My family has been canning (or freezing) food for years. If you know when local foods are in season, you can buy large amounts of food for very cheap by buying

My family has been canning (or freezing) food for years. If you know when local foods are in season, you can buy large amounts of food for very cheap by buying directly from the farmers. Often farmers will set up markets by the side of the road or on their own property. Sometimes farmers will have deals where you go into the fields yourself and pick as much as you want, paying for it by weight at very cheap prices. (If you factor in the cost of your labor, that's probably not a very good deal. However if you think of it as a fun weekend family activity instead of labor, then you can get a lot of food for very cheap.)