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.
Time for an update
3 hours ago
Good food and a good nurse = good news!
ReplyDeleteYep, Gorges...good day all around.
DeleteFarmers Market goods are always nice! It also amazes me about no perfect looking produce. My local gorcery store has a bin of apples and bananas that you can just grab and eat while at the store...they also have cookies so you have a choice lol. Glad your nurse is working out well!
ReplyDeleteJenn...I would much rather shop local. This Market usually has really good stuff. I have never heard of a store that has bins of goodies for shoppers to munch on. That's just cool.
DeleteMy favorite nurse took a job a school nurse. I'm glad the new one seems like she knows her job. The fact that she is nice is a bonus. :)
I've had a great day. MrDog is fast asleep next to me on the sofa and dreaming -- so I keep getting little kicks from him as he's chasing tennis balls in his dreams.
ReplyDeleteEarlier, I ventured into my closest community garden to start cleaning up. I pulled the tomatoes and cut the asparagus down. Here at the apartment, I harvested the last of the zucchinis (four itty bitty ones) and a few green tomatoes.Then hauled the plants out.
So nice to hear that your new home nurse is also a keeper. Interesting to read about her life in Russia. Do they use the same techniques for canning that we do and have the same kind of canning jars?
I too put up my frozen veggies in small sandwich or snack size ziplocks. Fruit too.
Cheers, SJ
SJ...My Dad always would say, when our dogs kicked like that in their sleep, that they were chasing rabbits in their dreams. :)
DeleteIt just doesn't seem like it is time for garden clean-up already. We have been having hot and humid weather again, but when my daughter stopped in late this afternoon, she said the temp had dropped 20 degrees following a storm that blew through earlier. It always seemed a bit sad to me when the garden was done producing. Glad it was a success for you this summer.
I am lucky when it comes to nurses. I don't always see the same one - they kind of tag-team me because I don't have a set schedule so whoever is available comes here. They all are good, so not a problem at all.
I don't know about Russian canning methods or jars. I will try to remember to ask her the next time I see her. I was intrigued when she talked about never having seen anything like my canning shelves here in the States. I told her that I supposed most city folk don't bother, but the rural farm wives still do a lot of canning. I told her when I was young, we preserved food so we could eat over the winter months. That's when she said everybody in Russia cans because they can't always get what they need in the stores. We must be awfully spoiled in comparison.
I put the peppers in the freezer above the fridge so maybe I wouldn't be so likely to forget I had them. I may slice up a few onions and freeze the same way. I have lots of dried onions, but sometimes it is nice to have fresh/frozen to brown in butter along with the peppers to use in a meal.
Until I got the dehydrator, I froze strips of peppers on plates in the freezer for an hour or so. Then, I dropped them into a freezer bag and could take out what I wanted.
ReplyDeleteI would love to munch apples and bananas free as I shopped. I would shop every day!
Linda...I have lots of peppers and onions dried, but I like the idea of having some of both in the freezer to fry up. I have never seen a grocery store with bins of apples or bananas for customers to eat. I have often seen those people giving out free samples of food they are promoting, but the free fruit is so much better.
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