Last week was a fun food (and cat) week at our house. That means that we’re eating like kings (and queen) this week. Check out these raspberries we got to pick (for free, oh my goodness, thank you friends with oodles of raspberries):
That had to have been $30 worth of berries if we were to have bought them at the store, and these are by far superior quality! There are more where those came from, so we’ll be heading back to pick again this week. We’ve been eating them to our heart’s content, but look what I made with the last few of this batch:
Simple Raspberry Syrup recipe coming up.
It took five minutes of brainless work to make that goodness for our Quick Mix Pancakes this morning.
In other (free and plentiful) fruit news, our neighbor has been sharing fresh peaches with us. Man, this time of year is delicious. We’re freezing most of these and making a lot of Peach Milkshakes.
Tomatoes are doing great for us, though not really great enough to make sauce and can it this year. We’re just enjoying them with our salads and as side dishes.
Those are my Easy {Low} Sugar Cookies you see there. They have nothing to do with the tomatoes except that they made it into the same picture. That is also a juicy steak on the plate with the tomatoes. This fall, we’re gonna grill until we can’t grill no more (aka when it gets too cold to stand at the grill).
I finally got another Bountiful Basket order last week. I’ve been unavailable during every delivery day for several weeks, so it was awesome to be a part of it again. I loaded our kitchen table with fruits and veggies! (And also some Whole Wheat Bread for our soccer trip sandwich convenience.)
This plate was too pretty to ignore, so I snapped a shot before I handed it to Matt. (He’s used to it.) That is Creamy Salsa Enchilada Casserole from Lesson 2 of the Let’s Do This! eCourse, in case you were wondering. Of course I made two casseroles that day so we could eat one and freeze another.
We just got a load of apples delivered to us from “the Apple Man” also known as “the Honey Man” also known as “our friend with the orchard and honey bees.” It is always a joy when he and his wife show up on our porch. I help disperse the apples to friends, and we all make loads of Homemade Applesauce.
Malachi loves the cat…
Oh hey look – it’s Wiggams (and Malachi). They like each other just a little bit. I am so happy to share that I saw Wiggams doing her job of pouncing and eating in our back yard last week. I was both grossed out and proud, but mostly proud (and pretty grossed out). Yay, Wiggams! This is why we kept you. Plus, we can’t help but love you. Who knew?
What fall foods are you enjoying these days?
Hi Laura! I love all your awesome frugal real food tips and learn something from you every time I check in, so thank you! As a cat person, I am so glad you and your family have a lovely feline to help keep your garden safe. But you have mentioned that you are NOT historically cat people, so I have some tips and information: Make sure Wiggams gets neutered ASAP unless you want to be not only cat people, but “good gracious where did all these pesky ferals come from?” cat people. They can multiply like you can’t imagine if there’s a good food source : )
Also, rabbits will often have parasites that the cats get when they eat the rabbit meat. This is maybe not a huge problem if Wiggams is always outdoors but keep in mind, she probably uses your yard and garden as a litter box and if she gets the parasites, she will get diarrhea.
Not fun information, but good to know nonetheless.
Thanks for the helpful info!
Yay for Wiggams! I see she’s becoming a social creature, letting Malachi hold her.
I’ve been up to my ears in fresh produce – Mom’s tomatoes did really well this year, and so did my grandparents’. Our housemate and my younger brother spent an afternoon last week making and freezing 6 gallons of juice, and that was just what we collected from my grandparents. Frost killed most of Mom’s vines, so we’ve picked most of those and are ripening them.
Apples are doing really well for us this year – my tree (a wild tree that I found and adopted when I was 12) has produced a bumper crop. I got permission to pick apples from the neighbors’ tree, and we combined those two different kinds to make cider – which was really, really yummy. We had so much fun making cider with my best friend – we ran the apples through the chipper/shredder and pressed them with a 20-ton hydraulic press. We found that my apples are very juicy, but on their own they are a bit watery and weak. We mixed the cider from those apples with cider from the neighbors’ tree, and ended up with a decent amount of very yummy cider. We’re going to see about making more cider at some point soon.
On my wanderings in the back field, I found three more wild apples trees. I can only get at one of them easily, because it’s short and grows right next to the path. The second one grows over the path, but about ten feet up in the air. The third is off in the woods a little bit, and completely surrounded by wild rose bushes. I prefer not to tangle with them if I can help it, although I will be collecting rose hips from them when they’ve ripened.
Mom’s HoneyCrisp (first year producing) was so loaded with green fruit in July that it was almost snapping in half, so we spent a lot of time this summer thinning out the fruit and tying the tree up so it didn’t break. We were successful, and there’s still a good amount of fruit on it – I’ve been packing a couple freshly picked apples in Mom’s lunchbox on the days she goes to work.
There’s a wild crab apple tree in our yard that’s loaded with cherry-sized fruit – I’m going to dry a bunch for my sheep and rabbits this winter, have some free treats. :)
I’ve canned up some of my apples into pie filling, but at the moment my kitchen is in shambles and being remodeled, so the canning is paused. I’m thinking about making dried apple rings though, since I can hang those in the attic. I’m trying to not use up much of our five freezers with apples, since we’ve got so many tomatoes to put in still.
Wow, this was all so much fun to read!
Regarding the picture of your Bountiful Baskets loot…..is that one basket, or do you contribute for multiple baskets? And do you get the organic option?
Thanks! Looks yummy!!
Pictured is one basket worth of (non-organic) fruits/veggies, half a case of apples (I split it with a friend), one case of whole wheat bread, and one case of strawberries. So much yumminess!
Love the produce stories and pics, but oh, my heart, how cute is that that picture of Wiggams and Malichi?!? Even if Wiggams wasn’t doing a great-but-gross job as resident mouse catcher, those adorable, heart-melting kitty cuddles warrant a place at the hearth.
We have also been enjoying our apples in muffins, sautéed with with shallots to top pork chops and and in whole wheat crepes drizzled with caramel sauce.
As for tomatoes, I discovered a recipe for pasta with nearly raw sauce, that uses 3 lbs of tomatoes and another pasta recipe with a simple goat cheese sauce that calls for 2 pint of grape tomatoes and 6 medium zucchini roasted. I serve both with a pear, walnut, blue cheese salad with a pear vinaigrette. Can’t forget cauliflower gratin. Giant cauliflowers are just $2 at my local farmer’s market. Such yummy ways to eat seasonal veggies/fruits!