Friday, April 04, 2008

Recession? I think so!

I am a woman who enjoys cooking. It is probably the one thing that I do without looking twice at the cost.

Boy is that a thing of the past.

Every time I go to the grocery store (from the glamorous Citeralla to the crunchy Commodities to the supermarket of your choice) I have become more and more amazed at the prices. Orange juice costs $5, cottage cheese $4.50 - I went somewhere and saw lemons for $1 each? Are you fucking kidding me? I think it's time to grow my own lemon tree.....

Which brings me to my backlash strategy. I am so going to the greenmarket now for everything I can...even meat - which I never did. I'm also seeing more meat/poultry at the Union Square market. I'm trying to cut the shipping, packing, gas overhead out of my grocery bill and hand my cash over to local folks....I'd rather they had it any way. Driving it down from upstate NY has got to be less than shipping it from CA.

I saw a small container of guacamole at Whole Foods priced at $8.99.
Whole Foods can kiss my ass. Where did those avocados come from - Mars?!! Were they hand picked by Christian Bale and placed in a wicker basket that was Fedexed to NYC?
I think not.

9 comments:

ellesu said...

You've noticed, too? And adding insult to injury -- the veggies and fruit don't even taste good. Last weekend we put out some tomatoes in big, big pots. Fingers crossed.

Belated birthday wishes to your Ben.

nejyerf said...

i work for a food and ingredient distributor and can tell you that prices are insane. the price of flour along has more than tripled since the new year.

as for milk prices, that is a flucuating (sp) market and you never know from one week to the next what the price will be. and the worst part about the dairy market? it's not the dairy famer who is making the money. my sister owns a dairy farm up in VT and they can barely make ends meet. living from milk check to milk check.

i could bore you even more with reasons why sugar and HFCS are expensive because of ethanol but that would put you to sleep!!

i am just waiting for the farmers' markets to open here in NJ so i can get some lovely fresh vegetables.

i would love to grow veggies in my back yard but then i would have to fend off the deer and other varmints.

JT said...

I would love to see Christian Bale handpick avocados. Mmmm. Just a second--okay, I'm back. I try to buy as much as I can from greenmarkets. These days, with the impending oil crisis, it's not only practical, it's a political act to buy locally grown food from small farms. Also, have you tried Trader Joe's? I find their prices very, very reasonable, still. OJ is definitely under three bucks there (last time I checked). A farmer at the greenmarket at union square also sells milk.

JT said...

Btw, I love how you manage to insert Christian B. into all possible scenarios.

Kranki said...

Holy! I hear ya! Trying to eat healthily is getting harder and harder to do. Money-wise, that is. While I am not a foodie by any stretch I take it as a challenge to find local ingredients in season and stick with them. However, my taste-buds do crave strawberries in December and bug free lettuce all year round.

Dammit!

Dr. Deb said...

I know what you mean. The total at the market leaves my mouth hanging open.

And I agree with Ellesu, the veggies and fruit - which are SO pricey - don't even taste good.

Linda said...

shop in chinatown!!!! i can get a week's worth of fruits and vegetables for $20. you can get a soccer ball-sized bag of mussels for $3. i do almost all my shopping there.

sunday i went to chinatown and did my usual run, walked up to whole foods with 4 full grocery bags, got in line at WFM, and spent the same amount on 8 items that i did on my four bags of chinatown produce and fish.

Anonymous said...
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chicopea said...

Tell me about it, even the local C-town and Associated are catching up. I do agree with Linda that Chinatown is the way to go. $1 will get you way farther than a lemon.