There must have been a huge amount of fresh cranberries bagged and placed out at retail before Thanksgiving. They were priced as high as $3.00 per 12 oz. bag then. Two weeks ago, I bought 20 bags at 99-Cent Store. Today, wife wanted to stop at Kohl's for a gift; her mother will be 91 in a few weeks. 99-Cent located same mall, we needed produce, and she gasped, calling my attention to this: Evidently, the huge retail market predicted a month ago failed to materialize. Now, the berries will go at the lowest price in decades, or spoil, or perhaps be ground up as silage to feed, what, cattle? Maybe pond-raised fish? I almost bought more.......maybe tomorrow......Frank
I can't imagine the looks you guys get when people see you in a grocery store taking pictures of the fruit
Ahhh......I was very careful there. A lady conversing with another, in front of that display, lingered for the longest time. I thought, well, if I excuse myself, and move in for a picture, she will think me, understandably and correctly, some old A. H. I held off, waiting, my wife chafing over her coconut milk getting warm. Finally, they moved away. Unfortunately, just to the right, was a sign proclaiming Blackberries @ $0.99. The lady suddenly returned! I think she took the whole stock of Blackberries, though scant. Only then could I surrepticiously take the pic. Jan, you must be more aware, or concerned, of others' awareness of your activities than I. Time was, I felt embarrassed to move about in a store, surrounded by others, and jumped in fright should some stranger engage harmless conversation. Did they see? Was my face.....the "rebound effect" of those 2nd. degree burns in 8th. grade. I imagine few may understand what that was like. Ah, those unfortunate serious events occurring at or about puberty, which affect a person's persona for life. Some, perhaps most, are spared them. In my experience, those folks often become embroiled in more trivial extance......do we all bear some kind of cross? Frank
At the store my husband works at they have heads of cabbage for 17 cents a pound. Here in Louisiana and many southern states eating cabbage for New Year's is a tradition that most people follow. And although the price of cabbage does go down around this time...this is the lowest I have seen it priced in ages. I'm thinking though that since the store has 2100 lbs of this cabbage...I'm going to end up with some that we will get free...and that's the best price of all.
@Babs Hunt A staple of our European-style diet as a kid was sweet-sour cabbage, preferably red, cooked to tenderness with a bit of bacon included, chopped fine. This was served over dough dumplings, along with gravy from meat drippings, usually pork roast. Yum! Enough to cause old-age blood problems, a non-issue for me, since I've made it far enough to now ignore all those early-on warnings! Frank
How did you make the sweet-sour cabbage, @Frank Sanoica ? We eat cabbage, too, and I have cooked it with a dab of ham or bacon; but I have never had the sweet-sour kind. I think that I would enjoy that, and can probably make it low-carb if I don't use sugar to sweeten it.
Well, we rehashed the situation today, heading over to Laughlin to walk the Mall, wind preventing enjoyable river-walking. I ventured forth the thought: 50-cent bags of cranberries, they're so good for us, antioxidants, etc., blah, blah, (the wine is incomparable), she relented, stopped at 99-Cent Store on the way home, TONS of them left. Bought 21 more bags. Problem is, I'm out of vessels (almost) to ferment them in! An unprecedented situation easily resolvable. Tomorrow. The berries are in our Coleman cooler out in the shop; they wouldn't fit in the fridge. We thought these fruits might be so old that they were approaching un-saleability, but they look just fine. The color of the mash started 2 weeks ago is unsurpassed by any other fruit. Beautiful, dark, and red, deeper color than strawberry or blueberry. Send address, name, certified funds, $5.00 per bottle, to jack.brady.39@yahoo.com, please include sufficient funds to cover shipping. The current batch will be bottle-able in late January. Tomorrow will be a BUSY day! Frank
I tried the sweet and sour cabbage today, and it was delicious, @Frank Sanoica . I first cooked a little bacon, and then added the chopped up cabbage. When it was cooking, I added some of the vinegar pickles that I had made from the Daikon Radish and carrots, and then I added just a bit of the vinegar and sweetener and a dab of soy sauce and let it finish cooking. I used just a little bit of corn starch and water to make a thin sauce like you find in chow mein or other Chinese vegetable dishes, and the whole thing was totally awesome ! Since it is low-carb, and has good veggies and fats in it, I am going to make this more often, and maybe a larger skillet of it for dinner one of these days. It is probably not anything like you had growing up with the gravy on the cabbage; but it worked out to be a great meal for kind of a sweet and sour cabbage dish.
Getting back to your cranberries most people don’t know much about them and think they might grow on trees in the D.R. they have a tree which they call it a cranberry tree but I tell them cranberries grow underwater they think I am crazy. That might be true but they do grow underwater.
@Martin Alonzo I've seen the berries floating in several feet of water, as the growers waded through it in their ads. Frank
@Yvonne Smith Glad you enjoyed that! The addition of starch is a good idea; my Mother thickened many dishes with it, as though we were addicted to thick gravies! The compote I made for my big Kolach was the liquid out of the can of peaches, heated to boiling, a bit of starch, and slobbered amongst the peaches on top, it turned out gelled real nicely. Frank
My post #9, above, no longer has an edit option, so, correction: there should have been no "dot" before the 39: jack.brady39@yahoo.com