I just bought ...

[donna723]

... a GIANT watermelon, a big sack of fresh yellow sweet corn and a great big bag of homegrown tomatoes from a stand that the Mennonites are running - all for $9!

These are bright red REAL tomatoes too, not the pink cardboard-tasting ones you get in the grocery store! I'll be eating tomatoes all week long but I do not care! They're wonderful! It was all I could do to keep from snatching up everything they had, including homemade jams and jellies but I didn't want to get more than I could use. These are the same people that usually sell homemade breads and rolls too but they didn't have any today. They make these big, soft, yellow dinner rolls that are to die for! Just thought I'd share that ... you can go back to whatever you were doing now!

 

[Hound dog]

Man! I'd kill to find it selling like that.

I thought I was doing good finding peaches on sale at kroger for .69 cents a pound. lol

Although a couple wks back I wanted to kick myself at a yard sale.........they had big boxes of tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers for a literal steal (whole box price) and I had to walk away from it because of being at easy child's all the time we'd never have used it before it went bad. I can only pray I stumble across such a deal again.

I'd like to drag easy child down to amish country and see how their prices are.

 

[Hound dog]

Ok, correct that. We're actually pretty like next door to amish country........just I have to hunt down their market. lol It's out in the literal middle of nowhere and I only found it once purely due to getting lost.

 

[klmno]

Yum!!

 

[DDD]

Double YUM!

This week I had a couple of "had to use or lose" tomatoes. Fixed them a different way. Sliced them in half, put a mount of leftover ricotta, garlic, spinach, shredded mozzarella and salt & pepper...then baked them for about twenty minutes or so. They really were good and I kept them in the frig for a day or two before using them for dinner with grilled pork chops. Just an idea to share in case you can't gobble up all the 'matoes fast enough, lol.

As hot as it is the watermelon should be terrific. Such a deal, too. Congrats! DDD

 

[AnnieO]

Yum... We really need to go to the farmers market here...

 

[donna723]

We have quite a few Mennonites here and some Amish too. When the kids were still at home and I had a freezer I used to buy lots of green beans and strawberries and corn from them and freeze them. Their prices are reasonable but not dirt cheap - they're pretty good business people, but their produce and homemade baked goods are wonderful! We have an art festival here every spring and there's lots of Mennonites there selling all kinds of things, even handmade furniture and baskets. I have a friend who comes to the art festival every year and buys lots of baskets that she fills with all kinds of goodies to use as Christmas gifts.

Their tomatoes bring back a lot of good memories. They're very much like the ones my grandfather used to grow in his garden when we were kids. We'd pick them, wash them off in the hose, and eat them hot off the vine.

 

[KTMom91]

I just picked up five bags of tomatoes from freecycle...distributed quite a few to friends and family, and hopefully have enough to make spaghetti sauce to can. My apricot jam is a bit runny, but it tastes good...made that last week.

 

[donna723]

I wish I could still do things like that but it's kind of too much now that I'm by myself. I used to make tons of plum jelly and jams though and it's still my favorite. We had a neighbor whose plum trees had so many on them that the trees would actually split and we'd fill up big grocery sacks full of them and bring them home! We had a garden back then and I grew tons of pickling cucumbers. Pickles are really easy to make. You can buy the spice blends for different kinds of pickles in the grocery store and they come out really well.

 

[Hound dog]

donna

I don't know how other people would feel, but I'd honestly be tickled pink if someone gave me homemade jams/jellies/ ect. They're always wonderful. Why don't you do it and give them out as xmas presents?

Man, I wish someone around here would give out produce on freecycle. I'd be at their door in a hearbeat. lol

 

[Mattsmom277]

I'd love to see them on our freecycle as well! I'm aching to get canning. I'll be doing salsa saturday and probably strawberry jam on sunday. Somehow our corn suddenly went horrible. It was everywhere for great prices, so fresh and wonderful, then nothing. I want to make corn relish to put up but unless corn turns back up locally, I missed the boat

Way To Go on the great steal for $9! I have produce envy!

 

[tiredmommy]

We sent watermelon to camp last night for those girls that were staying over just because it was so dang hot out. It cost me $10... I, too, have produce envy!

 

[KTMom91]

Farmer's Market is tonight...I'll probably get more apricots, corn (Fresno State corn is the BEST!), maybe some strawberries...and a chile verde burrito with extra green sauce. Yum.

It's almost cantaloupe season, too. Double yum.

 

[Star*]

I live right next to our Farmers market and I promise you - the prices are NOT any better than the local grocers. Almost exactly the same. We were kinda surprised. Guess they aren't over the shock of the cost to build the MEGA MARKET.

 

[tiredmommy]

Prices are usually better at our farmers markets than the grocery stores.

 

[DammitJanet]

Normally if you can find little road side markets you can get veggies cheaper.

I got a lot of stuff in VA including some butters that were locally made. Tomatoes and corn and peaches. I didnt get enough to can or anything but just enough to use immediately. In fact, I was eating peaches in the car on the way home...lol.

My stepmom and dad used to go picking strawberries and blueberries up to probably a year or two ago and then they made refrigerator jam to either keep or give to friends. It was as good as the stuff that needed to be canned. So dont get all concerned that you dont have the skills for canning anymore, just do it the easy way with the fridge type.