Food Cooperative continued

You may recall the post when I mentioned I belong to a food cooperative, well last night was collection time. All the goods are delivered to one house and members arrive at 7 pm to collect their orders as quickly as possible. You can get some idea of the process from the above picture. Sometimes it does seem a bit chaotic with everyone scrambling to claim their goods. For some reason this time there were several items missing from the delivery and a couple of things included that we didn't order. I'm rather glad I wasn't the person having to sort out the mistakes and luckily for me my order was complete (that sounds a bit like 'I'm alright jack' but it wasn't meant to be honestly).

To save time I decided to bag up the muesli and puy lentils at home. It was quite an effort getting this huge sack into the boot of my car. I have just finished weighing up 10K for other people which has left me covered in a fine white dust. The only problem I have now is how to store the remaining 15K of organic muesli which is currently sitting in my kitchen. This should be more than enough to keep my hubby going for the next few months. The lentils are fine and almost fitted into a large storage jar bought for the purpose (now I will be trawling for some more lentil recipes so if anyone has a tried and tested soup recipe please let me know).


As promised this gadget (looking very much like a wooden egg when viewed from above) is what I purchased from Nigella Lawson's Living Kitchen range. I haven't tried it out yet but I'm told if I keep the Parmesan in the freezer I can grate as needed. So if any food bloggers read this, is it good advice ??

Hosting the Food Cooperative Meeting

I believe I have mentioned before that encouraged by my friend, Tina, I joined a food cooperative back in June 2005. Tina has been a member for over twenty years but membership has fluctuated and it is now down to around a dozen families. This means we are always looking to recruite new members who might be interested in bulk buying.

Yesterday it was my turn to host the ordering meeting and this provided me with the perfect excuse to bake a cake to have with the tea and coffee. We were, able to welcome a new member to the group which was an, unexpected but pleasant bonus. Most people arrive with a list but we do tend to go through the catalogue as we place our orders. Sometimes agreement has already been reached to share items such as dried bluberries which are tremendously expensive (Tina and I can't resist having some dried ones in reserve for times when we can't buy fresh- well not all that fresh here in the UK as they are imported).

I was keen to buy organic 'Puy' lentils but I didn't want 5 kilo. Two of the others wanted a kilo each so I was able to have 3 kilo, for the same price as two smallish packets from the supermarket (a bargain and they will last me ages). The order is delivered to one of the members homes and we collect it in two weeks time and this seems to work reasonably well, although occasionally I have run out of Camomile tea or oats during that time.

Having seen some recipes I wanted to try (on food blogs) I had meant to order polenta and cornmeal but stupidly forgot. I wasn't particularly worried as I tend to go shopping on a Monday and I thought I would have no trouble in getting either item from one of the largest supermarkets in the U.K. Silly me, the guy I asked hadn't ever heard of either but went to ask. It turns out they have ready made Italian polenta but no cornmeal so I will have to visit a whole food shop later in the week and plan a different menu for tomorrow.

I'll maybe return to this topic in a couple of weeks, and I will try and remember to go armed with my camera to capture the organised chaos of what looks like a 'shop' as all the goods are piled up in someone's kitchen waiting to be collected.