Edit: Back from berry picking. Picked 24 pounds and now it's on to the jam. Anyone wanna come help?
Every summer I find it hard to keep up this blog. There is just so much life to be lived. This morning we're going to pick strawberries. I couldn't believe it when I called the farm and discovered that strawberries were $20.00 for a flat or for ten pounds. That's highway robbery! Last year I paid $14.00 for ten pounds. If I pick my own they are only $9.50 a flat but that's still a lot.
The farm says that gas prices have gone up which means transportation is costing more. What transportation? Those farm hands wheel those berries to the stand with the same wheel barrow I'm going to use when I take my berries up to be weighed. Oh yes, I know they have to ship berries to the market and stuff but my word, charge the market then don't charge the poor woman who is buying direct. All I can say is that growing my own berries is looking pretty good about now.
And speaking of which...my corn is up. Tiny little green shoots dot the brown earth. If I have to I will till up my entire 1/4 acre side yard next year. These prices are all getting ridiculous. And Peter better stop eating somewhere along the line. That little boy is always hungry. It's going to take an extra freezer just to store food for him!
Yesterday I baked cookies so I have them for the freezer. I made about ten dozen and it was all I could do to get them bagged and into the freezer before the neighbor kids ate them. One little 11 year old girl had 7 cookies before I figured out what was happening. I feel sorry for them because they never get home baked things but mercy, I cant feed the entire village!
After making the jam today I need to start concentrating on getting ready for camping this weekend. We're leaving Friday and I haven't given it a thought as far as food and preparation. I mowed the yards yesterday and gave myself a major allergy attack. I shouldn't have done it because I've never been the same since. I have a sinus headache along with a migraine that niggles at the back of my brain and just wont let go.
I gotta go get ready. I need to water the garden before I get the kids up. I want to be at the strawberry patch by 9:00 am when they open. I still need to run to the store and buy some more pectin. Have a good day and enjoy the sunshine.
Good Morning!
53 minutes ago
17 people discussing the dribbles:
I see the price increase is still bothering you:)
Atleast with you around, your little village won't starve if there should be a famine..;)
See you at the strawberry fields!
ps. Bimart did have pectin on sale.
The price of everything seems to be rising! It is terrible!
Have a great time in the "fields!"
Yiy. We were planning to go picking tomorrow. I assume probably at the same farm? Maybe I won't get to many and hope that I can get lots of (free) blackberries later.. Hmm..
My allergies have been awful this year. Does it seem worse than last?
Hope you have fun camping. Seeya
I've noticed that visitors and baking mean that stuff just disappears fast! LOL! I'm beginning to think that no one actually cooks anymore so it must be a treat.
For us, it's just survival! LOL!
I don't know if the farm you go to has tractors but if they do that might be where the cost is. Diesel is even higher than gasoline!
Strawberries! Yummy! I love strawberry season. Next year, if it kills me (and it won't), I will have some strawberry plants of my own. I will, I will!
Have fun camping!! I'm with ya on the sinus headache and migraine. Bad, bad this year.
A few weeks ago I picked 10 lbs. of strawberries. I hulled them and set them aside to make jam. We had a heatwave and didn't have our a/c on. After one day they rotted! Ugghh!
I still have leftover jam so I'm not making any this year. We're not eating it as much and I'm tight on $$, so I just sliced up 3 flats for smoothies. I paid $12.00 a flat from our local farm adn I just saw today that they were up to $15.00 from the same farm. Glad I got them when I did.
UK prices are shooting up too. Fuel costs us around a £1.19 per litre right now ($2.30 ish) and we have really began to look at whether its feasible to grow our own of everything to save on fuel.
Hope that sinus/migraine thing clears up and you have a great camping trip.
Cx
ps I have had to go invite only on my blog again Im afraid but you have been re invited.
Yes, I echo what angelstar says, we are suffering here in the UK too. I am seriously looking into growing some of our own foodstuffs, but sadly we have been told we can't have an allotment which would have helped hugely.
I hope the camping trip is a fabulously enjoyable one :o)
Jules x
Jules hwo do they decide who gets the allotments?
um, no. me no helpee. I don't much like jam. We will start picking in another few months ~ round about august ~ I can go strawberries & cream, strawberry smoothies, strawberry icecream but jam, definitely not, especially if I have to make it first.
Hi Mrs Darling,
I really enjoy you taking the time to share your world with us.
Thats the insidious thing about rising oil prices its doesn't just affect transportation of the goods to the sale point.
Although you got a pat answer that didn't seem to make any sense its still the same root cause. The cost of transporting runners, nutrients and other inputs from the supplier to the farm are also hit by increased transport costs.
Petrochemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides used on conventional produce have gone up massively this US growing season and in all likelihood that is where a large percentage of your increased cost has come from.
I could be wrong but I really doubt your farmer is winning in this equation.
Kind Regards
Belinda
If you were closer to WA I'd tell you to come up here. Our near-by berry picking fiels are .75-85 cents a lb. But still way more than last year. The cost of gas however would rule out the trip.
Nothing however tastes better than fresh berries.
I just found your blog when I was searching O.D.D. or something similar. I have a special child as well. It's nice to find others going through similar stuff.
Enjoy those berries.
Have fun enjoying all the things of summer...blogging definitely doesn't fit as well with summertime activities!
Happy sunshine!
Melissa
Ah, I feel your pain - Michael has decided recently that he is going to eat everything in sight, increasing my already strained grocery budget. Must just be the age - he ate three plates of food on Saturday while we were visiting my sister - and that was 4 hours after having lunch! Growing boys... my mother-in-law warned me, but I didn't know it happened so soon.
I'm still pondering whether or not to put in a garden this late in the season here. I picked up some fresh veggies at the farmer's market today - $19 for a grocery bag of stuff - ouch! But the heat is so miserable, I just don't think anything will make it now. Maybe some containers out front would survive... wouldn't cost much to try, right?
Have a blessed evening!
Too much life to be lived, indeed.
I tried to comment recently and blogger was down. I have been reading, however! Sounds delightful over your way - enjoy your summer!
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