Remember when I said that I like to buy organic fruits in season, when they are ripe and cheap, and then freeze them for smoothies?

Well, imagine my delight when I found twenty kiwis for $1 at my local market last week! Yes, I said 20 kiwis for a buck! Not only that, but I found organic blackberries for 50 cents.

I almost peed my pants! Literally. (Trust me, it’s not that hard to do when you’ve got a 5 lb “basketball” laying on top of your bladder!!) I was that excited!

I stuffed three bags full of kiwis, grabbed what they had left of the blackberries, and hauled off like a bandit, back to my house.

You see this is NOT your ordinary market. This is a discount grocery market that sells a very limited stock of almost outdated foods and less-than-perfect produce, and you have to get there early on a Friday, if you want any! That’s when they get their new truckload of produce in. You gotta get there even earlier, if you want the nice, organic stuff. Apparently EVERYONE wants nice, organic produce for cheap, (who knew?!) cuz it is wiped out by mid-afternoon!

I learned this the hard way, after several unsuccessful twenty-minute trips there with an unwilling four-year-old, having just a few random food items and no produce to show for it!

I had not been there in awhile, and had almost given up on it altogether when a friend told me that I needed to go early on a Friday. So I tried it again, last Friday. And boy, am I glad I did!

Still, it was almost noon by the time I got there, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much of the good stuff was still left! They had drastically expanded their produce section, so not only was there a lot more of it, there was much more space to move around and find what you needed. And…it was just as cheap as ever!

Such a happy little discovery.

Check out these kiwis! Sure, they are a little soft and they have a few bruises, but they are just right for smoothies.

I have to admit that peeling kiwis is not my favorite thing to do. Somethin bout that rough, prickly skin that gives me the shivers. Every time! Like a man’s prickly beard. But pricklier.

Pricklier?

Is that even a word???

Pricklier. 

I dare you to say it ten times in a row.

I just tried it. It’s not possible. But hey, if it wasn’t a word before, it is now.:)

Aah. There’s that gorgeous green flesh underneath! That which makes the shivers and the prickles totally worth it!

I cut the kiwis in chunks and froze them on a large aluminum pan for a few hours, then packaged ’em in the aproximate portions needed for my hawaiian green smoothie.

I have found this is the best way to keep them chunky, especially when they are this soft, so you don’t end up with one massive blob that is impossible to separate after it’s frozen. Once again, I learned this the hard way (what can I say, it’s my favorite way of learning!) after hacking holes into the bag, the counter, and whatever else is around to try and get the right amount of frozen substance that I needed!

I did the same with the blackberries, after I washed them and threw out a few moldy ones.

Look at these beauties! So juicy and ripe and sweet…ready for smoothies!

Or that yummy blackberry cobbler I will most certainly crave in the middle of winter, right about the time when blackberries are 3 dollars each and not 5o cents!

Oh my. I’m a happy girl.