Saturday, August 9, 2008

Farmer's Market

It has been a fun day. Jeff and his dad went to a Promise Keepers conference, and were gone last night, so Evie and I went and stayed with Jeff's mom last night. We went out in her garden and picked some veggies, then we went and searched for a specific weed. I have been looking for Stinging Nettles to make a tea with. The tea is supposed to be really good for allergy and sinus problems, and is also very tasty for putting in certain dishes. I thought we found some, but then came back and looked at pictures on my computer and realized it wasn't the same weed. Hmm, I guess I need to print off a picture and take it out with me. We went to the Farmer's Market this morning, and had a wonderful time. I bought a huge bag of yellow squash and zucchini, and also a big bag of green beans. All were organically grown, so I was excited about that! Evie kept eating the raw green beans the whole time we walked around. She loves raw green beans (so do I!). I bought a pretty bracelet and a candle for a friend of mine who is having a birthday tomorrow. I also bought a bushel of peaches. They aren't ripe yet, so I am going to have to let them ripen before freezing them. The weather has been so cool here that the peaches are having trouble ripening. Hopefully they will ripen soon. They sure smell good sitting in my garage!

I have been freezing so much produce that my freezer is getting super full. I love that! I do have a lot more stuff to put in there though, so I am going to have to get really creative. I don't even have the peaches in there yet, and I usually freeze pears and apples in the fall. It is going to be crammed. What a blessing though. There is nothing better than a crammed freezer! It will be so nice to be able to eat the produce all winter long. It helps me to eat healthier with all of this food available. This is the most produce I have ever frozen before. With food prices going up so much, I figured every little bit I could do to save money would help!

It was a beautiful and fun day! I'm glad my hubby is coming home though. I miss him!

5 comments:

SchnauzerMom said...

Sounds like you had a great time! You are wise to store up that food I think. Lots of healthy stuff to eat this winter.

Jules said...

You sure have been busy. All that food looks wonderful. I don't know whereabouts you are (and it probably wouldn't mean much to me anyway since my knoweldge of the US is rather limited) but do you freeze produce because it's a great money-saver or because it's hard to get fresh produce during the colder months? I'm just asking becaues I had a friend who lived in Canada for a year (in a very small town) and what she found really hard was the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables for most of the year. I like to freeze surplus fruit too but we are quite blessed in that we can get fresh produce all year round.

April said...

OooOoooo! Look at all those blueberries! And strawberries! And everything else! I need a bigger freezer I think. I bet those peaches do smell wonderful. We had just six sitting on the kitchen counter and they made the kitchen smell nice. A whole boxful? I'm so jealous!

K said...

Oh yummy looking peaches!!!!! I'm buying some peaches this weekend to can, since they're in season now too.
Isn't that great to have a freezer full of veggies and fruits. I know what you mean produce is so pricey in winter. It's nice to have that stuff all saved up, and at season low prices too.
Kelly

Unknown said...

Jules, we do usually have the produce available fresh throughout the year. A lot of it is shipped from Mexico though, and it is sprayed very heavily with pesticides. I don't want the pesticides, so I would rather buy the fruit when it is in season and freeze it. Buying it local usually means it isn't doused with chemicals like store bought stuff. Plus it is a lot cheaper, especially in the long run! I hope that answers your question :).