How do you take advantage of all the cheap produce right now? - Page 2

[hollytheteacher]

Originally Posted by holidaymama

hollytheteacher - Sprouts is a chain store...they call themselves a farmers market, and they do carry a lot of local produce, but a lot comes from other states as well. However, they have the best meat and produce prices around if you buy what's on sale!

ooooh, we don't have that here though unfortunately.

[glowbug508]

re: VT farmer's markets

Hollytheteacher- I would check again... at this time of year the farmer's markets in VT have a surplus of food and are much cheaper than the grocery store for organic produce. A good thing to do is go at the end of the market (if it is from 12-2, go at 1:45). Farmers are very often wanting to sell stuff alot cheaper so they don't have to lug it home again with them. Also- don't remember where you are from in VT, but in Burlington, the Old North End farmer's market is SO much cheaper than the one downtown.

[brennasmom]

I freeze what I can... blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, etc.... These can be used for smoothies, desserts, and just snacking.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by SophieAnn

The nice thing about freezer jam is that you do have the low(er)-sugar option.

if you use Pomonas Universal Pectin, you can sweeten to taste w anything you care to use (honey, stevia, juice, etc). I haven't used "regular" pectin in years.

I freeze berries and cherries. I make some jam and can some stone fruit. I dehydrate the rest of the fruit. It's just quicker and easier than canning. I make pickles w veg, and freeze some, but we have a year round CSA box, so veg aren't really a problem, its just a matter of using up the bounty.

[BMG580]

I don't pressure can at this point, but high acid foods are really easily preserved in a water bath canner. Most people just think preserves and jams with fruit but you can get creative, I just canned a lot of peaches by making peach salsa that is delicious! You can also make homemade fruit syrup by using less pectin. Most bread makers have a jam setting that makes it easy peasy to make jam or syrup, and you cannot beat crock pot fruit butters (peach and apple butter is easy and ridiculously delicious). To can most fruits and jams requires a whopping 10-20 minutes, so that is not much time to spend.

I also freeze and dry a lot of herbs. An easy way to freeze herbs is to put them in with water in cheap ice cube trays, freeze and then pop them into a ziploc and they are super easy to add to sauce and soups and stews, you just throw the cube in and they are almost as good as fresh. Drying herbs is as easy and laying them on a cookie sheet in an oven set to 180 degrees with the door propped open - it takes about and hour and then they store really well in glass mason jars. Pesto sauce also freezes easily. I have canned lots of tomatoes but I am sort of sick of it this year at this point since they have to stay in the water bath for so long, so now I am just using my VitaMix to puree all my fresh tomatoes and then I add garlic, herbs, tomato paste, and olive oil to it and simmer it for a long time and then just bag it in freezer bags. Super, super easy.

[baby-makes-3]

Originally Posted by Ellp

On a separate note... I found an ad for bulk potatoes.
"Standard New White/Red: $22/50lbs Box
Nugget/Mini New White/Red: $40/50lbs Box"

Is this a good deal? What does one do with so many potatoes and how do you keep them? We don't eat a lot of potatoes but this just seemed like a good deal. Note: I don't have a deep freezer so I can't freeze anything more in my regular fridge freezer.

Where I live in the mid-atlantic US, I can get a 50 lb. bag of white potatoes for about 12.99. The local bulk store sells potatoes for $18/50 lb. bag.

You can get a big bin and fill it with sand. Dunk the potatoes in the sand, making sure they don't touch each other. They are supposed to last up to 6 months that way.

[FireWithin]

Our local farm is selling IPM tomatoes for cheap right now.
I want to make lots of tomato basil soup.
Any good recipes for this from fresh tomatoes?? (I usually use America's Test Kitchen's cookbook recipe and they use canned)
Would this soup be can-able, or should I just freeze it? Our chest freezer is starting to get full.

[mamadelbosque]

I can tomatoes, pickle jalapenos, freeze and/or dehydrate peaches, make applesauce/apple butter (then can it), freeze fruit... peppers can just be sliced and then frozen. Zucchini can be grated and then dried (and then rehydrated to make zucchini bread throught the year, cucumbers pickled of course... umm thats about all I can think of (oh, other fruit can be frozen and/or made into jam/jelly - personally I usually just freeze them and then make jam/jelly as needed out of frozen fruit, that way I can also make the frozen fruit into pies, smoothies, etc).

[mamadelbosque]

Oh, and if your looking to can, say, tomatoes or peaches or whatever, ask if they have canning peaches/tomatoes/whatever and often will sell you those (which are slightly bruised or whatever) for *WAY* cheaper. I did 22.5 quarts (21 quarts & 3 pints) of tomatoes for $13 two weeks ago!! And 10 pints of jalapenos for like $5

[2lilsweetfoxes]

This is making me miss the house we were renting with the peach tree out front (5 houses and 6 years ago).