What’s in Your Basket is a new feature of “The Dirt: IFC’s Blog,” where we feature a consumer of IFC and what is in their basket that week. Want to be featured on What’s in Your Basket? Send an email to Ash.
Albia member Maryanne Anderson has been an avid shopper at Iowa Food Cooperative for over a year. While she has her own kitchen garden she says she loves that she can order fresh produce and canned items from Agri-Cultured and Juan O’Sullivan’s during the winter. She said that while she is a gardener she was “blown away” by the amazing selection at IFC.
Eating food grown by people who love what they do and care for the earth and their customers is huge for me. It is an experience I will never really get at a grocery store.
When we asked her what was the one thing she couldn’t live without from IFC her answer wasn’t something we sell, it was the energy of the community. “I can put a face to my food. I eat alone most of the time but I never feel like I do. With every meal I prepare and serve at my table comes with it, the dedication, the love, sweat and tears it took to grow everything. It’s like everyone is at the table and It fills me with such gratitude and has made me more aware.”
We love Maryanne’s commitment to and love of IFC’s community! We had to find out what she always has in her shopping cart.
Maryanne’s Must-Have Items
1. 7 Pines Beer Bread Mix and Herb Beer Mix (Add to your cart here!)
Her Tip: When I bake a loaf, I divide into thirds and freeze for later. I take each thirds and usually break it into chunks for soups and stews or use to dip into oil from Pickle creek. The herb mix was part of my Christmas meal.”
2. Bear Creek Certified Organic Canned Beef (Add to your cart here!)
Her Tip: I’ve been stocking this up for my pantry and to use for shepherds pie.
3. Lee’s Greens (Add to your cart here!)
Her Tip: I use their sweet potatoes for sweet potato soup, roasted with butter and cinnamon and mashed.
4. Country Roads Produce (Add to your cart here!)
Her Tip: I sautée their swiss chard in hemp oil with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and toasted walnuts from from Grade A Gardens.
5. Hansen Dairy Heavy Cream (Add to your cart here!)
Her Tip: I put some in a quart jar with a pinch of salt and shake to make butter. I also whip some for a dollop on my World Peace Coffee and the rest will be used for baking scones.
6. Country View Dairy (Add to your cart here!)
Her Tip: I have their vanilla yogurt with Sunrise aronia berries and Grade A walnuts for breakfast dish/smoothies. I use their plain greek yogurt for topping my chili and sweet potatoes and to make my French onion dip mix.