Since my kids have now discovered their love for mangoes (thanks again Shakira!) I can finally make some exotic flavored jam or fruit butter. So far they usually only eat apple butter, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and peach jam. With my current abundance of mangoes and some fresh peaches from the farmers market it’s time to make a test batch of peach mango butter. Hopefully it will get thick enough to be a butter. If not then at least I will have several jars worth of jam.

Hopefully the same method used for making apple butter in the crockpot will work for this peach mango butter. If you’ve never made crockpot apple butter check out this site for some great directions.

* Start heating a pan of water. You will need the boiling water to help remove the skin from the peaches.

* While the water is coming to a boil cut the mangoes and remove the fruit. Place the diced mango into the crockpot.

* When the water in your pan comes to a boil carefully drop several peaches into the pot.

* Prepare a container filled with cold water and ice cubes. Once the peaches have been in the boiling water for 1 minutes transfer them to the other container. Wait 1 minute for the peaches to be cool enough to handle. The skins should be easy to remove from the peaches.

Carefully cut the peach in half and remove the pit. Dice the peaches and add the fruit to the crockpot. Set the crockpot to low. The first step in making fruit butter is to cook the fruit until it’s soft enough to mash or puree. I’ve never made fruit butter with anything except apples. The apples needed to cook overnight on low to make them nice and soft. I will be checking the peach/mango mixture every hour because they are already very soft. It probably won’t take as long.

Check back for part 2 of making peach mango butter. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will work and I’ll get some incredible tasting fruit butter without having to use lots of sugar.

Have you had success making fruit butter from something other then apples or peaches? If so I’d love to hear about which fruits you used.

This post was submitted to the following blogs:

 Fight Back Fridays at the Food Renegade blog 

 Monday Mania over at Healthy Home Economist

 Two For Tuesdays  blog hop over at A Moderate Life

 Stop by and check out all the other real food related posts.

Sigh….it’s been a very long week. My brain was melted by a migraine that lasted for days. Most of what I had planned got put on hold until I the never ending headache was gone. Blech! Never made it to the farmers market. Instead, since peach season is just starting, I went to several local farms to get my name on a list for peach drops…..the slightly odd shaped, dinged or bruised fruit that they sell at discounted prices. Drops are great for making jam. The timing is perfect since I’m down to my last jar of peach jam. Now I just have to wait to be called.

No sense in making a trip to the farm without picking up a few things. This time I found 8 ball zucchini and summer squash. They are shaped like little balls. So cute! Also got a few more pickling cukes for refrigerator pickles. The last batch came out OK. I’m not a huge pickle fan but my youngest is and she ate the whole jar. I’d call that a success. Rounded out the trip with a dozen fresh eggs. Time for some more frittata.

Cooler weather crops are almost gone from the farms. It’s been pretty hot here this year. Shouldn’t complain since it rained almost non stop last year and everything got hit with blight. This year it got hot faster then expected and all most lettuce bolted. I’m pretty new when it comes to gardening so I thought I’d stick with easy stuff. Didn’t work this time. Hopefully I can get some fresh lettuce before the year is over. Maybe some kale and spinach too. Can’t plant those things until the end of August so for now I’m just enjoying what others have been growing.

What’s growing in your area? Trying anything new this year?

June 26th was the opening day of the Braintree Farmers Market. The weather report said possible chance of thunderstorms but it turned out to be a beautiful day. I decided to drag my kids down to the market with me to see what was currently being offered. We had a Jamie Oliver type moment (if you have seen his Food Revolution then you’ll know what I mean) with some of the items being offered. The kids were mystified by the red celery (rhubarb) and the giant weird green pine cone looking things (artichokes). Other then that they pretty much have seen and tried most of the veggies, fruits and herbs being offered.

There were several farms there with spring and early summer veggies including several types of lettuce, cabbage, scallions, peas, cucumbers, squash, zucchini and even green house grown tomatoes. The only fruits I saw were June strawberries and some cherries. Several vendors offered fresh seafood, grass fed beef, fresh eggs and veal. One vendor was selling delicious Asiago raw milk cheese. Several vendors offered baked goods, jams, jellies, sauces, granola, bread and other goodies.

Our purchases for the first market day included a head of cabbage, summer squash, pickling cucumbers, Asiago cheese and eggs. I’ve already used the cucumbers to make refrigerator pickles for the pickle queen. I also am trying out a recipe for refrigerator sweet peppers. Can’t wait to see how they turn out. The cabbage will be used for fresh coleslaw tomorrow to go with grilled chicken. The squash will be used later in the week to make a salsa to serve over fresh fish. The eggs and cheese went into tonights frittata along with a few other items I found in the refrigerator. I’ll post that recipe next!

Can’t wait to see what they will be offering next week. Did you visit a farmers market this week? If so what did you end up buying?

Local Harvest

Farm Fresh

Farmers Market

Edible South Shore: Farmer’s Markets

I was only able to visit a few local farms last year. I didn’t get a chance to hit up the different markets. A friend of mine, who goes often, gave me some tips:

- Bring your own bags. Some of the farmers may have plastic bags available but it’s always better to recycle your own.

- Have small bills and some change. I don’t just show up with a few $20′s.

- Go early if you want the best selection.

- Go later if you want to pick up some good deals. No one wants to carry home fruits/veggies after they’ve been sitting outside all afternoon.

- If your buying meat, eggs, cheese, etc then keep a cooler and some ice packs in the car.

- Local farmers often grown veggies and fruits you don’t normally see in the local grocery store. Ask the farmers about anything you don’t recognize. They also can usually tell you how to cook or prepare the item too.

I plan on chatting up the local farmers so I can find out who will give deals on bulk purchases. Last year we canned a variety of jams. This year I’d like to try tomatoes, salsa and pickles for my 8 year old pickle queen….she would eat a jarful if I let her!

In the past I use to save tons of money on coupons. I’d collect them, wait for a sale and then stock up on various food items for next to nothing. Saving $40, $50 or $60 or more was a common thing. Coupons and matching sales would easily help me to save at least 50% off my grocery store bill.

I’ve noticed that lately things have changed. The fewer commercially prepared items I buy the fewer coupons I use. The really odd thing is that the amount I spend on food really hasn’t gone up all that much. We now spend more money buying fresh or frozen fruits and veggies but less money on boxed mixes, snacks and premade, frozen items such as chicken nuggets. I’ve got to thank Jamie Oliver for breaking the chicken nugget addiction in this house. Once the kids saw how the things were made they really weren’t interested in them any more.

The other strange thing that is starting to happen is the kids are now more willing to try foods they never would have touched before such as fish. If it didn’t come in fish stick form they wouldn’t touch it. Now that the fish sticks have been missing in action for a while they’ve discovered they love Tilapia and even Salmon! Who knew this was possible! 

It would be nice to find coupons for real food items. I don’t know if they actually exsist. Do they? I have seen a few coupons for fruits and veggies but it’s always the precut, individually packaged stuff such as a few apple slices in a tiny bag with a fairly high price tag. No thanks…..I’ll cut my own apples up.

It’s almost time for the various local farmer’s markets to open. I’m going to be hitting them all up this year to see what they offer. If I’m going to be buying fresh stuff I’d like to get it from local farmers. The few things I did buy at the local markets last year tasted so incredible compared to what you find in your local grocery store. I noticed the biggest difference with the fruit. My youngest is still complaining about running out of peach jam that I made with peaches picked at a New Hampshire farm. OMG….those where incredible!

Interesting tip I just recently heard. Many of the local markets are now accepting food stamp cards (sorry, I’m not sure what they are called). That’s great to hear. Now at least there are opportunities for everyone to have access to fresh, local foods. You don’t even need to spend extra on buying organic. Many of the local farmers use various farming techniques to reduce or eliminate pesticide use. They just don’t have the big cash to get the “official” organic label.