Beautiful, delicious, local strawberries!

I took my children strawberry picking this morning at Filasky's Produce in Middletown. It's a great little local farm and we've enjoyed picking strawberries there for several years.

We were the only ones picking this morning and there were TONS of strawberries, all beautiful and ripe.  I ran into the main building to have my container weighed before we started picking and a photographer from the Delaware News Journal asked if she could photograph us picking our strawberries.

The kids had a blast posing for the camera and picking the biggest strawberries that they could find. Aren't these amazing looking? And they taste even better!

If you are local, be sure to head out to Filasky's this spring. Their hours are great (7-7 every day except Sunday 7-6) and the strawberries are just $2.15/pound. And if you are looking for a u-pick farm in your area, be sure to check PickYourOwn.Org.

Fall Weather!

We have been loving the change in seasons from Summer to Fall! Its always a little sad to see summer and warm weather leave, but the crisp, cool autumn mornings that warm up in the afternoon sun have made it wonderful. I know it was not this cool last September because I was very, very pregnant, swollen, and totally bummed that "fall" had not brought any relief from the summer heat. I'm even more ready for fall this year because of that, I think!

Check out these beautiful colors! Our CSA food this week is beautiful. We have a lovely assortment of peppers (orange, red, and purple), more colorful heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, and a lettuce mix and mesclun (an Asian lettuce mix that has a nice little bite to it).

We also took advantage of the cooler weather to visit Milburn Orchards this weekend. In September and October they have Fall Festival Weekends with tons of activities for families, especially those with young children. It was not very crowded at all this weekend, but I've heard that the October weekends very busy. 

We had a great time! We made it through the Corn Maze in one piece...

W especially loved the hay ride.

And check out this turkey! Mmmmm thanksgiving!

Millburn also has U-Pick apples. Click here to see the U-pick apple schedule for this fall. I'm hoping that we will make it down to Lockbriar Farms in Chestertown for U-pick apples also!

And remember, if you are not local and are looking for a place to do U-pick apples this fall, check out PickYourOwn.org!

Delaware Deal Chicken: Johnnie's Dog House

Today's daily deal on Delaware Deal Chicken is $10 worth of food and drink for $5 at Johnnie's Dog House. We eat at Johnnie's 2 or 3 times a year, so this will make for a really inexpensive meal one day this fall!

Johnnie's Dog House also provided the inspiration for the summer Hot Dog Challenge that I've been posting...trying new twists on the familiar hot dog without eating out! I really like their Texas Ranger hot dog, and my husband is a fan of the Delaware Destroyer - two hot dogs on a kaiser roll with mac and cheese and chili! Johnnie's has also won best family restaurant in the northern part of Delaware several years in a row. It is a fun place, and I am excited to go and use our deal!

Get yours today!

U-Pick: Blueberries and Raspberries

We had a great time picking some local blueberries and raspberries earlier this morning. Our favorite place to pick fruit around here is Lockbriar Farms, located just north of Chestertown, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. My husband and I were on our way home from a few nights away (with no kids!!) and stopped to take advantage of the time.

We picked red raspberries and black raspberries! Growing up my grandparents had red raspberries and my husband's had black raspberries, so for each of us, raspberry picking brings back tons of wonderful childhood memories.

We also picked blueberries (2 quarts!)

The blueberries were amazing! The bushes were SO full of berries that we could have filled our containers without hardly moving down the bush. 

We just held our containers under the branches and raked those beautiful berries in by the handful! Here's a look:

The black raspberries were a fun treat! We didn't know they were available until we pulled in to Lockbriar!

If you live in the Delaware area, we highly recommend checking out Lockbriar Farms! Its a a nice country ride, and the location is very family friendly (everything is close together). After you finished berry picking, you should totally take a look around historic Chestertown too. We both are proud to call Washington College our Alma Mater!

We've done a bunch of picking at Lockbriar in the past...check out our pictures from last year's berries and apples!

CSA Week 2

Here's a look at our CSA goodies this week!

A loose lettuce mix, broccoli, kohlrabi, snow peas and sugar snap peas, cilantro, and garlic.

Our backyard lettuce is on its last leg, so we are so glad to have beautiful CSA lettuce again this week! We got two kinds of peas again this week because we enjoyed them so much this past week. I tried growing peas in our garden last year and it was a bust. Broccoli was a nice surprise this week, and we decided to try another new veggie! Last week it was garlic scapes (which are my new favorite thing to cook with) and this week its the kohlrabi. We'll see how it goes...we are in for an adventure!

Community Supported Agriculture

This year we made the decision to buy a share in Colchester Farm's Community Supported Agriculture program! Have you heard of Community Supported Agriculture? From Colchester Farm's website:

Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a mutually beneficial partnership between local farmers and community members. In advance of the season, members buy a share of the upcoming harvest providing the farmer with the funds needed to cover the costs of operation. In return for their investment, members receive a weekly share of freshly harvested produce. In this commitment, CSA members share with the farmer both the bounty and the risks involved with farming.

This is something that I had looked into for several years, and just never felt ready to take the plunge. Yesterday was our first pick-up for the season, and I am SO glad that we joined! We have a small share, which is 5 units every week. A unit is a predetermined size for each type of produce, similar to sizes you buy in a grocery store (a head of lettuce, 8 oz of peas, etc). Our share cost $345 for 26 weeks, which works out to just over $13 a week. Considering that the produce we are getting is pesticide-free, that is an awesome deal!

Colchester Farm is about 30 minutes away from our home in Middletown, and yesterday was my first time to the farm. Colchester offered a pick-up in Middletown, but we would not be able to pick out the specific items of our share. By going to the farm I feel like we are really getting the whole "experience" of being part of a CSA...getting to know the people who run the farm and pick the food each week, as well as the other participants. Also, we are using this as a learning experience for our 2-year-old daughter (and really our son too, even though he is too young to understand). Our daughter was so excited to go to the farm! We talked about it all day, and she helped me to weigh out our different items at the pick-up. She can't wait to go back next week!
Here is what we got this week (isn't that a ton of food??):

(Clockwise from top) We got a head of lettuce, spinach, sweet potatoes, oregano and spearmint, snow peas, sugar snap peas, and garlic scapes. I was a total wuss and got pretty much all familiar foods this week. I could have gotten kohlrabi but I chickened out. I think I will get some next week if it is available again!

We are so excited for the rest of the CSA season! I will be doing an update on our share from the farm every week. Happy Saturday!

Curbside Recycling Information

Local Readers! If you live within the city limits of Middletown, you should have received a notice from the town about curbside recycling service...it starts Friday, May 13th!! Every home will be provided a 65-gallon recycling container sometime in April (the notice said mid-April, so it should be here soon) along with more information about the recycling program.

I am so excited to not have to drop off our recycling any longer! And it is really going to be extra work to NOT recycle now since trash pick-up is being cut to once a week to allow for once a week recycling pick-up. Remember the week I kept track of our recycling and trash production? Our family went through more recyclable materials than actual trash!

Be sure to visit the Delaware Recycling website if you want some more information!

Free Buffalo Wild Wings on boxes of Red Baron

I don't usually buy frozen pizza because we make our own, but when there is a good sale, I'll pick one up to use in a bind -- this keeps us from needing to order out on those busy nights!

Through Thursday, Acme has Red Baron pizza on sale for $3 each. Pair it with a $1 off coupon (from the Jan 23 Smart Source) and it came to just $2. BONUS! On the back of some of the Red Baron boxes were coupons for 6 free wings at Buffalo Wild Wings (with the purchase of 12).

You cannot use it on their wings night specials, but its a nice discount, and the coupon is good through the end of June!

Recycling

Recycling comes pretty naturally to our family since it is something we grew up doing, but living in Delaware has made it more challenging since we have to drop our recycling off instead of (paying for) curbside recycling. Delaware lawmakers voted last year to change the requirements for recycling to make it easier for businesses and individual families.

You may have noticed that Delaware no longer offers the 5 cent bottle deposit/refund. Instead, you are now charged a 4 cent (non-refundable) recycling fee. This goes towards a Delaware Recycling Fund (you can read more on the DE revenue site). The purpose of the fund is to provide curbside recycling for every home and business (by 2014 I believe). The Middletown Transcript indicated that Middletown will begin curbside recycling in September of this year.

There are 3 different recycling drop-offs within 15 minutes of my house, and I make use of all of them, depending on where else I need to go when I make my recycling trip. I also use another one 20 minutes north of my house that is on my way to Costco. I've found that having several different locations has made it easier for me to make our recycling drop-off part of our normal routine. Find a recycling center near you no matter where you live by using Recycling Centers.org!

I thought it would be interesting to see how much we recycle in a single week! Here is a picture of our trash area before:

And next Monday I will be posting an "after" photo of our week's recycling!

I'm interested to see just how much we recycle every week. I am pretty sure that it is a decent amount since we always have so much less trash than our neighbors, and I take a trunk-full of recyclables to the drop-off every other week or so.

Do you have curbside recycling? Or do you make the trek to drop it off somewhere? If not, what keeps you from recycling?

My favorite place to buy jeans

I picked up 3 new pairs of jeans yesterday, 2 pairs from Gap and one from American Eagle.

Cost if I had bought them new: probably upwards of $75, if I found a good sale

Cost at Goodwill: $5 each, $15 total.

The Goodwill here in Middletown doesn't organize by size any more, which makes it more challenging to find something that fits, but not impossible. I love looking for jeans at Goodwill; the selection is huge, there are many different brands, and you can't beat the price.

My method is to keep the looking quick; I flip through the jeans looking for brand names. If its a brand I'm looking for, I check the size. I try to grab 5 or 6 pairs to try on, hoping for one or two of them to fit. I got lucky yesterday finding 3 at once! I am a quick shopper, so it only took me 10 or 15 minutes to get in and out, since I knew what I was looking for.

Have you found any great deals on clothes at Goodwill?

Smarty Pants final days

I've mentioned several times about the going out of business sale at Smarty Pants (the children's resale shop in the center of Middletown). This is the final week (through the 13th) for Smarty Pants, and they are running a sale where you can fill a bag with as many clothes as you can stuff in it for just $15. Everything else in the store (including shoes) are 70% also.

I went yesterday and found a number of great pieces of clothing. In fact, I got this pile of clothes for $15. The prices on the tags totaled over $100! (and resale stores usually sell clothes for 50% or more off regular retail prices)

Some highlights included a pair of sweaters from Gap and Gymboree: 

This beautiful, silk lined coat:

And Carter's footie pajamas:

I don't know what the selection is like now, but there were still tons of great merchandise at Smarty Pants yesterday!

If you are not local to Middletown, be sure to look at your local resale stores for clearance sales on summer clothes!

U-Pick Apples!

My family has really enjoyed all of the seasonal produce that we've been able to pick this year. We've picked strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, and this past weekend we went apple-picking (and raspberries!)! We went back to Chestertown, Maryland, where both of us went to college, to visit Lockbriar Farms again.

If you live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland or the nearby Delaware area like we do, this is a great spot to visit! The drive is beautiful, and the farm is family owned:

(And if you are not local to Lockbriar Farm, be sure to check out PickYourOwn.org to find local U-Pick in your area!)

We planned on just picking apples, but found out when we arrived at Lockbriar that there were strawberries and raspberries available as well! We finished off our pint of raspberries quickly, and have really been enjoying the apples. Lockbriar provided us with a great apple picking basket to use while we walked through the orchard, and our daughter loved helping put apples in the basket!

Lockbriar's apples are $.99/pound. Location, hours, and other information can be easily found on their Facebook page! And remember, Thrifty Living is on Facebook too!

Do you have apple-picking plans for the weekend now? You should!

Smarty Pants sale gets bigger!

I posted last week about Smarty Pants, the local children's resale store that is sadly going out of business. Smarty Pants has announced that all clothing is now 75% off, and this Saturday you can fill a bag with clothes for just $15! Right now they primarily have summer clothes out on the racks, so this is a great chance to get stocked up for next summer. I was told by the owner that fall clothes will be stocked once the summer ones have moved, probably by the middle of this month.

I stopped by and found some great deals last week, which I thought I would share with you!

A Melissa & Doug magnetic puzzle for $5!

Children's place jeans for $2

A Gap outfit for just $4!

And some very cute summer dresses from Old Navy for $2.50 a piece!

I also found some newborn Carter's onsies...$1.50!

I've been feeling the fatigue of only having a month and a half to go before our baby arrives, but I am planning to keep posting on as regular of a schedule as possible! I've got a few projects that are nearing completion to share with you, as well as another giveaway (hopefully next week!)!!

Smarty Pants Liquidation Sale

Smarty Pants (the children's resale store in Middletown that I highlighted earlier this summer) announced today that they will be closing :-( They plan to get rid of everything, which means they have some great sales going on right now -- everything is 50% off!

Its sad to see a great local shop close, but I am looking forward to supporting them as they close up shop in Middletown. The official close date is October 15th (a Friday). Hours until then are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday 9-2, closed Sunday, Monday, and Friday.

Groupon

Have you ever seen ads for Groupon, but not known exactly what it was? Groupon is a website that features an exclusive sale item for major cities across the country every day. Usually the discount is at least 50% off the normal price, but many times it is much higher!

I've been getting the Groupon emails for some time now, but I had never bought one until this week. I look at both the Philadelphia and Baltimore deals, since Philadelphia is the closest city, but our families are in the Baltimore area. This weekend's Baltimore Groupon was for $7 tickets to the Maryland Zoo (this was more than 50% off). We had already talked about going to the zoo, so this was perfect, and was even a better price than the BOGO coupons in our Entertainment Book.

From the Groupon FAQ page:

We started Groupon to make it easier for people to enjoy the great things in their community. We do it by offering daily deals at unbeatable prices through the power of group buying. We also use Groupon's consumer collective to lift each community we touch, by featuring local charities and organizing support for community causes.

I really like the emphasis that Groupon has put on connecting people with local events in their communities. Its way too easy to forget all of the awesome activities that are available in the places where we live!

Some important things to remember if you sign up for Groupon:

1) You will be seeing an email everyday with a "great deal" advertised. If you are an impulse shopper, Groupon is probably not the best way for you to save on local activities!

2) It is best to have a few ideas about the type of deals you are most interested in seeing. This will make it easy to delete the ones that might sound interesting, but could be more likely to lead to an impulse purchase. For example, I have been looking for an activity for us to do with our daughter (so the zoo was perfect).

3) Setting a price range is crucial! Many times a deal will be for a high percentage off, but it will still be more expensive (several hundred dollars). If you have the money saved, then it could still be a great deal for you! You until about 9pm to decide if you want to buy the Groupons (and the Saturday one is good all weekend), so that helps give some time to think about it.

4) Make sure you read the fine print! Groupons expire (sometimes within the month you buy them), so be sure you can use them first! Also, there are sometimes limits of how many you can buy, redeem at once, etc. Always important to know the details.

Do you have any experiences with Groupon that you would like to add? Sign up for Groupon here (this is my referral link; if you would prefer to sign up on Groupon's main page, that's fine too!)

U-Pick: Lockbriar Farms

After the u-pick strawberry season, I kind of forgot that many local farms offer other fruit for u-pick during the summer. On Saturday, we went to Lockbriar Farms, located in Chestertown, MD, just 5 minutes from where my husband and I went to college! If you live in the Middletown area, it only takes about 40 minutes to get to Lockbriar! And remember to check out PickYourOwn.org for U-pick farms in YOUR area!

Right now Lockbriar is open for u-pick blackberries ($2.59/lb), blueberries ($2.59/lb), and peaches (1.59/lb).

First we picked some blackberries:

Then checked out the peaches:

And finished up with the blueberries!

The first rule of u-pick really should be to walk down the row of bushes (or trees) a good way before starting! Everyone picks at the beginning of the row, but we had the best luck near the back. The blackberries and blueberries were so much larger and way more plentiful!

Look how big this blackberry is!

We picked over a pound of blackberries:

And almost 2 pounds of blueberries:

We ended up with only 2 peaches because we were mostly there for the berries, and we would have had to walk a bit farther to get to the ripe peaches.

Lockbriar Farm is located at 10051 Worton RD Chestertown, MD. They open at 10 am every day and close at 6 (M-F), 5 (Sat), and 4 (Sun). You can call them at 410.778.9112 or find more information and pictures on their Facebook page.

Happy Picking!

Paid Telephone Interview with Inspired Opinions

One of the ways that I earn a little extra money is through online surveys. Inspired Opinions is a company that does paid in-person focus groups, paid telephone interviews, and paid online surveys.

I recently received an email from them asking for participants for a telephone interview. The interview will take approximately 60 minutes and you will be compensated $50. Here is the information and they specific people they are looking for this time:

~ Males Age 18+ who have been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer to participate in a 60-minute telephone interview. We have times available June 3rd through the 15th. IF YOU ARE CALLING ABOUT THIS STUDY PLEASE ASK FOR BRIAN (x302)

~ Males & Females Age 18+ who have been diagnosed with Lyme Disease in the past 2 years to participate in a 60-minute telephone interview. We have times available June 3rd through the 18th. IF YOU ARE CALLING ABOUT THIS STUDY PLEASE ASK FOR JEFF (x312)

If you think you or someone you know may qualify please call toll-free 866-236-1754 and ask to speak to the appropriate recruiter (noted above). You will be asked a few questions to see if you qualify.

This is a totally legitimate company that I recommend. Their online surveys pay via Amazon gift certificates, but I am not sure how the phone interviews and in-person focus groups pay. I receive about 2 emails a week about focus-group opportunities in Philadelphia. I have been called about participating in these, but have never been able to do so because I would need to find a babysitter! To join Inspired Opinions click here. This will set you up with the online surveys as well as the focus groups!

Smarty Pants Children's Resale

If you've ever driven through the center of Middletown, you may have noticed this cute store-front in the square:

The shop is Smarty Pants, a children's resale store that buys and sells clothing, accessories, toys, and book. Smarty Pants has a great selection of children's clothing, all of which is in good shape and reasonably priced. Their toy selection is fairly extensive also, ranging from newborn items like bouncers and rattles, to action figures, play kitchens, and easels. As you can see from the picture, they also have a variety of strollers.

You can visit Smarty Pants online at SmartyPantsMOT.com and sign up for their weekly newsletter. The newsletter is very helpful because they give an update on their new arrivals. One thing to remember with resale stores is that their stock is always changing, so if you see something advertised in the newsletter than you're interested in, be sure to hurry in or it may be gone!

Smarty Pants buys children's clothing and toys by appointment only. If you want to make an appointment to sell something, you can email Dianne at smartypantsde@verizon.net. Smarty Pants does not sell on consignment, which means they will pay you up front for your things.

When I talked with Dianne the other week, she also told me that they have a wish list where you can ask to be notified if they ever have a specific item. Additionally, you can email them and ask if they have something specific in the store right then, and they will get back to you! This is a great service that could save you an extra trip!

Be sure to stop by this Saturday, May 29, for their Memorial Day sale. All clothing will be buy one, get the second of equal or lesser value for 50% off!

Smarty Pants is located at 4 West Main Street Middletown, DE.

Filsaky's Produce: U-Pick Strawberries

Last week my daughter and I went berry picking with our play group from church. There is a great local spot for this called Filasky's Produce. It is located on the west side of Middletown just past the Appoqunimink High School. The address is 1343 Bunker Hill Road Middletown, DE


The berry picking just opened for the season last week, so we had no trouble finding enough berries. And they were priced at $1.85 a pound -- which is better than the grocery stores AND you get the added bonus of picking them yourself.

We brought our own basket to put berries, but Filasky's does have plastic buckets that you can purchase for $1 each. You will have to have your own basket weighed before you begin picking, so that everything is accurate when they weigh your strawberries to pay for them.

This is a great family activity that is inexpensive, healthy, and helps to support your local food producers. If you do not live near Middletown, check for local berry farms in your area. A helpful site for this is pickyourown.org

And remember while you're loading your basket with pounds and pounds of berries, these are so fresh and free of preservatives that they will start to go bad within 48 hours of picking. Just have a plan for strawberry cheesecake, shortcake, jam, etc! (We ended up freezing ours to throw in our smoothies)

Happy picking!

Bargin Hunting

A few weeks ago I wrote about the $10 off a $10 purchase coupon that I got in the mail from Kohl's. My game plan going into Kohl's was to pick something close to $10, but I knew that might be tough because I wanted to get some maternity clothes (which are rarely cheap!). I also printed off a 15% off coupon that was emailed to me through the Kohl's mailing list.

I ended up finding a pair of shorts that were on sale for $18 (from $30...but you should never pay full price for anything at Kohl's because they are way marked up. I'm really of the opinion that 30-40% off should be the normal price there!). After my $10 coupon and then the 15% off (taken off the after coupon price of $8) my total was just under $7 - sweet!



I tried on another pair of shorts that I liked better (because they were plaid) but not style-wise because they had a full-panel waist (why would I want to add an extra layer this summer?). So I stopped by Mother's Closet (a maternity and children's resale store in Middletown) for another look. I was able to find a Motherhood tank top that looked brand new for $5.75, and then I hit jackpot...nearly the exact same shorts I had tried on in Kohl's, but in the style I wanted!




I guess it seems a little odd that I paid a few dollars more for shorts at a resale store compared to the ones I bought at Kohl's, but without the $10 coupon, the Kohl's shorts would have been way more. Overall I am quite pleased that I was able to find 3 pieces of maternity clothing for under $20.

Today in my mail I received another $10 off a $10 purchase coupon from Kohl's. I did get several of these last summer, but none within just a few weeks of each other. I am super excited to go back to Kohl's!

Additionally, I am planning to have features on more local businesses in the area in the coming weeks, and Mother's Closet is just one that is planned!