I catch a lot of flack from people because I make about 90% of our food from scratch, and most of the time it looks fairly involved. I like to use wonderful, fresh ingredients...preferably organic and local.
When it came to making food for our Harvest Soiree I needed a red pepper, actually 2 red peppers, for the date ratatouille. Instead of waiting until the day of, when the Farmers' Market was going on I ran to the closest grocer and picked up a red pepper. Only one as it ended up being $2 for 1 pepper ($4.99/lb)! Outrageous. I wasn't even going to go for the organic as those were $8.99/lb.
When it came to making food for our Harvest Soiree I needed a red pepper, actually 2 red peppers, for the date ratatouille. Instead of waiting until the day of, when the Farmers' Market was going on I ran to the closest grocer and picked up a red pepper. Only one as it ended up being $2 for 1 pepper ($4.99/lb)! Outrageous. I wasn't even going to go for the organic as those were $8.99/lb.
As I needed a few things from the Farmers' Market I ran there for a super fast trip and ended up getting a few things I needed, plus the following peppers.
Farmers' Market peppers
In the bowl there are 9, yes 9 peppers...local and organically grown for $3! Sure they aren't as pretty as the other pepper, but who cares?!? Now to clean and freeze them for use during the winter months in soups, stews and sauces!
Moral of the story - if you like to cook and you're on a budget (but who isn't these days?) get thee to your local farmers' markets. Pack your freezer and pantry shelves with awesome local produce for those long winter months.
3 comments:
I have two bags of peppers in the freezer along with many tomato sauces and soon I will be working on my herbs.
I love my garden!
Ok. Question from the non making everything from scratch type of mom. It's our first garden this year so it is small and humble and I know nothing about any of this. Can you really just put the extra veggies in the freezer? I have 5 monster zucchini and in no way can use them before they go bad. Can I just put them in a bag? Do some veggies freeze ok and other not?
I realize I am writing a book on your blog but I need help from the master gardner!!!
Not all fruits and veggies are created equally, nor is their prep or ability to freeze well. I found a site that gives lots of prep options for zucchini - http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf676463.tip.html
hth!
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