Pickin'!

I'm totally on a seasonal eating kick right now along with the whole canning thing. Also, freezing. I'm buying a deep freezer this week so I can preserve some of the stuff from my garden and also produce from friends and farmer's markets.

One of the things that I lack in my own garden is fruit. Now, I am growing blackberries this year but they take a year or two to produce so I have a couple teeny tiny ones and that's it. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE fruit. When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey.  It's about picking blueberries, which I did often, living in Michigan. I've always loved going picking and have dragged various friends and family members to pick fruit, and have even gone on my own. If you have kids or have friends with kids, I HIGHLY suggest checking the book out!

Anyone who lives in St. Louis HAS to go to Eckert's to pick fruit. They have several varieties of apples, plus strawberries, blackberries, and peaches, varying from farm to farm. They also have pumpkins and Christmas trees for those seasons.

I knew I wanted to go peach and blackberry picking and got my mom to go with me last week on Friday. At first, she wasn't going to come at all because the forecast was HOT. But she came.We went to the Grafton farm and arrived around 11am.

See these rows? Empty. That's what 100 degree weather does!

No one was there so no competition.

There were a lot of unripe berries, but lots of ripe ones too. And they were HUGE.

My hand isn't big. But these berries were seriously gigantic.

We picked and sweated, picked and sweated. We were going fast and barely talking because it was so hot. In the end, we picked 20 pounds.

We picked peaches too, but... FAST. And no camera came out because we were sweating so badly. We ended up with 25 pounds.

That is a LOT of fruit!

I can't wait to go back to Eckert's... maybe even for peaches again, but definitely for apples.

Stay tuned for what I did with all this fruit!

I'm not the only one who loves Eckert's!!!

Produce Stories, Parts 1 & 2

One blog that I enjoy reading is called Produce Stories.  I stumbled across it while looking for strawberry jam recipes that used agave nectar. It is what helped me make my own jam! I don't know anything about the author other than that she posts about what she buys at a farmer's market and host much it is (amongst other things). It gave me the idea that I should post my finds!

The Webster Groves Farmer's Market opened last week. I really enjoy it! It has some awesome finds. Last week, amongst other things, I bought some water lilies (that are now blooming), some homemade lip balm, and a lined produce basket (to collect my garden's harvest in!). This week, here was my take:



1 Dozen Eggs - $3
Squash (2 Italian zucchini, 2 patty pan)- $4.50
Homemade, fresh Lemon-Pepper pasta - $3.50
1/2 Pound Fiddleheads- $7
TOTAL - $18

I was REALLY excited when I saw the fiddleheads. I read about them in Sauce Magazine (a local food magazine) a couple months ago. They are locally picked - not something you grow in a garden. The guy hunts them in the "wild" then sells them. Tomorrow I'll prepare them and let you know how they are!

I also went to a local produce stand called Roger's. They have the CHEAPEST produce there! Here was my haul:

- 1 large canteloupe
- 3 ears corn
- 1 pint blueberries
- 2 peaches
- 2 avocados
- 1 large sweet potato
TOTAL: $8.28!!!!

I told you it was cheap!!