Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Mini Trees - Galore!

Mini trees - aka broccoli!  And yes, galore! 

There is a great company out of my homestate that delivers food across a good number of states.  They carry a vast array of products, most easily described as anything you would find in a Natural Grocers or health food store.  They sell by the can and the case, by a single pound or twenty-five pounds.  Their products include all kinds of foods, supplements, toiletries, books, garden/farm things, etc.  Not everything is shelf stable, either.  They have fresh and frozen meats, dairy products, and produce.  Most all their products are organic, too.

New Mexico is on a monthly delivery route, and upon learning about it, Tom and I made an order of bulk grains and beans.  It was definitely worth while, and one of our neighbors has been gracious to pick up our boxes with her own, as the drop-off is usually just after lunch time in Springer.  We hadn't ordered again because we just didn't have space to store food in the single-wide, but with the house dried in and an empty cool cellar just waiting to be filled, we decided to place a January order.

Our neighbor who orders regularly has been touting the perishable foods - the produce is excellent and not bruised/old like the offerings sometimes are in our small local markets, and the frozen foods are really frozen after all the miles.  So the four households ordering in January agreed to split a produce order.  I suggested we would eat broccoli, onions, and apples.  Everyone was in, so I ordered a case of each, assuming that when we split it four ways, Tom and I would have 10 pounds of onions, 5 pounds of apples, and 4 heads of broccoli. 

An ignorant woman was I, but ne'er again.  Tom and I ended up with about 35 pounds of onions, 15 pounds of apples, and 11 "heads" of broccoli (each "head" was actually of bunch of 3 heads).  The apples and onions will keep well in the cellar, but the broccoli was another story.  I went from expecting 4 heads to having 33.  I wasn't disappointed, though, because it all looked so delicious!  After bagging up some of each, I delivered a bag to Mom & Pop, Marie & Dave, and Daniel & Julie.  Then the apples and onions went to the cellar.  Finally, I got all the broccoli bagged up and stuffed into the fridge.  See, I was leaving the next day for five days in Albuquerque, and Tom was already gone for a conference and still had a couple more days. 

Poor guy came home to an empty house and a fridge full of mini trees!  But all is well now - they've been chopped, blanched, and bagged for the freezer.  After a couple meals in a row with broccoli, we've had to take a break, but there are still a couple heads left for making soup this weekend.  Hmmm...broccoli!

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