Weekly Farmer's Market Report

Hello everyone! I got back to the market this week. We're on the cusp of things disappearing (fewer cantelope to choose from, only a few vendors with blueberries) and new things appearing (plums were everywhere - yum!). Apples are next on the horizon, and then back around to cooler weather vegies.

For those of you who did Produce Box for the first time, what did you think? How much did you spend? How much variety was there? What was the quantity and quality like? Will you do it again next summer?

In culinary news, I made spaghetti sauce with a quart of my frozen tomatoes. Very tasty! Over and out!

Weekly Farmer's Market Report

I am being bold and brave! I picked up two boxes of tomatoes to can tomorrow. It's the only thing we used to do at home that I haven't done as a wife and mom myself. I called my mom and asked her what her ratio of tomatoes was to quarts produced. She said she remembers getting 14 quarts out of a bushel. I went online to check how many pounds of tomatoes are in a bushel . 53! The boxes at the farmer's market are 20 pounders and I want to end up with 24 pints so I got two that were heaping. The lady thought they were 25-30 pounds each. I'll let you know how it turns out. I will be recovering from my knee surgery next week so there will be no report. I'm hoping Sweetie will do my hunting and gathering for me. I can't think of a better way to recover than with fresh fruit and veggies!

Weekly Farmer's Market Report

I just realized I never reported back last week. Sorry about that! The purple and cream peppers were very pretty but tasted just like green peppers. They were great grilled. I found out more specific info about winblown peaches. They come on around the 4th of July and are available for a few weeks. I've noticed there are different varieties of peaches every couple of weeks. The peach lady told me all the peach trees blossom at the same time but they develop at different rates. Hence the changing varieties. The ones there right now are the softer, meatier peaches we always used to can. I also picked up a lavendar skinned eggplant last week. The lady told me the skin is much thinner. I cut it into 1/2 inch slices, salted and drizzled them with olive oil and red wine vinegar and grilled them for 2-3 minutes on each side. Wowsers! Even Mr. Eggplant Hater said they were okay. I thought they were fantastic. I also found the cutest little round zucchini called 8 balls. I'm going to carve out the insides, saute them with onion and basil, mix in bread crumbs made out of my whole wheat bread and a little parmesan cheese, and then bake them. Should be tasty! Over and out!