| There is nothing quite like roaming through the | | | | homemade tabouleh, chopped veggies and an |
| aisles of a local natural food co-operative store. | | | | assortment of organic dressings. She snuck some |
| The feel of fresh, organic produce in all its colorful, | | | | cubed turkey into her box. I was hoping it was |
| rich and fragrant glory, glowingly beckoning you to | | | | free-range. |
| the bins and refrigerated shelves where you can | | | | With our lunch in tow, we turned to the |
| select a lovely head of red leaf lettuce, a | | | | vegetables...some were marked commercially |
| succulent cucumber, or a real tomato-all organically | | | | grown. We steered clear of those and made sure |
| grown, much of it locally. | | | | to look for the 9 preceding the PLU numbers that |
| Today, I got a very special treat. I took my 81 | | | | designate produce as organic. We found lovely, |
| year old mother into her very first co-op | | | | tomatoes, apples, oranges, zucchini, garnet yams, |
| experience. Fortuitously, she happens to live in | | | | avocados and several varieties of lettuce. Tofu |
| Davis, California...one of the greenest cities around. | | | | cream cheese, soy milk, and stevia sweetener |
| I knew they'd have a good Co-Op and indeed, I | | | | were also added to our cart. |
| was not disappointed. | | | | Having found that it was helpful for her insomnia, |
| Since I was visiting and she usually doesn't | | | | Mom needed some melatonin, the sublingual kind. |
| venture further than the familiar neighborhood | | | | This particular Co-op had their own, in-house |
| grocery store we had to search G Street for the | | | | brand for 75% less than the brand name bottle. |
| Davis Food Co-Op building. And there it was, | | | | Mom was discovering new and exciting |
| unmistakable from quite a distance. The building | | | | apothecary items amongst the supplements, |
| was painted green, of course, and sporting that | | | | natural cosmetics and personal care doo-dads on |
| look of | | | | shelves near the melatonin. I think she was |
| dable-for-a-co-op-to-buy" motif. The familiar | | | | impressed. |
| helmeted cyclists were flocking in and young | | | | As she gazed around at the vast variety of |
| people wearing fashionable grunge with a little | | | | natural products, supplements, food items, |
| earth muffin thrown in, milled around in the | | | | prepared foods, and healthy beverages, she |
| parking lot. They were visiting with each other, | | | | started to get a sense of the slightly-moist feel |
| strapping their kids into shopping carts and | | | | and clear vibe that accompanies a |
| carrying their reusable cloth bags. | | | | conscious-eating emporium. At this point, serious |
| To her credit, my mom had two cloth bags of | | | | thought about joining the ranks of the raw food, |
| her own (I also spied some swoopy fluorescent | | | | vegan aficionados began to enter her mind. She |
| bulbs in her kitchen drawers earlier along with | | | | picked up a Davis Food Co-Op Membership |
| stainless-steel water bottles in the fridge). I was | | | | Brochure. |
| secretly a bit proud of her, just then. | | | | We happily approached the checkout counter with |
| We stepped into the store and were immediately | | | | our prizes and Mom was thrilled that she was |
| embraced by the familiar, fabulous, full salad bar. | | | | given the deferential badge of respect: the senior |
| We got out the waxed paper boxes (no reusable | | | | discount. Both cloth bags were filled with |
| containers yet) from below the cold table, and | | | | wonderful goodies which we carted alongside to |
| began filling them with spring mix, brightly colored | | | | choose our table outside in the adjacent garden |
| yellow, red and orange cherry tomatoes, | | | | picnic area where we ate our salad-bar lunch. |