Fresh Finds

Our city Farmer's Market is too far away to justify the trip, but we do have a local orchard that is much closer that sells their own produce. It is more expensive than the grocery store, but you can pretty much guarrantee it will be extremely good. Their main produce items are sweet corn, tomatoes, and peaches.

Here are my purchases from today:

1 pint of peaches (7-8 peaches) : $4.50

2 tomatoes @ $2.25/lb.

4 "seconds" peaches @ 90 cents/lb.

Total w/ tax: $8.80

Driving home, I realized I should have checked out the "seconds" on the tomatoes. Oh well, lesson learned for next time. The "seconds" are the over-ripe/bruised/imperfect fruits. Sometimes there are some decents ones. I am going to peel and freeze the "second" peaches for cobbler.

I hope to get some fresh zucchini tomorrow at the grocery store. I will post my favorite way to eat zucchini and tomatoes this week!

Just so you know, I did not do much of a garden this year. I planted two tomato plants in pots. But, I didn't cage them soon enough, and one blew over and split. So, only one is left, and I think the rabbits have been eating it! I would like to grow my own vegetables, but didn't get an early of enough start on it this spring... and I've never grown food all by myself before, so I am a bit timid about it. I also just didn't feel ready to take on something else new at the time!

I comtemplated joining a CSA this past winter (for the spring through summer and fall), but from the one available here, most of the goods are vegetables and herbs (which I like), but not a lot of stuff that I am familiar with. Not a lot of fruit was on the list. I felt like I would need to learn to can, first, so that I didn't waste stuff. Also, the distribution point was not very close to us. So, not feeling up to the learning curve on cooking a bunch of unfamiliar stuff, I delayed, and the sign-ups were closed. Maybe next year.

Admitting that I chose to do neither one of those things makes me feel a bit bad. But I feel better knowing that our grocery stores are good about carrying local produce. And you know, sometimes something has got to give. I think that has been my slogan this past year. I want to do it all, but I can't. Everything has to have it's place on the list of priorities, and sometimes the ones at the bottom (and even in the middle) just have got to go now and then. And those things are different for everybody, depending a lot on your life situation!