Lost in the Garden

This time of year is lovely. The sun is still warm during the day and the birds are still singing in the trees.

There is still lots of time for trips to the lake on the weekend or the park after supper before the sun goes down.

My daughter started kindergarten today. She was SO excited and she had a great first day. She had her school supplies ready to go and we went shopping for a "first day of school" dress. That is something that we always did growing up too. We always had a new outfit for the first day of school. Her outfit is a dress with a pink top and a pleated plaid skirt. It even has a little sequined pocket for a little sparkle.

This time of year the garden is a wild tangle of greenery, flowers and vegetables. Our garden is about 20 by 20 feet and it produces really well. We planted some of our usual staples; peas, carrots, onions, sunflowers, sweet peas and tried out cucumbers, pumpkins and green peppers this year. We lost the pumpkins but everything else is doing quite well and we should have quite a bit to freeze or can for the winter. We even got a few tomatoes from our plants for the first time ever this year!

In addition to the produce from the garden, we will stock up on corn on the cob, potatoes and sweet peppers from the farmers market. We are also hoping to make a trip to the farm to pick apples in the fall.

The extra corn on the cob, carrots,  sweet peppers, peas and onions will be frozen. We use the food processor on the onions and then freeze them in ice cube trays so they are easy to store and easy to use later on. The apples will be dried into apple chips and we also usually make up bags of apple pie filling for the freezer. It makes it really easy to make a pie when you want one. We just use our regular apple pie filling recipe and seal it in freezer bags. It does work best if you freeze it flat instead of in one big blob.

Our garden has been a lot of fun for our whole family. This year my daughter and her friend helped me plant a few things and we all love eating the vegetables fresh from the ground. It has also helped to teach my daughter how things grow and she likes to help us take care of our little slice of paradise.

Grocery Shopping - Shop Local

Summer, for us, means local shopping at it's best.  Shopping at Farmer's Markets, local colleges, family gardens and in your own garden are all great places to "shop" to stretch your grocery dollars and have a little fun doing it.

The Farmer's Markets are all open after a winter hiatus and a trip to the market is one of our favourite ways to spend a Saturday morning. There are activities for the kids, goodies made by local artisans and of course all the wonderful breads, meat and produce available.

In the summer I try to buy most of our fruits and vegetables at the Farmer's Market. Everything is fresh and delicious and it also supports local producers and businesses.

The cucumber that costs $1.00 at the Farmer's Market may be $1.69 from the grocery store. That is a $0.69 savings. and those small amounts add up fast when you are shopping for groceries. We usually plan to spend between $20-$30 on fruits and vegetables when we go to a Saturday market and always come home with much more than we would have if we spent the same money at the grocery store. Click on the link to check out the Market at Red Deer or the Alberta Farmer's Market Association for markets across Alberta.

Farmer's Markets are also great if you like to do canning, dehydrating or freezing. You can buy big cases of in season, fruits and vegetables and take them home to make jam, preserves, salsa, dried fruits or to freeze to eat later in the season or during the winter. By the end of September our cupboards are full of delicious homemade jams and jellies, a selection of dehydrated fruits and our freezer is full of frozen vegetables and fruits. Buying the produce in season and preserving it is much less expensive than trying to buy it in the middle of the winter.

We also do some of our food shopping at a local college. The college is located in a rural community South of where we live and has a strong agricultural base. We get our eggs from a person who works with my husband there who has chickens on their farm. We use approximately 1 dozen eggs per week and save at least $1.00 per dozen which adds up to savings of approximately $52/ year. The college also has a meat cutting program and they sell the meat that the students cut. The meat is excellent and the savings are significant. You do have to get there early though because it is very popular. The college also has a horticulture program and sells the produce and flowers that are grown there. Excellent quality and great prices.

We love apples at our house; apple pie, apple muffins, apple butter, apple chips, apple tarts - you get the idea. My parents have a big apple tree in their backyard and a lot of apple trees out on the farm. The last several years they have offered us apples from the trees. We have a great time picking the apples and eating them too. Last year we made some delicious apple butter, dehydrated apple chips (my daughter's favourite), and froze bags of apple pie filling and grated apple for muffins and tarts. They gave us all the apples we wanted all we had to add was the labour to pick and prepare them and a few spices - which was totally worth it. Thanks Mom & Dad!

We also have a garden in our backyard that supplies all the peas, carrots and onions that we need for the year. We also try planting a few new things every year. This year we planted pumpkins, cucumbers and green peppers. If they work out we will probably plant them again next year. If they do not then we will try something else.

If you do not have a garden or know someone who can share their garden - look for a local U-pick garden or orchard. There are a lot in our area - our favourite is The Jungle Farm. We go every summer to pick baskets of strawberries for making jam, dehydrating and freezing and again in the fall for pumpkins and the Fall Fair.

Shopping local is a great way to support local producers and artisans and a great way to stretch your grocery budget too.