With seasons changing, I’m sharing every produce recipe you need in order to utilize the ever abundant autumn fruits and vegetables coming up.
Fall seems to be the most plentiful season in the garden, grocery store, and farmer’s market. If you’re not saving all the produce recipes you need, you’ll quickly be throwing away mushy, moldy produce.
Think about your winter self. Think about your spring self. Would that version of you want to have wasted all the juicy apples and crisp tomatoes just because you lacked the produce recipes you needed in the moment? Absolutely not. Here’s the motivation you need to start storing, canning, baking, and cooking up the produce you have now to bless yourself later.
STOP: Before you click off this page thinking I don’t have a garden, this post doesn’t regard me, YOU’RE WRONG.
I don’t have a garden either! I haven’t had the time, energy, or money to put into a garden in the past few years. Even now, we own a home with a yard and shovels and all the things we would need, but we just haven’t made it happen. That’s okay.
I’ve still scored bags of apples, huge zucchinis, delicious tomatoes, and a couple cucumbers all for free because I know where to look.
Where to Find Free Produce
Here’s a few tips for where to find free produce in your area. It’s not a guarantee as each season in each state is different, but here’s a few ideas to get you started.
- Facebook Buy Nothing page. Join a Buy Nothing Facebook page in your specific city, then keep an eye out for anyone posting free tomatoes, lemons, zucchinis, or any other fruits/vegetables growing in your area.
- Facebook Marketplace. Just head to Facebook Marketplace and search “free.” Not only will you likely find gardeners giving away their over-abundance, but you may find other free stuff you never knew you needed.
- Boxes or stands. I’ve driven past multiple boxes and fruit stands labeled “free vegetables” in my area of Wisconsin. Some boxes even have complimentary plastic bags encouraging others to take as much as they want!
- Church. This is hardly the reason to join a church, but one of the perks to worshiping with a body of believers is for all the friends who want to give you extra produce. Sometimes baskets are just left outside of church for anyone to take from.
- Neighbors. It’s such a blessing having friends right next door. If you don’t have a garden but your neighbors do, consider trading food. Maybe offer to bake a couple loaves of bread to trade for a bag of vegetables from their garden. Seems like a fair trade to me!
Whether you’re harvesting from your own garden or scoring free produce elsewhere, it’s time to talk about the produce recipes you need in order to utilize your fruits and veggies. Let’s talk about how to store the produce you may have, then what recipes to follow for using your produce.
ONIONS, BEANS, PEPPERS – Dice up produce. Freeze on a lined cookie sheet, then transfer to store in plastic bag in freezer.
- Cook into soups, casseroles, quesadillas, salsa, sauces, etc. Add into pasta salads.
TOMATOES – Slice up like apples or dice smaller. Freeze on a lined cookie sheet. Transfer to store in plastic bag in freezer. OR dice tomatoes and blend up to freeze as tomato sauce.
- Make guacamole. Add to pasta salad. Top onto salads.
- Pasta Sauce
- Homemade Salsa
- Tomato Soup
- BLT’S
CARROTS, ZUCCHINI – Dice up produce or shred with cheese grater. If shredding, freeze in muffin tin quantities in silicon liners, then transfer to freezer-safe bag.
- Cook into soups, breads, casseroles. Make giant salads. Blend into smoothies or popsicles. Add into pasta salad.
- Zucchini Fritters
- Zucchini Pineapples
- Zucchini Carrot Muffins
- Carrot Zucchini Quickbread
- Baked Carrot Fries
APPLES – Remove skins. Dice or slice. Freeze on lined cookie sheet, then transfer to store in plastic bag in freezer.
- Bake sliced apples into apple pies. Add diced apples into overnight oats/oatmeal, scones, muffins. Add thinly sliced apples into sandwiches or on top of salads.
- Homemade Applesauce
- Apples & Dip
- Crispy Apple Chips
ORANGES/LEMONS – Zest lemons and oranges onto parchment paper and freexer. Store in plastic bag in freezer. Squeeze out juice into ice cube containers. Freeze, then transfer to plastic bag in freezer. (Save lemon peels for adding to homemade cleaner!)
- Fresh squeezed orange juice. Make lemonade. Use frozen juice cubes for cooking or baking. Blend into smoothies or popsicles.
There’s thousands of recipes teaching you how to store and use up all your produce. Hit up Google, Pinterest, magazines, cookbooks, and even your own recipe cards.
Be sure to drop any recipes you love to make with all your abundant produce this season in the comments below!
Leave a Reply