Thursday, June 23, 2011

Farmer's Market Clearance Section


I'm an avid shopper in the clearance section of the Farmer's Markets. I can usually find throw away tomatoes, onions, cantaloupe, bananas, peppers, apples..geez you name it they clearance it. I try to check on it a few times a week, some days I end up leaving with nothing and other days I have huge bags full. Yesterday I found some gems, two 10-lb bags of tomatoes 1.99/each, 2 cauliflowers .99/each, 2 cantaloupes 1.49 for the pair, 10-lb bag of green beans/1.49...yum! Nothing was damaged just needing to sold before being over ripe.

Today I sliced some chunks of cantaloupe some for the fridge and some for the freezer.We pulled these out of the freezer and snacked on them after being outside in the heat. These were great because they were only slightly frozen from only being in the freezer for an hour.

Speaking of freezers I seriously need to consider buying a deep freeze. With all the vegetables and fruits we are growing in our garden, picking at the local farms and buying at the farmer's market we won't be able to keep up with it all. Need to freeze!

As for the tomatoes..well I decided it was probably best we made a tomato sauce with spaghetti squash noodles. My son's favorite dish! I decided that this time around I would try to make sauce the proper way, which meant removing the skin, seed and core. I typically would just remove the core and throw it all into a pot to cook, but then you get skins and seeds in your sauce. I don't really mind, but I wanted to give the "correct" way a try. I discovered very quickly the easiest way to remove the peel...
Score the bottom of the tomato with a paring knife

After you remove core, let them soak in hot water in the sink.

After 10 minutes soaking you can start peeling the skin, opening the tomato and removing the seeds.

Then put in a blender or food processor

You end up with a smooth, delicious puree!

With this puree you could create dishes other than tomato sauce. Think cold or hot soups, salsas, thick tomato juice, dips, the list is endless..tomatoes are used in so many recipes! As for using it as a sauce I may have to add some store bought tomato paste because we like our sauce a bit thicker. I have the sauce cooking on low in my slow cooker to see if it will thicken. It tastes amazing though with fresh oregano, basil, sauteed onions and garlic! Oh yum, dinner is going to be good!

Lastly, there is a great contest give away happening over at Color Wheel Meals for an Ascenta Health product! Check it out!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link back to my giveaway!!!!!! How do you find clearance at a farmers market?? DO you ask or is it marked?? I need to check mine!!!

Maggie said...

No problem :D Love your giveaways!

As for the farmer's market cleareance section...One market I go to is a farmer's market that is year round open every day. It sells local farmer's products, foods, etc...So it has it's own clearance section. I also ask them sometimes if they have anything in the back and they usually bring out bags of stuff priced lower.
I also go to a few different once a week farmer's markets and just ask the farmer's if they have anything reduced and some usually do! :D Other's let you know that at the end of the day they will reduce everything..so timing is key there :)