Fresh Bulk Produce at the Wakarusa Produce Auction - Yep!

As the warm weather approaches, I am often reminded of the bounty that a garden will produce in only a   few short months. Even though my partner and I started a relatively conservative garden last year, our cucumber plants produced enough to endlessly garnish salads and make a healthy stock of canned bread and butter pickles. Before experimenting with our little garden, neither one of us knew how to can. We decided to give canning a shot and we were successful. From canning fresh pickles, cherries, and blueberries, we even mastered jam making and applesauce. Not only did we enjoy fresh foods during the winter, we also loved that the food was not chalked full of preservatives and GMOs and it was a huge family hit.

Last year, I received an ecstatic phone call from my mother about the Wakarusa Produce Auction. At first I was apprehensive since I had never heard of such a thing. Living in Northern Indiana, it is not uncommon to see little farmers' stands alongside the highways but a produce auction, I wasn't really sold on the idea. Since I work during the week, trying to get to a produce auction was rather difficult until one of our paid holidays came around. My partner and I met my parents at the produce auction in the middle of well, nowhere. When we got out of the car, I was astonished at how much fresh food was already there by the trolley full. My partner and I looked at one another and we promptly registered for a bidding number. After we secured our number, we began perusing the trolleys or "lots" of food. Of course when you're at the supermarket, you see a lot of fresh food but this was something completely different. Horses whinnied in the distance as  local farmers brought their produce via open buggy. Farmers lovingly polished their lots of apples and if you wanted a sample, they didn't mind. In fact, bring a pocket knife to sample any of the fresh produce on hand.

The tricky part about a produce auction is understanding how it all works. Unlike an ordinary auction, items in a produce auction are sold by the "lot" meaning a trolley full, pallet, or bushel. If a lot has 6 boxes of cucumbers and the winning bid is $3.00, you just bought 6 boxes of cucumbers for a total of $18.00. If canning is a passion or sharing the cost of fresh food with a couple of families, this is definitely a sustainable and affordable means to do so. In the supermarket, you're lucky to get 2 dozen cucumbers for $18.00 or less. One of my favorites vegetables to eat is sweet corn and the supermarket can put a damper on that quickly. Instead of paying the ridiculous prices of $4.00 - $6.00 for a mere dozen of sweet corn, I decided to bid on a lot of corn (15 dozen to be exact). I thought my partner was going to have a heart attack as I was now the proud owner of 15 dozen ears of corn [$2.00/dz] for only $30.00. Once we loaded the car (Prius), we literally could not put anymore weight in it. At that moment, I wished I still had my truck since there were beautiful lots of flowers and hanging baskets going for pennies on the dollar compared to the astronomical prices at the local nurseries. Alas, I was excited about all of my corn and we made our way home.

Even though we had 15 dozen ears of sweet corn in the car, we knew it would be eaten in no time since we have a family recipe for making homemade sweet corn. Luckily my parents came up to help us shuck and de-silk all of the corn but our kitchen floor became a sticky mess. Although it took us a couple of hours, multiple trash bags, and a thorough cleaning of the kitchen, we were ready to start baking. With five batches of homemade corn to make, we had 10 total hours of baking ahead which we split into two days. While it was a ton of work, the Wakarusa Produce Auction allowed family and friends to enjoy the fresh bounty of summer's produce!


Wakarusa Produce Auction
65460 County Road 9
Goshen, IN 46526

http://wakarusaproduceauction.com/


Business Hours
Last week in April - End of October

Auction starts
Monday        1:00p
Wednesday 11:00a
Friday         11:00a