Our local green grocer often has mixed boxes of over ripe and slightly damaged fruit and veg out the front and going cheap. When ever I see these boxes I snap them up as even if you cannot use everything in the box (and some goes to the chickens) you still come out ahead.
Yesterday for $3 I got:
1 Overripe pineapple, 2 over ripe mango's, 2 apples with marked skin, 800 gm of button squash, 3 small zucchinis, 7 carrots with their tips snapped off, 2 kg of onions that had lost all their papery skins, 2 kg of stone fruit that had small soft spots in places, 2 capsicums with soft spots and 11 Lebanese cucumbers.
I also got a second $3 box of apples, at a guess about 7kg in total. Most are starting to go a bit soft but they will all stew up nicely.
The one thing you have to do is be prepared to sort it all out asap.
So first thing was to juice the the pineapple served chilled over ice this made for a refreshing drink as I dealt with the rest.
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| Stone fruit shortcake |
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| Stewed Apple |
Most of the veggies went into tomato based pasta sauce for dinner and the cucumbers were made into bread and butter pickles.
I tend to shop on the same day each week so the green grocer knows that I will pretty much always take one of their bargain boxes. Because of this if they have fruit and veggies that are just a little bit past it they will box them up for me and put them aside till I come in. Last week I was also lucky enough for them to put aside 2 trays of very ripe mango's for me priced at $3 a tray. Now I have containers of mango flesh in the freezer just waiting for smoothies, cakes or cheesecakes.
It just goes to show that it really does pay to get to know your local shop keepers and support the small independent retailers. I would be very surprised if you would ever get this service from one of the big supermarkets.
Thats great, you are lucky.....
ReplyDeleteScored well I think Fiona. I sometimes do this too if I have the time.
ReplyDeleteGosh it looks as though you get some great deals there. that stone fruit shortcake looks amazing. I love stewed apple - you can often replace half of the shortening in a recipe with stewed apple for a lovely flavor and texture and a lot less calories.
ReplyDeleteI e-mailed you, but thought I would also just drop a line here as well about the lovely cards you sent me. You are so talented, and the birthday card for my daughter is in the mail today. so cute!
ReplyDeleteIt does always pay too frequent and support local shop keepers. There is nothing wrong with fruit and vege just past its perfect stage. Your stone fruit short cake sounds delicious!
ReplyDeletegreat deals! Our local fruit shop doesn't do this, but we used to love the $2 boxes at the "Big Orange" in Gatton, always plenty for juicing eating and feeding to the chooks. This is such a great way to reduce food wastage!
ReplyDeleteWell done on the bargains fiona...and those photos look to yummy!!!
ReplyDeleteWow! That's a huge deal. And so nice of the grocer to hold aside certain things for you. :-)
ReplyDeleteOur super-markets just continue to sell the old-ish produce for full price.
Thats fantastic, what a bargain. Sometimes we are able to get trays of mangos cheap (not at $3 though) but we tend to eat them and they never make it to the freezer etc.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping this will change once our own trees are old enough....
Gotta love your green grocer!!
ReplyDelete