Where is the money going: Food Prices

[Perelandra]

Yup. Free food is awesome. One of the Big 3 grocery stores in my area used to give their slightly bruised produce to this old guy from whom I used to get eggs. He had to be there very early in the morning. He'd have big piles in the back of his pickup and tell me to fill up a bag. I do know that one of the other stores' policy (here, anyway) is no donation, it must be trashed.

The waste on every level is appalling.

[Perelandra]

Of course, I live in California. There are six different varieties of avocados growing in superabundance within two blocks of my front door, and the fruit falls so hard and fast that the neighbors appreciate any help in clearing out the deadfall. (There's a wonderful avocado variety which is about the size of an plum which can be eaten skin and all, and has a delicious, nutty flavor like a walnut mousse. "Take all you want!", the neighbor said, which means a five gallon bucket full every now and again while they last.) I also have an orange tree in my backyard which produces about a hundred of the most sweet and succulent navals each year beginning in November, a gigantic Bartlett pear tree (produces about three or four bushels a year), a huge Boysenberry bush, a machintosh apple tree, a loquat tree, a persimmon which produces more than you can eat, and my neighbors have similar situations, so there is no shortage of fruit to be had around here. Apricots, pomegranites, tangerines, lemons, limes, blackberries - I know where all the fruiting trees and bushes are in the nearby parks, and take advantage of them.

Oh did I mention the smelt runs out here? Several times a year the smelt wash up on the beaches and you can gather them up by the truckload if you want. People do. Two words, my man - fried smelt sandwiches. They fucking rock!

You really are blessed. What I wouldn't give to have oranges and avocados. Guess what! You can freeze avocado, I had no idea.

1 avocado
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Halve avocados, remove pit and flesh and place flesh in a zip top plastic bag. Add lemon juice and mash or squish the avocado. You can puree it in a blender or food processor if you like and then add to the bag. ( I have frozen diced and sliced this way as well though the mashed or puree works best).
Seal bag almost all the way. Squeeze out all the air in the bag, pressing and flattening the avocado and bag until all the air is removed.
Label bag noting the number of avocados inside, lay flat and freeze for up to 6 months.
Note: To use: remove from freezer and thaw for 15 minutes at room temperature The avocado will still be fresh and green like you just peeled and mashed it.

Gonna have to check out the smelt thing...I thought they were bait.

[nathan28]

also, i figured out the meeting schedules at the Harvard Business School and would always swoop down right after a meeting of faculty bigwigs and grab a bunch of good food. salad, roast beef sandwiches, french onion soup.
those guys ate really well.

Oh, the Starbucks milk/cream is really asking for it. But this part is genius. "Reception to follow." We did something similar at my last place of employment, and, you're right, bigwigs really have a thing for properly-cooked roast cow.

I'm eating noodles tossed in olive oil and lard with "fresh" (if you cut out the rotten parts the rest is still fresh, right?) garlic, red pepper flakes and dried herbs from the '40s right now.

[IanEye]

[barracuda]

I'm eating noodles tossed in olive oil and lard with "fresh" (if you cut out the rotten parts the rest is still fresh, right?) garlic, red pepper flakes and dried herbs from the '40s right now.

Vintage! Yes! Vintage and collectable foodstuffs are the shit.

You really are blessed. What I wouldn't give to have oranges and avocados. Guess what! You can freeze avocado, I had no idea.... Gonna have to check out the smelt thing...I thought they were bait.

Smelt are bait - human bait. When I smell 'em, I come-a runnin'. Out here, they're delta smelt, and they are protected. But the grunion aren't.

But the oranges, oh god! We are blessed, no question there. There are so many orange, grapefruit, lemon, loquat and assorted other citrus trees around here, the fruit is actually a bit of a nuisance. People are so inured to the presence of it, they just let it fall onto the sidewalks. Huge juicy grapefruits, being skateboarded to flatness by the emo kids. Folks leave piles of oranges and tangerines heaped up under their trees free for the taking all over the neighborhood. The orange trees get so tall and thorny, they really become a pain to harvest. There are several avocado trees nearby in the sixty foot range. You have to be careful walking under them in season. We even eat the ones the squirrels nibble on, because some of them are the size of a nerf football. Most of the trees are flowering right now, but if I want one to eat, I can climb on the roof of my studio where I see a few hanging from last season still. And the loquat trees are equally gigantic, and no one, I mean no one but me and my peeps even touch the fruit. Delicious.

Persimmons are another amazingly abundant fruit around here. When the season comes in mid-autumn there are so many available at the farmers markets that they are forced to sell them rather inexpensively. But that's true of much of the produce arond here. Corn, five or six ears for a dollar, artichokes, four for a buck in season at the coast.

[nathan28]

[California food porn]

By "the '40s" I meant "five years ago." But thanks for the attribution of taste where none existed.

Around here, I the edibles are kudzu, dandelion and lamb's quarter, the last of which isn't bitter at all but doesn't grow in quantity. I understand that poison oak is supposed to be edible, but I'll leave that to professionals and goats. Likewise there's pokeweed, but that's a heritage "food" that's so poisonous most recipes call for multiple soaks and boilings. It turns a real pretty color though, and the berries make a nice dye while also making birds that eat the berries fly into windows a lot.

[barracuda]

Okay, sorry for mucking up your thread. New rule for me - never post in a food thread when you're hungry.

By "the '40s" I meant "five years ago." But thanks for the attribution of taste where none existed.

I was really just kidding, so there. Though I have smoked a few collectible packs of cigarrettes from the 1920's when I got desperate.

[Perelandra]

I was really just kidding, so there. Though I have smoked a few collectible packs of cigarrettes from the 1920's when I got desperate.

Nooo...how were they?

[chump]

I just want to add some broccoli, cauliflower, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and/or scallions to that package of 19 cent ramen noodles. A smattering of red pepper and voila!

Back when, after I had quit my job at a restaurant, we'd have $10 to spend for a weeks worth of groceries. My wife and I got quite used to rice and beans. That was a cold winter. Our waterbed heater burned out and we couldn't afford a new one...

[§ê¢rꆧ]

I just gotta say, this is a great thread, it's really interesting to read what people eat. (I'm looking at you Jeerleader) I'll post here when I have some time to work up a good excuse prose for my own scandalously atrocious eating habits.

[nathan28]

I just gotta say, this is a great thread, it's really interesting to read what people eat. (I'm looking at you Jeerleader) I'll post here when I have some time to work up a good excuse prose for my own scandalously atrocious eating habits.

Yeah, I feel like the Weston A. Price Poster Boy right now.



My current theory is something along the lines of: because of the near-universal availability of out-of-season vegetables (meat and dairy are always in season), dependent upon shipping infrastructure, there's an "aseasonal" rent on all vegetables, even those in season and year-round.

I think two retail vendor issues compound this:

First, a lot of major supermarkets simply won't buy local sources, because it complicates their supply chain. Everything, then, is coming out of the Midwest--or sold at prices that include as a rent, rather than actual input, the cost of shipping and storage as though they had in fact come from there.

Second, the discrepancies in price margins--of which I'm not familiar--enable this sort of inefficiency. Frozen veggies require more processing, more labor and more cost input for storage. But the presence of forever foods made from cheap, subsidized corn sugars and flours, which are much higher margin, essentially subsidizes (internally, I'm not sure of the term) the lower cost of more-processed vegetables--but what I can't get to from there is how that impacts the cost of fresh vegetables.

These are all empirical contentions, but sadly, I don't have my head in the head-shrinking vat of economics, so I don't think I'd be able to sort them out. Anyone have any data?

[Peregrine]

This has been quite the fascinating thread, thanks for starting it there, nathan. In my neck of the woods, they do have the farmer's markets, every weekend during the summer, but it can get expensive. The variety is great, though.

Rice is a fairly large saple in my home, but I have noticed that it has skyrocketed in price over the last year or two, unfortunately. And it does amaze me how cheap you can get a McD burger for 1.39 here. They make my stomach churn, ugh.

My diet isn't always great, but I do ty & make sure there are lots of fresh ingredients in there. Preparing & cooking your own food tends to be much more cost effective, although time consuming. I tend to do most of my cooking in batches during the weekend, then freeze portions.

[barracuda]

I was really just kidding, so there. Though I have smoked a few collectible packs of cigarrettes from the 1920's when I got desperate.

Nooo...how were they?

Oh, they were horrific, in other words, about one percent worse than any "fresh" pack. Saved my life, you know.



You wanna bum one?

[Perelandra]

This vaguely informative article blames the weather for recent increases in produce prices. Other articles I've seen would seem to indicate that we're still seeing the effects of the spike in the price of oil.

Slight increase in CPI driven by costs for fruits, vegetables
04.14.10
By Lewis Green

Although prices for most goods remained steady in March, a sharp increase in the costs for fruits and vegetables accounted for a slight increase in the consumer price index.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index increased 0.1 percent during the third month of the year, driven by a 4.6 percent climb in the price for fresh fruits and vegetables. In the "all items" category from the BLS data set, 60 percent of the increase was accounted for by a rise in produce prices.

One factor that may have played in to the increase in the price for fruits and vegetables could have been the weather experienced in some parts of the country. Both rain and snow storms may have impeded the process of producing fruit and vegetables, which might have led to the jump in prices.

"The index for food away from home, which had increased every month since January 2003, was unchanged in March," the BLS said. "In contrast, the index for food at home rose 0.5 percent, its largest increase since September 2008."

Indices for energy and all goods not counting food and energy remained steady from February to March. The price of electricity went up, which was made up for by a decline in costs associated with gasoline and natural gas.

For other items, increases were seen in medical care and for used and new vehicles. However, expenses for home-related costs like shelter and furnishings - along with clothing - went down in March.

Overall for the last 12 months, the consumer price index has increased 2.3 percent, as the costs for goods and services continue to rise as people continue to try and handle debt.

Link

[nathan28]

I was at the a local supposedly "discount" supermarket last night--it wasn't. Anyway, a quart of vegetable oil was $2.78 for the store brand--and if you walked over to the "Hispanic" (yes, really) section, vegetable oil was $2.18, though a discrepancy that large between a store-brand and another firm's product makes me wonder.

Coconut milk was ~$2.30/can at the discount supermarket, which made it about $.40 more expensive the the stuff is at Whole Foods.

Next time I'm going to go to the actual Mexican grocery, "where you go for quantity," to put it one neighbor's words.

And on edit, day-old donuts were $4/dozen, which makes them not much cheaper than fresh ones. OTOH there was a sale on cookies.