Food for the winter

Late summer, early fall is the perfect time to be Romania, because tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, etc. are in season and dirt cheap. In the height of tomato season you can buy them for about 30 cents a pound! There are fruit and vegetable stands and markets all over the city selling produce for ridiculously low prices. If I had the time or knowledge I would definitely go crazy making jams, jellies, salsa, sauces, pickles, and whatever else I could keep in a jar. Since I don't really have the time to do that, I decided to just buy a little extra of all the vegetables that are in season and freeze some for later.

I like to go to the biggest market place in the city at Obor. It is massive and has many different parts. There is an indoor part where you can buy clothes, shoes, washing machines, household goods, sewing items, and so on. Then there is another indoor area that has mostly dry goods and pet food.

There's another area with clothes, another area with car parts, another area with.....well just about anything. It's a maze that keeps on going. The main section that I go to in Obor is an open building that has fruits and vegetables on the first floor. (I don't venture up to the second floor that has meats and cheese, but I did check out the fish section in the back once.)You can buy whatever is in season for very reasonable prices. Here's what I came home with a few weeks ago.

I chopped up the vegetables and ended up with a few bags worth to freeze for later on. Last year I made some tomato sauce and froze it as well. Now that the weather has cooled off a bit I might do that again. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of room in my freezer.