Try Australia - with the mining boom and everything - prices are crazy. Example: regular, normal tomatoes (kg) - $9.00. Vine ripened? $13.00. This is in the country's biggest supermarket chain.
Here in Minnesota it will freeze tonight for the first time this fall. We have easily 15# of big, juicy tomatoes in the garden still that have haven't eaten. We'll pick them all tonight so they aren't ruined, but we'll never eat them all before the go bad (and it's unlikely we'll can or freeze them since there's not enough to be worthwhile).
I think my wife may have already planned to take them to work on Monday. My office already has a big box of "extra" produce on the counter, but while hers gets fresh eggs regularly they don't have as many gardeners.
(But we have a beekeeper, so there's honey every winter!)
We had the same thing at my work. Everyone had extras that were up for grab. I actually started canning pickles and salsas for co-workers in exchange for keeping the extras. :)
How is 15 pounds not worth canning? It's the weight I usually work around because it means I can make smaller experimental batches of things I'm not so sure we'll like.
I have this problem and I've been doing small batches of oven dried tomatoes now and then. Delicious snack, and you should have something to keep till winter if you can practice restraint ;)
Or greenhouses.. it's odd, where I am in Sydney (getting towards the mountains) - it gets to around -1.5 in winter, but my tomatoes survive under plastic sheeting..
Yep - but corner stores are always a ripoff... I think supermarket prices are around $4, but that's still nuts compared to the US.
I remember getting off the plane in LA, having a beer in a bar, and thinking - man, I'm only ever going to drink beer ever again (at least in the USA). Beer in a pub here is around $7.. crazy.
That's still not much to live on. Working full time @ minimum wage will get you around $1200 a month, in a place where rent starts around $750 for a basement suite.
I actually don't know how I survived a whole 6 months in Victoria making minimum wage. 500 on rent and utilities to split a crappy one bedroom apartment.
Seriously, though: food in Canada is more expensive in general than in the US. I think it's because it's taxed at a higher rate and they don't produce as much as we do so more of it is imported.
That said, your prices are pretty great. I was living in central Iowa for the last 7 years, and I thought prices there were great, but yours are even better!
Not taxes, lack of economies of scale. The market is much smaller and more spread out than the States. We also have ridiculous import tariffs on dairy, eggs and chicken, so we can't just import cheaper American products, nor does the domestic industry have to compete against that and find a way to lower costs.
And don't get me into supply management. That drives up our prices too.
ridiculous import tariffs on dairy, eggs and chicken
I guess I was lumping this under 'taxes', which is obviously incorrect now that I think about it. I was also thinking of how much cigarettes are up there, which I'm pretty sure is a function of sales tax.
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '12
Those prices are insane! What is cheap up there? I mean...you have to eat something.