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Taming the Grocery Budget Part 2 - Seasonal Shopping and Eating
With shopping centres all over the place (most Australians live within a 10 minute drive of a major shopping centre), the temptation is a one-stop-shop. That’s exactly what the supermarkets want us to do: pull into a shopping centre and you can do your grocery shopping, get your car serviced, buy a camping tent, pick up a pair of boots for junior, and some socks for the hubby, fill a prescription, and an eye exam…all in one place. To a busy mum (or dad), that must sound like heaven, I know it does to me.
But these one-stop-shops aren’t always the most economical way to go. Most often the produce department is filled with produce that has been in cold storage for months or shipped in from another country (lemons from the USA, garlic from China and so on). That means it’s already old. And you’ve got a couple of days, max, to eat it before it goes bad. Except then you forget and it goes bad before you get a chance to use it, and then you haven’t really saved and money or time after all!
I am blessed to live in an area with an abundance of markets and produce stands. We don’t have much in the way of food buying co-ops…but we do have a wealth of small orchards with beautiful seasonal produce at excellent prices.
If you do a little research and figure out what’s coming into harvest during certain months of the year, you can really save a LOT of money by planning your menu around in-season food purchases.
For example in Melbourne (my area) during the summer months here’s what is in season:
That’s quite a list and a great variety. The advantage of locally grown, in-season produce is that it is so fresh and so much more affordable.
And if you have a garden, it’s almost free food.
When I plan the fruit and veg component of our meal plan I use the in-season foods. For example at this time of year we eat lots of salads with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicums and enjoy stone fruits and melons because we won’t be having them during the winter months.
The Seasonal Food Guide Australia is a great, easy to use resource to help you find what’s in season in your area. Just choose your area and it will bring up a list of fruits and vegetables and when they are in season.
One thing I’ve found handy for picking up seasonal bargains is cash. I very rarely have cash on me, but most roadside stalls will only take cash, especially the ones with honesty boxes. I hate to find a stall with fresh strawberries at a rock bottom price and have to pass it up because I don’t have any cash on me.
During Spring, Summer and Autumn (that’s when most roadside stands operate) I keep an envelope with some $1 coins in it so when I see watermelons for $2 each or cherries for $3/kg or fresh corn 5 cobs for $1 I can buy them.
As you meal plan, include in season fruits and vegetables. Be prepared to rotate your meals according to the seasons. Salad in winter doesn’t make a lot of sense if lettuce are $4 each, tomatoes are $8 a kilo and cucumbers are $2 each, but you know cabbages are $2 each, carrots are 89 cents a kilo and onions are 80 cents a kilo and you can make a whole lot of coleslaw for $3.69, enough for dinner and to enjoy with other meals later in the week.
Don’t be afraid of blemishes. Perfectly good fruit and vegetables are dumped because consumers only want perfect food. The perfect tomato, the unblemished watermelon, the smooth pumpkin. Truth is in nature those things aren’t perfect. If you grow your own veggies you’ll know this is true.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with tomatoes that are an odd shape or a pumpkin that has some marks on the skin (and many older farmers believe that pumpkins and melons with marks on the skin are the best tasting because they’ve been “kissed” by the sun).
Farmers and stall holders mark them down because we shoppers want perfection, and we pay a high price for it.
If you find a box of tomatoes that are a little over-ripe or not quite round buy it. Make sauce, dry some or turn them into chutney and save a fortune. I bought a 10kg box of tomatoes last week for $6 and used it to make pasta sauce that has been bottled for winter (and yes, I have kilos of tomatoes in the garden, they are being eaten and made into sauce and chutney too).
Food is the biggest waste not only in our households but in our country. It is a disgrace that perfectly good food is dumped to landfill, causing huge problems with odour and greenhouse gases, not to mention the billions of dollars wasted.
“According to statistics from Food Wise, Australians discard up to 20 percent of the food they purchase. That’s four million tonnes, or roughly 140 kilograms per person of food going to landfill each year. To give you a visual picture, that’s enough waste to fill 450,000 rubbish trucks, which, stretched end to end, would bridge the gap between Australia and New Zealand just over three times.”
Food Waste - A Growing Australian Problem
Another fun way to save even more on your in-season produce is to pick your own. I know a family who pick cherries every year, enough to last them until the next season. They go as a family and spend a weekend picking the delicious fruit, paying a fraction of the supermarket price per kilo. When they get the fruit home they then work as a team to bottle it for winter.
When we lived in rural New South Wales I would wait on tenterhooks for Easter to pick fresh corn. I’d go on the Thursday before Good Friday and pick as much as I could. We would enjoy fresh corn on the cob for a week, with the bulk of it being processed and frozen for us to enjoy during the winter.
There are still some you-pick farms and orchards around and they really are the best way to stock up on produce when it is in season.
If you really love farm-fresh food and don’t grow your own your next best option is your local farmer’s market. If you shop at a farmer’s market regularly you’ll build a relationship with the stall holders and that is to your advantage. If they know what you like and what you’re looking for, if they know you are willing to accept blemished produce, you’ll find even better deals. The stall holder will look after you for your loyalty as a customer, often saving you 40% or more on your fruit and veg buys.
A great side benefit of buying only in-season food is that you really appreciate it when you get it. By the end of summer I am craving hot vegetables: potato, pumpkin, swedes and parsnips, cauliflower so when they come into season I enjoy them. By the end of winter though I am craving salads and lighter vegetables, just in time for them to come into season and boy do I appreciate them.
It’s not difficult to shop in-season, you just need to change your attitude from one of having every food all year round to one of appreciating that everything has a season and we should respect that while we enjoy the grocery savings shopping in season brings.
But these one-stop-shops aren’t always the most economical way to go. Most often the produce department is filled with produce that has been in cold storage for months or shipped in from another country (lemons from the USA, garlic from China and so on). That means it’s already old. And you’ve got a couple of days, max, to eat it before it goes bad. Except then you forget and it goes bad before you get a chance to use it, and then you haven’t really saved and money or time after all!
I am blessed to live in an area with an abundance of markets and produce stands. We don’t have much in the way of food buying co-ops…but we do have a wealth of small orchards with beautiful seasonal produce at excellent prices.
If you do a little research and figure out what’s coming into harvest during certain months of the year, you can really save a LOT of money by planning your menu around in-season food purchases.
For example in Melbourne (my area) during the summer months here’s what is in season:
- Apricots
- Bananas
- Berries
- Cherries
- Figs
- Grapefruit
- Grapes
- Oranges
- Peaches
- Pears
- Plums
- Strawberries
- Beans
- Beetroot
- Capsicum
- Carrots
- Chillies
- Corn
- Cucumbers
- Eggplant
- Lettuce
- Onions
- Potatoes
- Silverbeet
- Tomatoes
- Zucchini
That’s quite a list and a great variety. The advantage of locally grown, in-season produce is that it is so fresh and so much more affordable.
And if you have a garden, it’s almost free food.
When I plan the fruit and veg component of our meal plan I use the in-season foods. For example at this time of year we eat lots of salads with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicums and enjoy stone fruits and melons because we won’t be having them during the winter months.
The Seasonal Food Guide Australia is a great, easy to use resource to help you find what’s in season in your area. Just choose your area and it will bring up a list of fruits and vegetables and when they are in season.
One thing I’ve found handy for picking up seasonal bargains is cash. I very rarely have cash on me, but most roadside stalls will only take cash, especially the ones with honesty boxes. I hate to find a stall with fresh strawberries at a rock bottom price and have to pass it up because I don’t have any cash on me.
During Spring, Summer and Autumn (that’s when most roadside stands operate) I keep an envelope with some $1 coins in it so when I see watermelons for $2 each or cherries for $3/kg or fresh corn 5 cobs for $1 I can buy them.
As you meal plan, include in season fruits and vegetables. Be prepared to rotate your meals according to the seasons. Salad in winter doesn’t make a lot of sense if lettuce are $4 each, tomatoes are $8 a kilo and cucumbers are $2 each, but you know cabbages are $2 each, carrots are 89 cents a kilo and onions are 80 cents a kilo and you can make a whole lot of coleslaw for $3.69, enough for dinner and to enjoy with other meals later in the week.
Don’t be afraid of blemishes. Perfectly good fruit and vegetables are dumped because consumers only want perfect food. The perfect tomato, the unblemished watermelon, the smooth pumpkin. Truth is in nature those things aren’t perfect. If you grow your own veggies you’ll know this is true.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with tomatoes that are an odd shape or a pumpkin that has some marks on the skin (and many older farmers believe that pumpkins and melons with marks on the skin are the best tasting because they’ve been “kissed” by the sun).
Farmers and stall holders mark them down because we shoppers want perfection, and we pay a high price for it.
If you find a box of tomatoes that are a little over-ripe or not quite round buy it. Make sauce, dry some or turn them into chutney and save a fortune. I bought a 10kg box of tomatoes last week for $6 and used it to make pasta sauce that has been bottled for winter (and yes, I have kilos of tomatoes in the garden, they are being eaten and made into sauce and chutney too).
Food is the biggest waste not only in our households but in our country. It is a disgrace that perfectly good food is dumped to landfill, causing huge problems with odour and greenhouse gases, not to mention the billions of dollars wasted.
“According to statistics from Food Wise, Australians discard up to 20 percent of the food they purchase. That’s four million tonnes, or roughly 140 kilograms per person of food going to landfill each year. To give you a visual picture, that’s enough waste to fill 450,000 rubbish trucks, which, stretched end to end, would bridge the gap between Australia and New Zealand just over three times.”
Food Waste - A Growing Australian Problem
Another fun way to save even more on your in-season produce is to pick your own. I know a family who pick cherries every year, enough to last them until the next season. They go as a family and spend a weekend picking the delicious fruit, paying a fraction of the supermarket price per kilo. When they get the fruit home they then work as a team to bottle it for winter.
When we lived in rural New South Wales I would wait on tenterhooks for Easter to pick fresh corn. I’d go on the Thursday before Good Friday and pick as much as I could. We would enjoy fresh corn on the cob for a week, with the bulk of it being processed and frozen for us to enjoy during the winter.
There are still some you-pick farms and orchards around and they really are the best way to stock up on produce when it is in season.
If you really love farm-fresh food and don’t grow your own your next best option is your local farmer’s market. If you shop at a farmer’s market regularly you’ll build a relationship with the stall holders and that is to your advantage. If they know what you like and what you’re looking for, if they know you are willing to accept blemished produce, you’ll find even better deals. The stall holder will look after you for your loyalty as a customer, often saving you 40% or more on your fruit and veg buys.
A great side benefit of buying only in-season food is that you really appreciate it when you get it. By the end of summer I am craving hot vegetables: potato, pumpkin, swedes and parsnips, cauliflower so when they come into season I enjoy them. By the end of winter though I am craving salads and lighter vegetables, just in time for them to come into season and boy do I appreciate them.
It’s not difficult to shop in-season, you just need to change your attitude from one of having every food all year round to one of appreciating that everything has a season and we should respect that while we enjoy the grocery savings shopping in season brings.
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