“Whenever I go to the store and see something I use that is 50% off (buy one-get one) I get a case (or two)”
I learned that from my parents and grandparents.
My wife taught me when beef prices go up, often chicken/pork and some sea food prices don’t and vice versa. So we buy the lesser price meat/protein and stock up on them, when they are on sale. We have a mini freezer besides the good size one on the side of our refrigerator.
We have a great farmers market from May to November. However, this year, we bought a couple of cattle water troughs to raise tomatoes and salads. The troughs make it easier to tend and pick as they are about 3’ high. 3 tomatoe plants have kept us and a racoon in fresh tomatoes since June. The coon likes the Romas and only picks them just before they ripen.
We had to put in a Deer fence to keep the coastal deer from eating my wife’s roses and our garden stuff. So if we had to, they could be our meat with the wild turkeys/rabbits and quail. Our older son and his daughter are good hunters and share their bounty, deer, wild pigs and wild turkeys with us
Soon, we will remove the tomatoes and salad plants from the trough and try our first root vegies. Next year we will plant corn, okra, minature egg plant and other vegies as well as tomatoes and the salad greens.
Our DIL’s family is like ours re loving tomatoes, salads and corn. She has provided most of those produce items with minimal land use. They don’t have to worry about critters, but her cherry tomatoes kept disappearing. I told her to keep an eye on her son/our grandson. His concept of fresh salad was to pick and eat the tomatoes and greens right at the site. He did that this year when he visited. He would go out and baah like a sheep or moo like a calf and eat his really fresh salad where they were growing.
dunk them in boiling water for about 15 seconds and the skin peels right off. then throw them in a freezer bag. perfect for making chili.
I had chili all year last year on my supply of frozen tomatoes