Produce Box

With the price of food sky rocketing on a daily basis, I have decided to get a produce bag once a month.  It is $20 per month and I have been pretty pleased with it.  Above is what I got in December.  This month's seemed heavy on the fruit and other than the cucumber no salad items.  

Have you seen the price of lettuce, you need to take out a second mortgage to buy one!!

We used to live off salad, but due to the higher prices I am having to adapt our diet.  The pepper's I used to make a pepper and onion quiche.  Carrots were used in soup and mashed carrot and turnip.  I have been making baked potatoes, both stuffed and plain.  The onions were used in various things.

I managed to get some bagged salad on sale so topped that with diced up cucumber.  By the way am I the only one who gets a bad stomach when I eat cucumber?  The only way I can eat them now is peeled.  It's something in the skin that upsets some people's stomach.

All the fruit was eaten raw as is, except the apples, and I am not fond of apples, I don't hate them just not something I buy often, so will probably make apples sauce with them.

Are you finding the price of fruit and veg crazy?

Tupperware Fridgesmart Containers

I have been a fan and have owned Tupperware for donkey's years.  Technically I am a Tupperware rep, but I never sell it and have no interest in doing so.  I just joined Tupperware to get a good deal.  I did however have an "online party," at the beginning of the year as son wanted some Tupperware for his birthday.  He had used some of mine and loved it, so I figured I would have a party and see if anyone else wanted some Tupperware at the same time.

I picked up some of the Fridgesmart containers and I love them.  So in case some of you aren't familiar with them I thought I would show you mine.

I have three sizes of containers, but there are four sizes available.  The one with the carrots is the medium deep, there will be close to 5 lbs of carrots in there.  I normally keep romaine lettuce in it.  We buy romaine hearts in packs of three and that holds a pack of three.  It will also hold four to six bell peppers.  The one with the bell pepper inside is the small deep.  I generally keep bell peppers in there.  The one with the cucumber in it is the small shallow.  I generally keep radishes in them and they store wonderfully.

In the photo above you can see pictures of various fruits and vegs on the sides of the containers.  It indicates which position you should slide the slider for that particular product (photo below).  It's a venting system to keep the produce fresher.

My kids buy a lot of fruit for the grands and they have had varying success with storing fruits in them.  I tend to keep veggies in mine as I don't buy a whole lot of fruit.

There is more information on the products here.  I know you can buy cheaper products from Rubbermaid etc.  I am very happy with these though so far.  They are dishwasher safe.  I have been using the Ziploc Veggie Bags for years, but prefer these containers.

(photo credit)

However the downside to the Tupperware containers are that they take up a lot of room, whereas the Ziploc produce bags squeeze in smaller places.

Are you a fan of Tupperware?

Lancaster's Central Farmer's Market

Lancaster's Central Market, is the country's (USA) longest continuously operating farmer's market.  Here are some of the photos I took.  Everything looked so fresh and yummy looking.

 These lettuce looked so fresh and green.

 I was told this was a type of Milkweed.

Below is a plant called Pumpkin on a Stick.  It is an ornamental eggplant.  I had never heard of this before.  It is used in flower arranging.

 Pom Pom Mushrooms are something else I had never seen before, have you?  Felt soft and furry on the outside.  It is a meaty mushroom.

Tangerine Lace is a micro green.  It does have a pleasant citrus taste; again something I had never heard of.

 All the cookies below are for doggies!!  They look good enough for humans to eat.

 An old fashioned candy store.

A lovely place to visit.

Need your expert advise.........

I planted my two new apple trees on Wednesday. So now I have four apple trees and one pear tree now in my "orchard." One of my questions, is that a couple of the trees have a couple of apples on them. As they are new trees, do I pick these apples this year, or do I leave them on the tree???

Here are a couple of photos. The first photo shows the two new apple trees:

This photo shows all the fruit trees in my "orchard."

(click on the photo for more detail)

I also need help identifying these trees. I am thinking the first two photos are a crab apple tree, as the apples are quite small. I cannot remember what colour the flower was, but think they were white.


These next two photos are of the same tree. The apples seem a little bigger, so not sure if its a crab apple tree or a regular apple tree, how would I find out? Also the apples seem to have some sort of disease, any ideas? I do know that tent caterpillars were in these trees.


These last two photos, are of a smaller tree, again I am thinking a crab apple tree?


One thing for sure, I am going to try and make crab apple jelly, as its supposed to be really good? This recipe sounds simple and easy to follow. Has anyone made crab apple jelly before?

I also pulled out another trailer load of weeds from the veggie garden AGAIN!!! I also dug up a couple of potato tops and there was enough for a couple of meals for us. I then did the most difficult job yet, and it was hard work; I started to pull out the thistles. That was so hard to do, and I wore thick suede work gloves and I still got prickled. Plus my poor arms were all scratched to bits and were bleeding. I figured that as the ground was so wet it would make them easier to pull out?

Also my cabbages and Brussels sprouts are being eaten to death, and I saw white butterflies around them, so my dad suggested spraying water with dish washing liquid in it? I don't want to use pesticides, so will have to give it a try.

My zucchini plants are just so small, I have some flowers on them, but have no idea if I will get any zucchini's from them. The butternut squash have no flowers on them yet, but I am hoping I will get some squash. Its not been the best year for me for my veggie garden.

Busy day on Saturday, doing nothing!!!

Well not exactly nothing, but not getting anything much done around the house.

We headed to Creemore first thing as we had to pay a deposit for the stairs. They have a Farmers Market and we popped by, but I have to say I was surprised at the prices, they were pretty expensive. I know the produce was organic, but paying $5 for a bunch of organic carrots was a little high if you ask me. I did pay $4.50 for a loaf of garlic, chive and cheese bread, and yes it was yummy.

There was a British lady selling home baked goodies, including scones with strawberry jam and cream at $2 per scone??? As dh said to me, you should do that and I agree. I had a home based baking business in England, and I love baking, so I may look into this.

I called in at the Curiosity House Books & Gallery to purchase the September book club book, "The Secret Scripture," by Sebastian Barry It looks like an interesting read.

I am still plowing through "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," by Barbara Kingsolver. It's not a lighthearted read and you do need to be concentrating on the book as you read it. I have just read the chapter where she talks about Genetic Modification of the seeds, and how 6 companies control 98% of all the world's seeds, and how important heirloom seeds are. Which actually makes sense, as nothing tastes better than local homegrown fruits and vegetables, and the flavour of an heirloom variety of a fruit or vegetable has a completely different taste to a mass produced fruit or veggie.

We came home and had lunch at home, then popped into one of the towns to go to Home Hardware, dh's home away from home!! Plus I had to go to No Frills to pick up a few groceries. When we got home and I had unpacked the shopping, we then went to the other town. This time I wanted to go to Canadian Tire to get a canning pan and jelly bags, as I want to try and make Blackcurrant Jelly. I need to do something with these blackcurrants, as its a waste to just leave them on the bush.

When we got back from there, friends popped by to pick some raspberries and have a visit. They brought a coffee cake with them which was nice and we had a catch up. Infact the dh is going to help us with the stairs, which will be a great help. Me and the dw picked some raspberries for her. I really enjoy their company, and they are a pleasure to be with.

So all in all we had a lovely day, and dh rested his shoulder, but we didn't achieve a lot around the house. I do know Sunday will be completely different as we have a lot planned for the day!!