Wow, what an exhilarating day! I finally found a big market that's not too hard to get to at all (a bus from a stop 1/2 blocks from my house + a walk of 3 short blocks) where the produce is beautiful and it costs 1/2 of what I pay at the 2 markets in my neighborhood (one of which is Whole Foods, and the other a poor excuse for a 'co-op').

It already feels like a huge source of stress has just lifted from my shoulders; I used to get tense when I headed to the co-op or Whole Paycheck, because with the high rents and income bracket in my town, produce costs were causing me to make choices and deny myself certain foods (pineapples, red peppers, etc.) that I now can eat with abandon. I was even cutting back on tomatoes, which I love, because they were so expensive. Now I don't have to.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Sharrhan:


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Isn't that an awesome feeling? To find a great market with cheaper, most often better produce?

I love it!!
xxpeisi

hah, yes the red peppers with the red tape!

I hear you. especially because east coast farmers markets are a total bummer

cost more then I can find on the street and arn't even organic.

its good to buy fresh and support the folks. I'm rotating one wierd local fruit a week. i think this week is gonna be black currants, never had a fresh one.

I don't tend to budget food, since its really my only expense, but I seem to be synching up with available, fresh, dirt cheap stuff. so occasionaly I splurge on figs or a few cherimoya or whatever, I finally broke down all my rules and bought a rediculously priced heirloom - myself.

another thing I've learned about bargins however, is that if a bag of organic grapes is 50% off, yet half are rotten, its really just regular priced.

kwan,

You lucky girl, great news. I know what you mean about having to make choices concerning price of produce.

If you like red peppers I hope you will have a chance to grow some yourself. If you leave regular green peppers on the plant they usually turn to red peppers. Voila, magic!

Anaken,

I like your comment about bargain grapes.

Kit

Another good way is to grow your own as much as you can. Even if you only have a little spot of sun you can do quite a lot. besides it is so fun!

dougyfresh

Yeah, I NEED to find one of those stores. You are so lucky. <3

pray do tell.. what IS this place of which you speak?

Peisinoe --
Awesome it is! I really felt like celebrating tonight. (And did!)

anaken --
I like your idea about supporting the local farmers a lot. I'm signed up to get organic vegetables from a local farm on a weekly delivery basis starting next year (their shares are sold out this year). We actually have some pretty cool farmers' markets here (one comes to my co-op parking lot every Monday), but I can't always shop when they're there. I've got to remember to check out Haymarket (big farmers' market on the weekend in Boston)-- very cheap toward the end of the day.

dougyfresh --
Yeahhhh!! I'm gettin' there with the garden thing. I have a teeny-tiny apt. (18 floors up) with big windows that don't open, and two little windows with air conditioners, so I can just about put a tomato container garden thingie on top of the air conditioner outside my living room, which I haven't done yet. However, I have a book on container gardening that I'm really psyched about, GIVEN to me by a wonderful friend. But I'm all set for next year, because I'm next up on a waiting list for a public organic garden a couple blocks from here.

Kit--
I'm lookin' forward to getting sensational red peppers from my public garden plot next sprubg! (Peppers are my favorite thing, just about.)

rawfrancois --
Don't give up! I don't know why it took me so long to find this store (it's been there for years); I guess I just got in a rut and it took awhile for it to dawn on me that the stores in nearby towns are often much cheaper than in yuppie Cambridge, with its ranking of #1 for 'highest real estate costs in the U.S.' status that drives up the price of everything. I don't have a car, and I'm not a bus person (subway and walking, I love), but still... I'm going to start being more inventive and explore more.

morrisson66 --
Ha!-- do I detect a Boston accent in this post? You must be a local. (Where do you live?) It's just the Market Basket in Somerville near Union Square. Conventional packaged food reigns, but the produce is really pretty nice, and quite a bit of it is organic. I found organic mangos there today that were $1.69 each (I got two conventional ones for 50 cents each today); at Harvest Co-op, when they have them, they are obscenely expensive-- I think they were over $4. ea. once.

Sharrhan:


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This IS a boon!

It's gotten to the point where I'm shopping all over town for my weekly meals as I get better prices for some things at one place and better for others across town.

With very expensive things, such as red bells, I allot less of it for any one meal. In other words one red bell will enhance four meals for me and that way I can justify paying over a dollar for it.

Then I try and remember how easy it was to spend $7.00 or so on a fast-food meal that left me truly bankrupt and I feel a whole lot better about my food expenditures now.

It'll be truly grand when you get your garden up Kwan.

khale

Khale--
>>With very expensive things, such as red bells, I allot less of it for any one meal. In other words one red bell will enhance four meals for me and that way I can justify paying over a dollar for it.<<

Yep, that's exactly what I was doing, rationing it out. Now, since I can buy a bag of 6 huge red peppers for $3.39 instead of $12 - $14, and 2 quarts of cherry tomatoes for $2.00 instead of $6 - $8, I can relax a little and enjoy a lot more of what I love.

Looking forward to the garden and the farm shares next year though-- then I'll be eating almost 100% organic. (Might have to buy some non-organic tropical fruit; the rest should be organic.)

Sharrhan:


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I just got pineapples for 15% less at the supermarket than at the local market... That very rarely happens.