frugal meal planning question

[marcimoose]

if you have your inventory list and try to buy things as infrequently as possible, how do fresh foods fit it? (fruits and veges???) sometimes i buy 10 different fresh items a week. we're getting a csa for 20 weeks starting in june, so that money will already be spent which is kind of nice. it will force us to eat locally grown yummy things. but, how do you handle buying fresh foods in the winter and keeping your shopping to a minimum?

[Amys1st]

I am getting a delivery service for dairy and fruits and veggies. All organic. It cuts down on a lot of gas and time.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Some veggies are hardier than others.

I have found that cabbage, beets, potatoes, carrots even cauliflower, will last substantially longer than other veggies.

So when I meal plan for a month, we eat salads, spinach, delicate stuff the first two weeks and then the hardier veggie meals at the end of the month.

I also use frozen peas, frozen corn, canned tomatoes liberally at the end of the month.

For fruits I have found that they will last longer (bananas, oranges, apples) if I store them out in our garage because that acts like a root cellar -- it is cold storage but not as cold as a refrigerator.

Edited to add: My family definitely does not like the end of the month meals as much as the beginning of the month...but that makes them appreciate the salads and grapes and cucumbers all the more when they come back around at the beginning of the month.

[velochic]

Those are good ideas Crunchy.

OP - I'm not really sure what your concern is. Do you live a distance from the store and not want to make the drive frequently to get fresh food?

In that case, I would ask another household member or friend that lives nearby to grab things while they are in town.

In our case, fresh fruit is an integral part of supper. My dh is from the Middle East and we end every supper with an assortment of fruit. We go through a lot of fresh fruit. I live only 2 miles from 3 grocery stores, so running to the store isn't much of an issue. I have to pick up my dd from school every day, so I stop by the store probably every day. Where I live (the Midwest) we don't have local fruit at all (well, some), so almost all fruit is store-bought except summer fruit stands (which often has fruit that is trucked in anyway). Many days I am going to the store to just buy fruit.

Vegetables. I have an older home (built in 1939) that has a room in the basement that was used as a root cellar. Finding a cool, dark room like this would help for keeping food. For the vegetables, I buy *a lot* of root vegetables in the winter time (mostly because I store food for weather emergencies). If you get potatoes, wrap them in newspapers individually and store them by themselves, away from any other foods to help prevent sprouting. Keep them in a cool dark place. That goes for onions, also. The gases that onions give off can spoil some other foods. Squash and pumpkins, kept cool and dark can last nearly all winter long. Otherwise, I would put up summer vegetables or buy frozen.

You can also get some books from your library... one off the top of my head is "Root Cellaring"... that will help you learn how to put food by for the winter. You can do dried apple strings, and can peaches, and do all sorts putting food by that is accomplished with your own hands.

Good luck!