It was a good week in the food department. With the garden pumping out vegetables left and right, we’ve been busy not only eating as many as we can, but preserving them as well.
With so many vegetables canned, dehydrated or tucked away in the freezer already, I think it will be interesting to see if we’ll actually need to buy anything from the produce section this winter. Other than some bananas, I can’t imagine we’ll need {or want} anything else.
Hannaford $4.69
A gallon of my favorite Okahurst milk was $4.69. A half gallon of the same brand was $3.69.
And since I’m the only one here who drinks milk and it takes me at least a week {if not longer} to go through a half gallon by myself, I decided to freeze half of it in a recycled milk container.
I figure by doing this, I won’t have to buy any milk for the rest of the month.
Hannaford $6.32
Broccoli was on sale last week for $0.99 a pound {about as low as it gets around here} so we bought a few pounds to tuck away in the freezer for later.
Do you do this? Load up on fresh vegetables when they’re on sale?
If you have some extra room in your freezer it might be a good way to save a few bucks. You can usually get some pretty decent deals on vegetables this time of year and all the way up until Thanksgiving.
If you’ve never frozen broccoli before it’s super simple. Just cut it up, blanch it, pat it dry, lay it on a cookie sheet, pop it in your freezer for a few hours to firm up and then toss it into freezer bags to use later.
I also dehydrated a boatload of peppers from the garden this week too. They’ll be great in all sorts of dishes this winter. Actually, I’ve been dehydrating a lot of things lately. {Maybe I should do a show and tell on that?}
Here are some of the meals we ate last week:
Sweet potatoes! We planted 25 slips and all we got were enough sweet potatoes for 2 meals. What a bummer. I blame it on the less than stellar soil down in the religious family garden plot. I should have planted them in the lasagna garden. I bet I would have had a bumper crop. 🙁
Green beans. And lot’s of them. This round {I think it’s #5} we’ve been enjoying the French filet variety. They’re much thinner and shorter than regular varieties but oh so tender.
Baby potatoes, corn and beans. All from our garden.
Weenies, peppers and roasted beets and carrots.
Lasagna and roasted carrots.
Roasted potatoes, fresh salsa and a fried egg.
And last but not least, a little chicky pot pie and a half loaf of bread from The Duck Lady. She thought the bread was over baked {it wasn’t} so she gave me half and was testing out a new recipe for chicken pot pies {for her farmstand} and asked me if I’d test one out.
And I think we all know I was up for that task!
I brought her some corn stalks for her stand in return. 🙂
Life is good when you have a neighbor you can barter with.
So how was YOUR week? Did you find any deals? Are you feeling the urge to stock up when you find something on sale these days?
Have a great week everyone,
~Mavis
Total Spent This Past Week on Groceries $6.32
- Total Spent in September on Groceries $13.65
- Total Spent in August of Groceries $24.29
- Total Spent in July on Groceries $335.47
- Total Spent in June for Groceries $124.45
- Total Spent in May for Groceries $172.47 {$47 of it was spent at Farmers Markets}
- Total Spent in April on Groceries $94.48
- Total Spent in March on Groceries $114.12
- Total Spent in February on Groceries $94.64
- Total Spent in January on Groceries $96.58
- Total Spent on Groceries in 2022 $1065.46
Kim says
Please do a post about dehydrating! I just bought an older model at a garage sale and don’t know much about it, or what to do with things after I dry them.
Elle says
My garden is a near total loss. (and I buy my organic tomato, pepper, eggplant starts). I’ve picked less than 20# of produce from a total of 52 plants-tomato, eggplant, peppers. I have 20 Brussel Sprout plants and the veg is not even pea size yet. First frost last year was Sept 24.
3w ago I froze 4.5# tomatoes. Saturday I picked again. Along with our Farmer’s tomatoes, purchased onions/garlic, I made a big pot of ratatouille. I thawed 2 gallon bags of roasted zucchini from last year and added it at the end. I have 7 quarts in the freezer, we ate it for dinner Sat and will again today. That is likely all I will get put up this year. And I got 6 dozen pint jars for $8 each in April in the hopes of putting up gallons and gallons of salsa. It is not to be.
Sad face here 🙁 I’ll enjoy your produce vicariously from a distance while I buy produce at Costco all winter.
Julia Park Tracey says
I had the same problem this year — a late May frost set me back (killed what I had planted, made me late starting again), and then we had horrific heat. My tomatoes may not recover, zucchini was literally half of ONE squash, and cucumbers have beem misshapen and bitter. Poo!
Claire Sylvestre says
Same! I was trying a new garden location on my property and apparently the critters found all my leaves very yummy.
Luckily my mother still hasn’t figured out how many plants she needs for her much reduced household and kept providing me tomatoes she didn’t want to process.
Add to that a couple failed jam recipes (thank you out of date pectin) and now I’m trying to figure out what I can make with whats in my cabinet.
Mel says
I haven’t felt the need to stock up on anything, but I am trying to cook extra and freeze. I probably should have done that before the baby arrived, but our freezer meals are mostly cool weather fare, so I didn’t. I do sort of wish I’d already dealt with the 70 lbs of tomatoes in our freezer before the baby arrived, but that was not happening with new flooring going in. So, I’m going to have a friend babysit for a day at some point this fall. I wasn’t able to go apple picking this fall either, but my husband went for me and picked our usual 90 lbs, so I made two crockpots of applesauce and will eventually tackle scones, apple butter, etc. for the freezer.
In other news, after 2 months without a working oven or dishwasher, my husband finally gave in and ordered new ones. The oven arrived Friday, and the dishwasher comes this week. I’m now side-eying the microwave since that’s the only appliance that hasn’t failed at least once, but that’s less essential. The oven is wifi-enabled, which is odd, but I’ve actually liked it so far. And I like having an oven that actually tells you when it’s preheated (our previous one would just give a single, meek little beep that was easy to miss, so you’d have to stand there listening carefully).
So, all in all, the food situation is slowly improving here now that I have a working oven, will be able to wash dishes, and have entered the season where a giant pot of soup can get us through several meals in one week or be frozen for later.
Anne Wiebe says
I love the phrase “gave a meek little beep” – thanks for a good laugh!
Mel says
No problem! The oven’s sound effects were in direct contrast to the microwave’s. The microwave goes off like a car alarm when it’s done, and then goes off again every two minutes until you open the door. It can be heard throughout the whole house, so the oven was very soft spoken by comparison haha.
Mavis Butterfield says
Thank goodness for soup season!!
Mel says
And casseroles!
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes!!! 🙂
Mellie says
I have the same dehydrator that you do and I love it! We’ve been making Pringle-like potato chips in ours from mashed potatoes. Best part is you can season them however you like. We’ve done lightly salted, ranch, dill pickle, and taco.
suzanne says
OOh. That sounds really good. May I ask how you form them?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, I want to know too! 🙂
Mellie says
Here is a link to the recipe I use.
https://www.joyfulabode.com/homemade-baked-lays-potato-chipsbut-better/
Margo says
I dehydrated cherry tomatoes, a few bell peppers, basil, and dill this year. Going to dry some watermelon this week. Comes out like gummy candy. Delicious!
Rosemary Calhoun says
When I see a great sale, I will stock up (depending on what it is). Gone are the days where you could depend on the store having what you need in stock. I have trained my family to write the item on the list when it is the last one taken from the pantry or freezer. That gives me some time to try and find a sale on it before we need to buy it again. I will also check the pantry and freezer right before a shopping trip to see if anything was left off the list. I go grocery shopping once a week, so it needs to be on the list or wait until next week. (We live outside of town and prefer not to waste gas making multiple trips.)
Angie says
I would love to see a dehydrator ‘how to & what to’ post! I just bought the brand that you have recommended and I have not broken it out just yet but I am excited to get started. Any tips and tricks would be very welcome 🙂
Beth says
I look at the grocery ads and sometimes buy the loss leaders (like recently when Albertsons had the Aidell sausage for $2.99 each/limit 6). I’m beginning to think our garage freezer is dying a slow death so I guess it’s time to think about replacing it. Of course it is because we had to purchase a new fridge for the kitchen and a new garage fridge….grrr. So I think we need to eat what’s in the freezer and replace it first.
Susan says
I love loss leaders!! Safeway has had great loss leader sales for at least 6
months- probably more!
Like the 3 lb bacon for $1.97 lb this week= $5.91 (3 lb pack)
Gala Apples or Bartlett Pears- .77 lb. -Limit 4 lb
Eggs or Sour Cream- .98 (2)
Sargento Cheese- Sliced, Chunk or Shreds- $1.44 (2)
A couple of weeks ago, they had Mangos for .05!!!! Limit 4
I bought 4. They equaled 4 cups of fruit- enough for 7 cups of jam!!! 🙂
Beth says
Susan,
What great deals you got! I’m jealous because we don’t have Safeway where I live but we do have Albertsons and they are the same company so I wonder why Albertsons doesn’t do the same loss leaders….puzzling
This week’s Albertsons ad has avocados $0.59 each/limit of 4, boneless pork loin chops. $1.99 lb/ limit 2 packages, Breyer ice cream $1.88/limit 4 to name a few deals…I will get a couple of the deals I think.
Melissa says
It was weirdly humid in SoCal this summer so our cucumbers, squash and pumpkins did NOT do well. Last year we had a ton of pumpkins. We did get 2 corn crops and tons of green beans, Burpee Fortex, Rattlesnake and Greasy Pole Lazy Wife and Pine Mountain. So this year I tried to old Appslachian method to preserve green beans, leather britches. You string fresh green beans on string and hang them up to dry. I have so many strings that are dry. Going to soak and cook a pot soon.
Katherine says
I purchased the same dehydrator you have. So far, I have dehydrated zucchini, mangoes, peaches, pineapple, strawberries, and will be working on fresh picked apples and basil this week.
On a funny note, I have volunteer butternut squash growing in my backyard. I toss the seeds out into another area when I prepare these to eat so I guess a chipmunk or squirrel planted them for me. We should have 6 squash soon.
Mavis Butterfield says
I love when that happens!
Carrie says
Mavis, love your blog!! The highlight of my email! Please do a big show and tell about dehydrating veges! I hope to get the dehydrator you have next year and I want to plan way ahead.
Emily says
Please do your dehydrator show and tell. I just bought one this spring. I’ve enjoyed drying apples, strawberries, and blueberries (the best of the three) so far. I’d love to see other ways I can use it.
Martina says
The vegetable crops this year were abysmal. I planted lots of seeds but hardly anything came up. The kale however when crazy! It sure if it was due to squirrels and or birds eating the seeds or the unusually dry summer. I watered the garden every day.
Just ordered a copy of Barbara Kafka’s soup book. Anticipating soup season using what we could harvest.