Free Food

I have found that as I have been trying to have a more homesteading mentality I cannot let free food go to waste. Now I am not talking about 10 boxes of rice-a-roni for a dollar, frankly I have no desire for that kind of “food” and I wouldn’t waste my dollar on it. I am talking about the wonderfully healthful foods sitting un-picked in gardens all over.

A week ago this Saturday we took a trip to our parents houses and took advantage of un-needed food that was going to waste. First we stopped at Dadzoo’s parent’s home. They are gone serving a mission for our church and the people staying in their home had no need of the good foods there. We picked two bushels of apples and almost a full bushel of grapes. All food that would have fallen and gone to waste. At my parent’s house we picked tomatoes, Grandmazoo had used all the tomatoes she needed, so I picked whatever was ripe. I got almost a full bushel.


The grapes I juiced and got 7 quarts, not a whole lot, but next year I know there will be much more.

The apples hadn’t been sprayed (yay! seriously…yay!) so about half of them had worms. The wormy apples will be cut up and made into apple butter, the ones with out the worms will be stored in our cool basement for eating.


The tomatoes were made into about 12 quarts of tomato juice.

Dadzoo favorite.
(yuck)

For the cost of gas and some of my time we were able to obtain good wholesome foods for the family to eat. Homesteading is all about finding blessing and taking advantage of those blessing. There are trees and gardens laden with fruit this time of year, all we need to do is ask and some of that bounty can be ours.

5 thoughts on “Free Food

  1. Excellent! I wish we had apples here even at a upick but they don't seem to grow that well here. But we did find a wild persimmons and this winter we going to clear around and prune with the time is right maybe next year. We have wild blueberries and crab apples.

    Saturday someone brought a gigantic box of bell peppers and some hot peppers. Since our families are the only ones that go to the building for Gen Conf. They gave them to us but I have plenty so I canned up the hot this morning and am giving away to friends etc the bell peppers.

    Erika

  2. We just got grapes from a neighbor too. We juiced all weekend and got over 60 quarts of juice! Plus a years' worth of jelly. Hooray for free food! (Oh, P.S. my husband has egg cartons in the back of his truck to pass off to your husband if you want to tell Dadzoo to grab them.)

  3. SuburganZoo, I keep forgeting to get them. Funny how things at work just keep coming up, and by the time I remember…