Farmer's Market Haul

There was a time when my son would make a Farmer's Market run and bring me bushels of produce.   Now that things have changed and I can no longer process bushels of produce at one time, the haul is smaller, but still very welcome. 

There were 2 small - a little bigger than grapefruit sized - cantaloupe.  I ate one last evening and the other for breakfast this morning.  They were delicious.  I saved some of the seeds.  One of my daughters has a small garden and I think I can maybe talk her into planting some of them in the spring.

There were a dozen green and two red bell peppers.  What a difference between the  store bought peppers and the ones from the Farmer's Market.  These I sliced thin, packaged in individual portions and froze them.  I probably wouldn't have thought to preserve them this way, but one of my readers left a comment a couple of posts ago telling me that's how he had preserved his peppers.  Thanks, "Red."

The last item was two bags of apples - about 20 lbs. total.  They aren't pretty enough to sell in the grocery store, being of different sizes and not uniform in color, so they are sold at a reduced price as 'seconds.'  I don't know why the buying public has to have the perfect looking produce.  These apples are fresh picked locally, which is more than you can say for those in the stores.  We have been enduring another heat wave that should end by tomorrow, so then these apples will become applesauce.  The applesauce will be canned in half pint jars, which is just the right size for Son to take in his lunch for work and for me to consume.

Today I had a new home health care nurse attending to my legs.  She is from Russia.  When she saw my shelves of home canned food, she asked if I had canned it all myself.  She said that here in America she hadn't seen anything like that.  She works in city areas and I told her that it was fairly common in the rural areas, but many living in town just go to the grocery stores instead of canning at home.  She told me that in Russia, everyone cans food at home.  She said that they can't count on the stores to have what the people need and if they didn't garden and can, they might go hungry.  She thought the Farmer's Market was the most wonderful thing. 

Tatiana immigrated from Russia and became an American citizen.  She speaks fluent English with just a slight accent.  She is a lovely lady who came highly recommended and seems to be doing a good job in her chosen field of nursing.  She is the kind of immigrant I will welcome.