Today at the Coop

Love it or hate it, the Park Slope Food Coop has great produce. The kale is always beautiful, the beets are multicolored, and the melons fresh and delicious.

Sometimes, that produce can be procured at a significant discount. For instance, if you had a hankering to make guacamole, this would be a good day to head over to the PSFC. Organic tomatoes (not needed for guacamole purists) are $1.50 a pound (the price was $1/pound the other day, and may go down again) and non-organic avocados are less than that. For those unaccustomed to buying avocados by the pound, that’s about $.50 for a medium-sized haas avocado, about a quarter to a sixth what they sell for at Key Food. And you don’t have to limit yourself to guacamole. It’s a versatile fruit.

Apples and pears have finally started to come in. The king of pairs, comice, can be had this time of year, also a steal for about $1 a pound. They’re easily bruised and have to be peeled before eating, but the extra trouble is worth it. There’s also a five pound bag of organic white potatoes for about $2.50.

For those non-members, they’ve made the joining process a bit easier: the all-important and often elusive orientation slots come available exactly two weeks before the orientation session. So if you were to go on line Monday at 7:30pm (one of the three orientation times), you would probably be able to sign up for a session a fortnight later.

And for those with no intention of joining, you can continue to ridicule your neighbors. So what if your tomatoes cost more? You’re not waking up for a 6am maintenance shift. If you’re willing to go off the map, there are inexpensive produce markets in Brooklyn (one not far from the South Slope).