Saturday, November 17, 2012

Saturday Morning

Good Saturday  Morning Everyone,

Well, I am up, and am waiting to get to the church where I pick up my Prairie Paks grocery items.  I am so glad, as its early this time because of the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the States.  I am glad as my fresh produce is running very low.  Since I do meals for my parents, usually on the weekends, I have dipped into it more, so I am now going to purchase maybe one or two more paks for December.  This is really the only way I can provide grocery for the household.  Since the garden is finished til spring, and the price of produce is out of the roof here, I do not buy. I may buy some mushrooms and a little splurge item, but I really try to stick to my not buying anything out of season.  Anyway, the produce is very poor quality.  I went yesterday to pickup some potatoes, both whites, and reds, and the 10# bag of reds were some of the worse I had ever seen, and on top of it, which really pissed me off, was the fact that a lot of the potatoes, especially in the middle, where generally people don't look, they were rotten and mushy.  Being in the mood I was in, I caught the produce lady and showed this to her, and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "that's what we have to offer" and gave me a deer-in-the-headlights-look and walked off. So, next year, I am going to definitely experiment with potatoes in my ghetto buckets, and try the fingerling's, and maybe some different varieties for these 20quart blue buckets I use. I am also going full steam however I have to  start my mushroom beds under my porch.  I am now declaring war on poor expensive produce in the market, take that CH Robinson.

I am watching my spending and voting with my dollars, like everyone else is.  We have problems here which I am sure that everyone else may have with very poor quality produce and products. We are not blessed with a year round farmers market, which I wish we had, but its just not feasible with winter.   I will not buy produce from Wally, I do get my bulk staples like flour and sugar from there as we do not have any place to buy that, I have no Aldi's or Costco, or anything else even close to me.  I get my meat from a small locker in a village about 50 miles from me here, and that is covered.  I think that soon, you will see a more turn to voting with dollars than ever before. I see it in the grocery, and watch people buying and what they put in their carts, and they are buying with dollars that are spent wisely. Not everyone, but a lot.  I seen the ones who do not cook, or are on food stamps, they buy the boxed processed crap and load up with pop and energy drinks, which I absolutely will not touch.  And when they check out, I almost fall over because of the price. Oh, well.

There really isn't anything to talk about or mention.  Its the blah time here, no garden, no flowers, very drap and dreary in the yard.  People are not outside.  We still have issues with stealing gas, and stealing things that are not strapped down.  The last few nights, the animals have been restless, and I had one of my cat's growlng at the window, which they only do when someone is walking by or around the house.  I do not know what the park owner is doing with the cesspool park here.  The sale did fall through, and my assessor told me that he was totally bent out of shape about that.  Duh....moron doesn't know that you cannot sell anything without papers, and titles, and bills of sale.  This should give you a vision of what kind of man he is. Idiot is a better word.
There is no rain yet.  We are so, so dry.  I am very worried about the farmland and our gardens if this doesn't change soon.

I have got so much housework to do, right at the moment, I am trying to find room for my prairie paks in the frig.  I also went over to my folk's home yeserday, and got some pork shoulder sausage we had a year or so ago.  At the time, we had it done in large brat links, but now I wished I just had it ground and packaged in 1# packages.  So I am just slitting them and then mixing my spices in with the Kitchen Aid mixer, and then I need to go and find a patty maker.  We like them a little more uniform in size, so I am just letting everything sit to marry the spices together in the frig, and then I will make patties and then drag out my vacuum sealer and do serving size patties. I made D hot and spicy and then I made some mild sage.   I still have so much in that freezer, so next week, I am taking quite a bit to the homeless shelter, and the Salvation Army food pantry and sharing.   We just cannot eat what we had processed.  The pork that we had this made from was from an overload D took to California.  There were two huge whole pork shoulders, and when D was ready to close the doors, the warehouse told D that they were throwing away the meat, for no reason, it was an overload, so D asked if he could buy them, and the warehouse foreman gave them to him, no questions asked.  I could not believe that they throw away perfectly good meat because of overload on an order.  Don't get me started on this waste subject, as I don't want to rant today.

Well, I had better get going, and go find my patty maker, and then get this done. 
I wish everyone a wonderful weekend, stay warm or cool, where ever you are.  I will see if I can find a good article to share from Countryside Magazine.
Take care,
Hugs

6 comments:

  1. Ah - I can comment again. Have visited several times recently and must have had a senior moment because I couldn't for the life of me find the comment button!

    You are spending your money sensibly. I hope you can find some decent potatoes soon - cannot understand people selling half-rotten ones . . . I am sure you could grow your own in deep buckets - or even in a thick bin bag of soil - as long as they're deep enough.

    For a patty-maker - I don't have one, but have a circular sweetie tin that is the right size and I press my meat mix into that firmly and then turn it out as a burger to be cooked.

    Have you room in your freezer another year to freeze some greens? I buy up Pak Choi and similar when it's on offer or reduced, and that is a lovely addition to a stir fry. Spinach too freezes well.

    Sorry that there is still such a dire draught situation where you are. Hope it rains soon. I'll be generous - you can have some of our Welsh wet stuff!

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  2. Good to read your post dear Vicki. Sorry about the bad potatoes. I've been buying from SAM's club the big bag of Idaho instant potatoes for a little over $5 and fix them when we want mashed potatoes. They are good. I buy regular potatoes when I want to do something else with them.

    That was a great deal on the pork. It is horrible how wasteful this country is. It's been going on for years and years.

    Are they stealing gas out of your vehicles? Sheesh!

    I'm sorry you've not gotten the rain that you've so needed. Hopefully you'll get the moisture from snow.

    Hope you have a lovely day tomorrow and a nice Thanksgiving day week.

    Hugs ~ FlowerLady

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  3. Classic. Hard times on one hand, and others throwing out perfectly good food on the other. I think it happens everywhere. I don't quite understand why your fresh vegetables are always so poor. Is it because they come from far away (food miles?).

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    1. Yes, Mr. M. All of our produce comes in from California or Mexico. The distribution centers where our stores get their product usually pick the poorest, cheapest, and then place horrid prices on it. Where I live, we are noted for jacked up prices on everything, and are the worst in the state.
      I envy people who have access to year round farmers markets.

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  4. Vicki, we do get good quality fresh things year round here but the cost is very high. So far the potatoes here are very nice.
    I have enough land, I should all our own but have had trouble storing them very long.

    I was so hoping you were getting some moisture. Lots of us here in the lower midwest have been getting some; we are not caught up yet but in a much better place.

    Wonder why on earth the trucking company doesn't donate those goods to the local food banks or other charities. I am sure they would be welcome.

    Have a good Sunday.

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    1. D asked the foreman at the warehouse about that, donating the meat, and he said the government controlled what was distributed. So I gathered that meat was not allowed by outside sources. This was several years ago, now maybe that may have changed because of all the hungry we have in this nation, and especially in California. Not sure though.

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