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All this gorgeous local fruit at good prices has ramped up our food bill this summer.
But we are happily gorging on local blueberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches, apricots. Not to mention also lichee fruit from other parts of the world.
And as usual, we miss all this bounty by Christmas.
I LOVE berries, to an excessive point. It does drive up the food bill.Quote:
Originally Posted by shootingstar
Perhaps we could ride to Richmond next weekend and pick up blueberries and do some freezin' or even spreads or something?
The local Riverfront fruit market has exquisite cantaloupes. I'm convinced that add an addictive drug to it since I crave it every time I pass by on the bike.
Sometimes if you go to a pick-your-own place the prices are pretty good and you can pick a lot, freeze some and make jam etc. with some. Or there's always finding a patch of wild berries like I did yesterday while out for a trail run...came home with a pint of blackberries and there are lots more on the bushes that have yet to ripen. That made for an extra-good run!Quote:
Originally Posted by Grog
We picked two 6-qt pails of blueberries a couple of weeks ago at a pick-your-own place. They still cost an obscene amount (but they were totally worth it)! One's in the freezer, the other one's in our bellies :D
Black raspberries, on the other hand, grow wild all along our lane. We've got a 6-qt pail of them plus another quart container in the freezer. Yummy!
At the farmer's market we're getting peaches and plums, and early apples. Our own apples are a late variety and they're really best after a frost, anyhow. But we'll have a big crop (after losing last year's entire crop to the late spring freeze).
And the vegies are all coming out of the garden now, except for onions and garlic.
Sounds similar to blackberries? I never did quite figure out the difference amongst mulberries, blackberries...and now black raspberries. My partner makes a wonderful blueberry salad dressing...it has abit of yogurt in it. He sometimes varies it with cranberries.Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
Hey, yea Grog people tell me there are some secret blueberry bushes somewhere out in the lowlands there.. We're starting to freeze some 'cause certain the prices won't stay that low. But I haven't picked wild blueberries yet.. :)
In the women's cycling group that I belonged to ages ago, we organized some rides, where 1 of the rides was 60 kms. that included a strawberry picking farm outside of Toronto.
I know, I know this sounds so unlike what bike roadies would do. :D :p
Who cares...gain strength from hauling a couple lbs./kgs. of fresh strawberries homeward. Which is what my partner and I did do for 2 early summers ..along with picking fresh snowpeas. :)
I'm out picking blackberries daily on our property. I've already canned some jam (that I tried tonight and it's amazing!!) and H made cobbler. I've just saved a recipe for blackberry crisp, so we'll be making that this weekend. I also have berries on my cereal every day!
Blackberries, loganberries and marionberries are all similar types of berries in that when you pick them, the core comes off with them. Raspberries and black raspberries come off leaving the core on the plant (so the berry looks like a little cup). That's the easiest way to tell them apart besides buying them already labeled. ;)
We also have fresh plums ripe on our trees too...so I've been able to avoid the temptation at the grocery store for most fruit knowing that if we don't consume ours, it'll go to waste. We will be checking out the farmers market this weekend though - and I predict that I'll fall for local peaches/nectarines and melons, despite our laden trees!
Be careful- once you start it's hard to stop. I've been going to pick your owns, woods out back, friend's blackberry patch all summer and now have about 40 quarts of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries in the freezer. BF thinks I'm crazy (but I'm going to have high quality local berries on my cereal all year long). :)
Ironically my food bill has gone down because I pedal around to the farm stands and only get certain necessary things at the store. By the time I get to the grocery store, which is at the end of the ride, I have no room for anything non essential! I have to agree though, peaches at 4 bucks a little box is pricey but sooooooooooooooooooooooo gooddddd!!!!
I grew up in Richmond and often worked picking berries all summer when I was a kid - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. I always ate more than I brought in tho... :D
And the blackberries? I can't bring myself to pay for them. They were weeds that grew freely in the lower mainland - I gorged myself on them every August. Sigh....