Free Fruit?!

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ErinHuffstetler
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Re: Free Fruit?!

Post by ErinHuffstetler »

dlrcpa wrote:In the fall I am always on the lookout for free or really cheap pumpkins. People just toss them into the woods to get rid of them
We do this, too. I make a bunch of puree. Then, we give the chickens the rest. It's a wonderful treat for them in the winter.
Erin Huffstetler
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RecoveringDreamer
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Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:00 pm

Re: Free Fruit?!

Post by RecoveringDreamer »

I don't know if you have a dehydrator or not, but my favorite way to use crabapples is to make crabapple candy. I cut the crabapples in halves or quarters depending on size, then toss in granulated sugar. I dehydrate them until leathery. They are amazing, like a sour-patch kid but better.

You could try it in a low oven too.
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frugalmom
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:52 pm

Re: Free Fruit?!

Post by frugalmom »

You can also make pumpkin curry or pumpkin tempura-yum!
11cats2beagles
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Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:56 pm

Re: Free Fruit?!

Post by 11cats2beagles »

We have wild strawberries growing all over. One thing the boys do with their babysitter is pick those. So far they have been snacks for the boys and not much else except to toss a few into salads.

We have two cherry trees and two pear trees that (according to neighbor) haven't produced fruit in several years. We had S.O's brother come over and (with instruction from my dad) prune them. They look much better and we are hoping for fruit from them next year.

A drive to the country will produce apples from trees along the road that nobody owns or bothers to pick from.
blondeinbuffalo
Posts: 939
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:37 am

Re: Free Fruit?!

Post by blondeinbuffalo »

I am going to try the crab apple recipes, thanks! I will also be on the hunt for curbside pumpkins as I like to feed the deer and they love them! I just split them in half or quarters and they eat everything but the stem! cj
ChopinLover
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Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:17 pm

Re: Free Fruit?!

Post by ChopinLover »

I had no luck one year trying to cook up a halloween pumpkin. It was awful. However, when I lived in the Seattle area, I could get lots of fabulous free Italian freestone prune plums from my dad's tree. It was one of my favorite fruits, so easy to clean, freeze or cook into many things. I was also lucky enough to get extremely good cast offs from the Yakima Fruit market stand not far from my home. I went there and asked the manager what they did with their not perfect produce and told them I had critters that would love to eat it [which i did]. They would put it up and high off the ground for me and I would get lots of really great stuff. Nothing rotten at all. We had enough to generously feed our family of 5.
Now, down here, I can't find any such arrangement. Once in a great while hubby will bring home some produce offered to him but most of it has been given to the store workers first. [he delivers meat to carnercias and Sprouts market].
I have snagged, some years, plenty of citrus fruits in Dec/Jan--lemons, oranges, grapefruits. Limes on my little shrub come in like right now, but lately my tree has not been blooming well. Don't know why.
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