Ahhh, Produce

Fresh fruits and veggies--who doesn't love them, right? Thing is, they can they be ridiculously expensive. Even in the height of berry season (which is supposed to be, um, now), purchasing a quart of strawberries or blueberries will blow the whole grocery budget. Fortunately, there are some fresh produce deals out there (hello, yellow squash), and to make in-season produce shopping even easier, WiseBread ran a great month-by-month list of in-season produce last week.

Also, I recently discovered something verrrry interesting: On a trip to our local warehouse club, I found that they sell in-season produce for roughly half the mainstream grocers' price! I bought a pound each of strawberries and blueberries last week at a fairly reasonable price. I'm not sure if this is a nation-wide warehouse club phenomenon, but it definitely made my trip worthwhile.

Sure, ideally, I would be doing all of my produce shopping at the local farmer's markets, but ours down here are usually picked over by 9am, and I'm just too darned lazy to roll out of bed and get the kid and myself dressed and ready to navigate the farmer's market during prime time. And the u-pick-em places? Eh, again, I'm a wimp.

Any other tips or dirty secrets for scoring good (and cheap) fresh produce? I mean, besides jumping the neighbor's fence and stealing his watermelons, of course. Any region-specific advantages or challenges? Anyone else more than a little peeved that eating a variety of fresh and healthful foods seems to have become a luxury?

Alas, our summer backyard growing season seems to have peaked and is now on the wane. There's not much that isn't sad and wilty in our 100+ degree temps, so I'm just trying to keep the plants alive until they catch their second wind in the cooler autumn months. At least that's what I'm hoping for.