Free Food

A couple of weeks ago, when I dropped off an order of honey, the people who ordered the honey were picking peaches. They asked me if I wanted any and I said sure, not realizing they meant this whole box! I got an e-mail a day later and they had another box for me. They 'put up' all they could use and they knew from talking to me that I canned, froze, dehydrated summer bounty. Two free boxes of peaches!

The same day I got the peaches, my husband came home from our land with some food that a neighbor gave him from his garden. Two dozen, or more, ears of corn and a huge head of cabbage.

When I went to the Community Garden the next day to work, one of the volunteers brought in some squash from his own garden, free for the taking.

(bottom right corner of this picture is a patty pan squash. Weird looking but very good)
I did not pay any money for the food in any of the pictures above. Now, I have to ask, why are people going hungry, in the summer months, when there is such a bounty? And why do Americans spend money on chemicals to have neat lawns, when you can buy a pack of seeds for next to nothing and grow food? I have a new campaign I'm thinking about.

Plow to Plate,
Farm to Fork,
YARD TO YOU!

I keep hearing that there won't be enough farm ground to feed Americans in a few years. I can't believe it. If everyone would grow a couple of edible items in their back yard, we'd have more than enough food. When did green manicured lawns become more important to us than healthy food?

OK - Now let me show you what I did with all of that free food.

First of all, I made Bok Choy salad with part of the cabbage. It's yummy and I'll post the recipe later.

I fried the patty pan squash, the yellow squash, the banana peppers, and a few green beans in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil and a little bit of garlic salt until they all browned. Easy Peasy and Yum.

The dinner menu that night was
watermelon (on sale for 1.50)
leftover hamburger (fixed on the grill the night before)
corn on the cob
fresh peaches
bok choy salad and
the squash
It was a lot of food, but all fruits and veggies except the hamburger.
The next day I put the rest of the cabbage in a crock pot, along with the green beans and some of the corn, cut off of the cob, and some smoked sausage. I let it cook in the crock pot and we had it for dinner, plus I gave some to Mom & Dad for their dinner. (Hey "not a sparrow falls" you could easily make this for your Dad!)

I made peach freezer jam, froze some of the peaches and froze 18 ears of corn.

I love cooking in the summer months. What about you, do you grow any food, or can, freeze or dehydrate? Got any recipes to share?

Cindy