garden. 

We had many more vegetables last year, but with other work commitments and the local wildlife discovering our 'buffet', this year isn't going to be quite as bountiful. But that's okay. It's hard to do everything and I like the 'community' feel of the co-op. This afternoon I went and gave a hand sorting the produce into the baskets. It's nice to meet some different people from the area.

It's also a lovely way to bring food home and has cut down on the amount of time I need to spend in the supermarket (a very good thing!). Last week, through the co-op, I was able to purchase 1/8 of a cow!  It came straight from the farmer, who lives out near Oberon. There is a really good mix of cuts and everything was bagged up and labelled, ready to go into the freezer.  I'm looking forward to some lamb soon too.

So, with this new arrangement Thursday mornings have seen me using up some of the left over fruit in a cake of some sort. Today, I've made this plum cake, that's featured on the cover of the March Delicious magazine.

The cake is made up of three layers - a flour/butter/brown sugar one, another that is cream cheese, vanilla and a little bit of caster sugar and of course the plums. There are two layers of each one, finishing with the plums. It looks beautiful and I don't think it will last long!

Plum tray bake

Another great thing about the co-op, is that we are getting out of a bit of a food rut. Instead of buying and making the same things each week, I now look at what I already have and make something with that. This sometimes means I need to have a quick look online or through a recipe book for inspiration, but I find I am enjoying the planning and preparing of meals much more. It also means we are eating a bit more seasonally, and I really like that.