Tagge's CSA

  

Tagge's CSA

Cabbage, carrots, green onions, beets, apricots, 2 kinds of cherries, zucchini & a bonus jar of peach salsa.

Corn, green onions, green beans, beets, zucchini, cherries, apricots & raspberries.

Carrots, corn, swiss chard, green onions, beets, zucchini, squash, cabbage, green beans, garlic, basil, apricots, peaches & blackberries.

Red & green cabbage, romaine, green onions, carrots, cucumbers, beets, corn, purple fiesta fingerling potatoes, peaches, plums & blackberries.

Corn, zucchini, yellow squash, turnips, carrots, jalepenos, chile pepper, fingerling potatoes, plums, peaches, cantaloupe & blackberries.

2 varieties of peaches, pears, cantaloupe, corn, garlic, okra, 2 varieties of peppers, zuccini, yellow squash, tomatoes & green beans.

Tagge's CSA- Want to Join?

Hey Friends, I'm looking for at least 9 other people to do Tagge's CSA with me. http://www.taggesfamousfruit.com/csa.php

What is a CSA you ask?
From the Tagge's website:

CSA programs help local farmers by deferring their common early season farming costs. Over the years it’s been proven when both the farmer and the consumer anticipate each season’s harvest together, the overall success of the harvest is greatly increased. The result is more bountiful harvest at a lower cost to the consumer.

Here’s How It Works: As a CSA Share Holder you will receive a specially packed box of fresh fruits and vegetable each week, for 15 weeks. We will start the week of July 4th and continue until the week of October 10th, 2012. Boxes in July and early August will not have as many varieties of fruits and vegetables due to the Utah growing season, but in August and especially September your membership box will overflow with different varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables grown on our farm.

I did it last year and was really pleased.

What I liked:
-Local pickup
-Local grown fruits and vegetables
-Great overall value
-Feel good about helping out farmer's

What I didn't like:
-Have to pay all up front (but that is kind of the point)
-You don't know what you'll be getting (but that is kind of fun)

 Let me know if you have any questions!

Utah Case Lot Sales

It's case lot time again. The woman at Prepared LDS Family has updated her comprehensive list of prices going on this season. If you're planning on stocking up on anything, you should definitely check it out.

CSA: Tagge's Farms

I haven't been doing Bountiful Baskets the last few weeks. For the last 3 I've been trying something new. Back in April I bought a "half share" from Tagge's Famous Fruit. I prepaid for 15 weeks of fruits and veggies grown right here in the state. It worked out to $18.33 a week (compared to $16.50 with BB). The items are organically grown though, so if you're in to that, this might be the way to go. Here are the items we've received thus far:

Week #1

Week #2

Week #3


My kids have enjoyed all the cherries (especially the baby who eats the pits!). I've been sauteing all the greens and using them in various pasta and rice dishes, which I've enjoyed.

Using up all the Chicken

Every time I buy a 40 lb box of chicken I trim it, bag it, and throw it in the freezer, scraps are trashed. Last time I did this I later read this on Pinching Your Pennies.com. I determined to not waste those scraps again.

Yesterday I purchased a 40 lb box of boneless, skinless chicken breasts at the Springville Reams ($1.48 lb). I did my usual trim and bag, but this time I saved all my scraps for broth. So fun to use it all up.

Homemade Mixes

Tightwad Mom's Frugal Forum blog has links to the following homemade mixes-

Spice Blends:
Dry Onion Soup Mix
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Taco Seasoning
Ranch Dressing Mix
Chili Seasoning Mix

Convenience Foods:
Home Made Pancake Syrup
Bagel Bite Pizzas
Crockpot Refried Beans
Frozen Fudge Pops
Frozen Smoothie Pops
Sweet and Condensed Milk
Granola Bars

Mixes:
Bisquick
Pancake Mix
Oatmeal Pancake Mix
Corn Muffin Mix
Muffin Mix
Hot Roll Mix
Hot Cocoa Mix
Yellow Cake Mix
Chocolate Cake Mix

Food Co-op in Spanish Fork

For my local friends I thought you might be interested in a local co-op or CSA. Tagge's Famous Fruit will have a weekly drop off in town for 15 weeks starting in July. You pre-pay for your shares. The information is all here.

I really enjoy Bountiful Baskets, but I'm intrigued by this since it is local farmers. The word is that it is comparable in quantity to Bountiful Baskets though the website says that your shares are significantly smaller in July than in August and September.

If anyone is interested give me a call and I'll tell you what I know.

Wheat Bread

Here is the wheat bread recipe to accompany the picture from 3 weeks ago:

Whole Wheat Bread (thanks cousin Jen!)
5 cups hot water
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup honey
10-11 cups wheat flour
1 T bread enhancer/gluten
1 T salt
2 T yeast

In mixer, mix hot water, oil and honey. Add 2 cups wheat flour and mix until it looks soapy. Add bread enhancer, salt and 2-3 more cups of wheat flour. Mix until it looks like pancake batter. Mix in yeast. At this point, keep adding wheat flour, 1 cup at a time until it cleans the bowl. Knead dough in machine for 5 minutes. Cover and let rise for 15 minutes.

Divide dough into four equal parts. Beat out each part on an oiled surface into a rectangle shape until all the bubbles are out. Roll each into a loaf and put it in a greased bread pan. Let rise in pans for 15-25 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

My Notes:
First of all this is delicious! I recently acquired a Blendtec blender, so I have been using it to blend wheat into flour. It is magical. Anyway, I'm so happy to have used up my first bag of wheat from my food storage.

I mix the dough in my kitchen aid, and it works just fine, but since it's the smaller sized one I cut the recipe in half. I also use both bread enhancer and vital wheat gluten. I wasn't sure on the recipe what was intended so I just put a Tablespoon of each in. Also, I find that it takes a lot longer than 15-25 minutes for my loaves to rise. I also cover the loaves with a damp towel while they are raising.

Wheat Bread

This Looks Good

I just wanted to mark this recipe, it looks good.Blue Bayou Chicken & Shrimp Gumbo

Look What I Got For Zero Dollars

The other day I got this fancy package in the mail. Inside was a Google Chrome Cr-48 Notebook. In mommy speak it is a way for me to access the web without hiding out in my bedroom to do so. I have enjoyed reading my feeds, checking Facebook, accessing my Google docs and calendar, listening to Pandora, and even watching a little Hulu on this convenient device (has a long battery life too!). The kids have enjoyed it as well. I'm not sure if they are still looking for good homes for these puppies but you can try at this link.

Soup to try

I just wanted to keep track of this blog post. 'Tis the season for soups and some of these look really good.

Safely Gathered In

Free (sort of) Wii Game

Look what I got in the mail today:

A few weeks ago Langers Apple Juice was on sale for $.99 at Smiths. I bought a bunch and sent in for this game. You can find the details here: Langers Juice
There is a $1.00 off any Langer's juice coupon that came a out a couple weeks ago so you can get the juice for even less with a sale.

I've heard this game is fun. We will see after Christmas.

Pumpkin Fun

See the 3 pumpkins in the background? We have slowly been cookin' them up. We've tried the following pumpkin recipes:
Pumpkin Bread Mine sunk a bit, but it didn't stop us from eating it up.
Pumpkin Soup I used sour cream instead of whipping cream and it didn't go over too well with the kids.
Pumpkin Pie The kids loved this.
Easiest Pumpkin Cookies:
1 15-oz can pumpkin (1 3/4 c home brewed pumpkin)
1 Spice flavored box cake mix
1/2 bag of chocolate chips

Mix the 3 together and plop on a greased cookie sheet for 18 minutes at 350 degrees.

Canning Fun

My mom couldn't can her grapes this year, so I took it over. It was a mess. I do have a greater appreciation for all her hard work over the years juicing grapes. One day I made a batch of salsa and juiced grapes. I was such a happy homemaker.


Later in the month I made applesauce. My neighbor let me borrow her Victorio Strainer. It totally beats, peeling, slicing, coring, and mashing 'em yourself. I still have some apples in my garage. If I can round up a few more bottles I'll finish up the last of them.

Salsa

This past Saturday I made Salsa again (second time ever). I used a different recipe, which was really tasty. It comes from my Aunt Julie.

Julie's Salsa
50 medium tomatoes, washed, peeled and quartered
4 large onions, chopped
4 sweet red peppers, chopped
4 large green bell peppers, chopped
8 jalepeno peppers, remove seeds for milder salsa (Julie's notes say, "I keep the seeds of 6 and remove the seeds of two")
1 medium garlic bulb, minced
2 T sugar
3/4 c apple cider vinegar
12 t salt (1/4 c)

Cook tomatoes for about 1 hour. While cooking skim off 5 cups of juice. Add onion, red peppers, green peppers, jalepeno and garlic. Cook with tomatoes for 45 minutes. Add sugar, vinegar and salt. Cook for another 30 minutes.

Put in jars and seal. Steam for about 10 minutes. Makes 12-14 pints.

I only had 25 tomatoes so I halved the recipe. "Halved" sounds so weird. I got the tomatoes, green peppers and jalepenos from my dad's garden. (For Sarah) I got the red peppers from Bountiful Baskets.

For My Mom

Aren't they beautiful? Thanks for teaching me how.

Bountiful Baskets 10/2

Look at the great basket I got yesterday:

Potatoes, artichoke, cauliflower, lettuce, grapes, tomatoes, red peppers, cantaloupe, plums, apples, strawberries, and bananas.

I also ordered peaches again. They were Utah ones and look beautiful!


Here is the website if you want to give it a try, orders for Utah start on Monday at 8:00pm:Bountiful Baskets.

A few things I meant to post, but didn't because I was too busy...

The last couple of months Smiths has been having Double Coupon days. This last time I was so excited about my trip that I took a picture of it meaning to share it with the world, but I got too busy.

Another day my MIL brought over a laundry basket full of tomatoes, peppers, and onions. She asked me if I knew how to can salsa. I didn't then, but I do now. I meant to tell you all about it, but I got too busy.

You know how you can use a ton of coupons on trial sized items to score 'em for free? The other day I got all this stuff at Target for 0 dollars. I wanted to let you know, but I got too busy.

Last week at Smiths you could get this gigantic thing of toilet paper for $2.99. Wouldn't it have been awesome if I had told you all about it?
It was the same day that I got this giant thing of cheese for free.
(I heard the coupon is in the October Family Fun Magazine, too). I meant to tell you all about my Smiths trip, but I got too busy.

Finally I wanted to share a new pizza recipe that we liked. It comes from Deals to Meals.
I'm almost never too busy to share pizza, but even this post got away from me.

So there you have it, a bunch of deals and finds that could definitely give this blog some potential. Oh well. Until next time.