In
case you haven't figured it out yet, we live in an Amish community.
Great people, great neighbors! The hardware, the building supply, the
sheet metal, the feed mill, most saw mills, etc. are Amish. I bought
a 1000 board feet of assorted width 8 foot pine lumber for $0.45 per
board foot. It was charged at 8 foot lengths, but they all varied
from a little over 8 feet to about 10 feet. I haven't seen any under
8 feet. The widths were about 6 inches to 12 plus inches wide.
Varying widths all mixed together.
Metal
roofing: we have gotten heavy gauge left over roofing for $1.00 per
foot. Some is 4 feet long, some is 12 feet long, and the rest is in
between. I load it on the trailer and stop in and tell them how much
I have. They never checked. I just pay and leave. It was by my count.
There are assorted colors. That is fine with us. And the poultry
don't mind either. We are burying it 12 to 15 inches vertically
around the poultry house to deter digging predators.
There
are several salvage stores around. We prefer the larger one (with the
deli and bakery- very sinful). (The hot buttered pretzels are over an
inch thick and about as wide as my hand. They alone are worth the
drive. And, oh so soft! And with lots of butter – real butter!) We
got 14 ounce boxes of Campbell's tomato soup (various varieties) for
$0.50 per box. We got a banana box filled with bags of popcorn for
$3.00. They have repackaged spices (it appears they buy a 50 pound
bag of sage or dill or whatever and fill small containers from that).
The spices are not name branded, but appear to be quite good, and
cheap. Fiona had a problem with the cinnamon. It was a lot stronger
than what she was used to. She is using a lot of the spices in her
canning. I haven't heard any complaints yet. We got quilted 12 ounce
jelly jars for $8 and something. We're using them for spice jars.
Working great! Some people might not like that, but it works great
for us. It seals wonderfully, nice quilting, we can see the contents,
we can write on them. Better than most stores bottles. Canning jars
are $8.74 per dozen. Kellogg's Raisin Bran in a smashed box (inside
bag is still sealed, just the box is damaged) was $1.50. Others were
about the same. They have damaged goods, expired goods, and new
goods. All at good prices. We pick up a pretzel and a few things, and
ten boxes of canning jars. Next trip, a pretzel, a few other things,
and ten more boxes of jars. We had this collection of new, empty
jars. It is rapidly disappearing as she cans. We still have the jars,
they are just being filled with edibles.
Canned tomatoes, salsa, green tomato mincemeat and tomato sauce waiting to go to the basement storage area.
We
got here too late to put in a garden. We thought we might get a fall
garden put in, but there was just too many things going on. And still
are. The solution was the Amish produce auction. It costs $5.00 per
year to join and get an auction number and $1.00 per lot bought or
sold. That number and the $5.00 entitles you to buy or sell. Don't
scratch your nose during the auction. That's how I got the turnips. I
don't even remember them being auctioned, but I bought them!
Wednesday was the last auction for this year. We got 4 boxes of
canning tomatoes at 20 pounds each for $4.50 per box. That is $18.00
plus the 1 dollar for the lot equals $19.00 for 80 pounds of
tomatoes. We got 2 – 10 pound boxes of green tomatoes at $6.50 per
box. We got 3 pecks of peppers for $5.00 each (these were large
yellow, red, purple, white, and orange peppers. Top quality.). A ½
bushel of large, beautiful, red peppers was $10.00. We got 4 – 20
pound boxes of no. 2 tomatoes at $10.00 per box. (That is $0.50 per
pound for no. 2 tomatoes.) We got 4 pecks of green tomatoes (one of
them was red) for $6.00 per peck. I paid $10.00 for a bushel of large
green peppers. Large stuffing peppers - $2.50 per peck for 2 pecks.
Red tomatoes – 5 pecks at $2.50 per peck. And the pumpkins Fiona
mentioned. For $16.25 plus the $1.00 each for 4 lots equals $20.25
for over 300 pounds of squash/pumpkins. Most will be winter treats
for the poultry. And us!!! Several have already been gifted to
neighbors and friends.
It
is hard to figure out, but we got about 180 pounds of tomatoes plus 9
pecks of tomatoes. That is almost 300 pounds of tomatoes.
We
got 1.5 bushel of peppers and 5 pecks. I thick that works out to 2.75
bushels of peppers.
And
over 300 pounds of squash/pumpkins.
Price
tag: $182.05 total. We drove away with over 600 pounds of food for us
and the poultry for $182.05.
Our load of produce purchased at the Hart County Produce Auction.
About
10 days prior, we paid out $230.00. We got almost 300 pounds of
tomatoes, 6.5 bushel of peppers, 3 pecks of onions, the 1 peck of
turnips (nose scratcher?), and 3 bags of cabbage. There were 14 heads
of cabbage in each bag and the heads weighed 5 to 6 pounds each. That
means the heads cost less than $0.90 each. At the IGA supermarket,
cabbage was $0.79 per pound. Maybe this will help explain why the
jars are filling up. The dehydrator is running almost non-stop, also.
And the deep freeze has a lot more in it, too.
The
first trip had about the same amount of tomatoes, almost 4 more
bushel of peppers, and add the cabbage and onions. All for $48.00
more. All of the produce has been really nice, top grade.
This
isn't a lot of variety, but it is better than nothing. And at a good
price. We'll try to get the variety next year with our garden.
Price breakdown for The October 12th sale at the Produce Auction.
Fiona and I
were just talking. Is this a sign of the times? People are living in
town and, according to them, they don't have room for a garden. Why
don't they go to a produce auction or a farmers market or CSA or do
something to get food to preserve? Yet, they mow a 1 to 5 acre plus
yard? When buying jars, every time we would hear: “That is a lot of
work” or “That is too much work”. It is better than starving or
GMO's or pesticides. From the looks, we are just weird! The price
worked out nicely for us.
Look
around your community for good deals. Often, they are there waiting
for you to discover them. We had seen the auction, but didn't realize
it was for anyone – like us. Our insurance agent told us about it
and explained how it works.
God
has blessed us in so many ways. This place, the neighbors, the
businesses, etc. are all a blessing. And, of course, I have
Fiona!
We
hope and pray that God blesses you too.
Ralph
and Fiona
