Produce Co-op

Every other Thursday is Dallas Farmers Market run day for us. You see, I organize and run a produce co-op. I thought it would be fun to show everyone exactly what we do on market days.It's alot of hard work, but lots of fun and we always end up with a ton of fresh fruits and veggies!


Of course the first thing we (me and my help for that day) do is to load all the kids up in the cars bright and early. We try to leave no later than 8:30am. After about a 20-30 min drive to the market the fun starts.



What keeps our prices low($20 every other week)and allows us to purchase so much is buying in bulk, so we start off by getting a price sheet from one of the bulk dealers and ordering everything we want from them we drive over and park under the pavilions. While we are walking up and down the pavilions we are offered lots of yummy samples and sometimes we even make a breakfast out of it!


After we finish shopping we load up. It always takes two cars (if the kids are with us) to go to the market. We bring back ALOT of stuff!

Next is unloading it. Now, I know she looks like she has some hulk-like muscles going on, but trust me, this stuff is heavy! It takes us about 20 minutes or so to unload all of this with two of us. That bag of cabbage is 50 pounds.

While we are unloading the kids sit and have lunch so that they are not under foot.


Here it all is in my breakfast room. I try to keep it off the carpet as much as possible, but it takes up alot of space. Now we will need to start sorting it.

It takes about two hours for everything to be sorted evenly. Total we will have been working with the veggies for four to five hours and will spend another hour or so cleaning up the bits that fall off during the sorting process. I will also spend the rest of the day at home waiting for everyone to come pick up.



So there it is! If you participate in a produce co-op take a moment to thank whoever runs it because it is alot of hard work! Thank you to all the ladies who help me out. I definitely couldn't do it without you!