Ah, the recovery. Four dollars for a hot house tomato at grocery store

[jonathon]

Inflation is sky high but it isn't even mentioned.

[babylonsister]

1. And weather this winter had nothing at all to do with the prices. nt

[Toots]

41. Do the words Hot house mean anything to you?

:shrug:

[jody]

2. Tomatoes are one of the few food items that can be cheaply grown in a container if light's available

Just one indeterminate plant will provide fruit over several months and of a quality far superior to those in markets.

[Retrograde]

3. It isn't exactly tomato season in most of the US

So unless you live in a semi-tropical area any tomatoes this time of year are trucked, or more likely, flown in from somewhere else. Of course they're going to be expensive.

[MattBaggins]

9. And tasteless

I joked to my wife last week that she should buy a bunch of 'maters before the price went through the roof. She did and I cut them up and they had no taste what so ever.

[Shell Beau]

28. True. But $4 is still really high.

I am a tomato girl in the summer. We try to grow our own, but they can be tricky. Off season produce is always going to be higher, but $4? That's a lot.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Loss from Florida frosts have caused a higher demand

so yes those hot house tomatoes are sky high.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Fruits and vegetables do not enjoy the government support that dairy and meats do.

See especially the second graph in this fine OP:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Ian%20David/7251

[MattBaggins]

10. Is there more data for that graph

It could very well be true; but any information from the so called "PCRM" just can't be trusted.

[FormerDittoHead]

13. Yes. You can buy a double cheeseburger for $1 w/o getting out of the car. Why are Americans fat?

Why do people not understand why Americans are fat considering they're practically throwing bad food at people but if it's low fat / high fiber, you have to pay more for it and stand in line?

Let me buy you a clue: "willpower" has nothing to do with it - it's availability and price. If food that was better for you was easier to get than bad food, people would be healthier. It's as simple as that.

With the money they must be getting from the gov't, I'm half surprised they don't deliver cheeseburgers and corn fructose sweetened soda to your home for free!

My local store wants $3.00 for 4 oranges. That's on sale. And that's not a drive-through either. That's a very long, slow moving line.

And people wonder why we're fat?

Here's a suggestion - change it so Iowa isn't the first primary state.

[Retrograde]

25. Iowa isn't a primary state, but I get your drift

Iowa uses a caucus system, but it's so early in the process that it becomes one of the few make-or-break states for candidates. I agree that that's one of the reason corn - especially the type that goes into animal feed and HFCS, which is not the kind humans typically eat - is subsidized so heavily. Same with protections on sugar to keep the prices up.

I don't object to moving food long distances if it's the sort of thing that stores well (like grains, dried beans, even citrus) but for a lot of fresh fruits and veggies there's a decline in quality with age. Winter is citrus season, at least judging by the orange tree outside my window, but Florida's been having a hard time this year with weather and I suspect that's contributing to prices, along with fuel costs.

[Dappleganger]

6. Just wait for strawberry season...

hope you enjoy those $8 daiquiris. Despite raping the aquifers to try to save them, half the fruit was pretty much destroyed by the cold snaps down here.

[asdjrocky]

7. Dude, don't buy tomatoes, they are way too easy to grow.

[kestrel91316]

8. Nobody in the US has any right to expect fresh tomatoes in the dead of winter to be

anything less than expensive. They are a SUMMER crop. Even here in SoCal I can NEVER get them to ripen before July, no matter HOW nice the weather.

Given the fossil fuels and resulting environmental damage that went into producing that tomato and shipping it to you, it should cost even more.

I eat lots of fresh vegetables this time of year, lol, but none of them are tomatoes, or peppers, or eggplant (all summer crops). I feasted on roasted brussels sprouts and potatoes and butternut squash and rutabagas and carrots this week, with rice pilaf. The only tomatoes I eat this time of year are canned.

[SnoopDog]

11. You do know that it is summer in the southern hemisphere...right?

And there are hot houses too...

[kestrel91316]

31. Yes, and one has no right to expect produce grown in the Southern Hemisphere

and flown here to be cheap. You are aware that flying water around (and produce is mostly water) is VERY expensive?

Ralphie needs to do without his fresh strawberries in January (apologies to Ferenc Mate for co-opting his line from A Reasonable Life, my favorite book ever). It's not a civl right to get them cheap.

Oy. This has turned into Republican Underground with the consumerist sense of entitlement.........

[bvar22]

16. They didn't cost that much last year.

And wasn't that the point of this post?
:shrug:

[HuckleB]

22. They didn't?

Really?

I'm not buying it.

[kestrel91316]

32. Winter tomatoes (those pale red cardboard things) have ALWAYS been

hideously expensive, and not remotely worth the money IMHO due to poor quality.

I buy my tomatoes in season at the farmer's market.

[bvar22]

44. We grow our own.

I agree with your assessment of "Winter Tomatoes".
We don't even trust the Farmers Markets.
Some of the vendors WILL use more pesticides, herbicides, and chem fertilizers than commercial operations and tell you to your face that "Sure. All my stuff is "organic".
Nobody checks.

You won't find really good tomatoes at the Farmers Markets anyway.
The majority of those tomatoes are high production, quick ripening Hybrids which sacrifice Taste for Quantity.
Farmers Market tomatoes are to Store Boughts as Commercial Mexican is to Ditch Weed....good, if you've never had Colombian.
(OK. Its been a looooong time since I've smoked weed.)

To get really good tomatoes, you have to grow your own, or be BFF with someone who does.
The really good tomatoes are Heirlooms that don't sacrifice Quality for Quantity,
and are picked at the moment of peak ripeness and eaten the same day.
We feel the same way about Farmers Market tomatoes as you feel about Store Boughts

We work hard to eliminate all Factory Produced Food-Like Substances from our diet.
Health concerns aside, we would do it if only for the taste.


The point made by the OP was NOT that Winter Tomatoes were "good".
The point was that they are MORE expensive.
Inflation.
I don't know what the Factory Outlets were charging for tomatoes last year.
At this point, I'll take the poster at his word...they're more expensive.

[rucky]

12. eff that! I'm growing some Topsy-Turvys this year.

[bvar22]

17. You might be disappointed.

Check out the Gardening Group.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=246&topic_id=11223

[tammywammy]

14. The price of tomatoes are up because of the cold weather that ruined tons of them

Also expect to see less on sandwiches and other foods ordered that usually have tomato on them in restaurants. Nearly 70% of Florida's crop has been ruined this year.

[HuckleB]

23. MORE BACON, less tomato. Sounds good to me.

[Greyhound]

15. Street level inflation has been rampant for about 3 years, IFB & the Corprocrats removed

the baseline in 2005(?).

[HuckleB]

21. What's your definition of "street level" inflation?

[Greyhound]

26. The prices real people pay for the things they buy every day.

The scam that removed the baseline only insures that the inflation rate will stay low unless prices break into Argentina territory.

Seventy-something widow, living on SS & the remnants of a pension, got no COLA because "there was no inflation" last year, but according to her checking account the cost of the items she must buy to stay alive have increased >20% on average with many items rising 50% or more. People like her do not have luxuries nor do they have choice, they cannot "elect to buy the cheaper product" because they already subsist on the cheapest products.

This woman and millions like her are merely subsisting already, yet this administration made a deliberate decision to improve the published numbers at her expense.

[HuckleB]

29. Well, I'm a real person, and I'm paying less for most things now than I was a couple years ago.

The exceptions being natural gas and electricity.

[hobbit709]

35. Basic groceries and gas have gone up around here

Price of milk and other dairy products have gone up by more than 15% in the last month. Gas has climbed 15-20 cents/gal in the last two weeks. If it wasn't for the fact that I have a choice of 6 different grocery stores within 5 minutes drive of my house so that I can pick what's on sale at each one, my cost of food would be much higher than what it was a year ago. My house payment just went up $45/mo because of increased property taxes. My utility bills have been steadily creeping up every month with new fees and rate hikes.

[HuckleB]

42. You're talking about products that have always fluctuated in price.

Looking at the costs in the last few months for those products does not make a trend.

[tandot]

18. Tomato Shortage Blamed On Weather

http://www.kcra.com/news/22724668/detail.html

Managers at a Sacramento Wendy's restaurant on Meadowview Road said because of the cold spell in Florida in February, tomato crops damaged distribution nationwide.

"The value of the tomatoes has gone up a lot," said Wendy's assistant manager Diana Hafer.

California Farm Bureau Federation spokesman Dave Kranz said California is second in the nation in tomato production but wont start seeing its crop for a few months.

Heavy rain in Mexico has also cut down tomato supplies nationwide.

[dustbunnie]

19. Cabbage is cheap. Get some carrots and an onion and make a whole mess of slaw.

it's delish and the only stuff that tastes and looks halfway decent this time of year. Make some lentils and beans, oven fries, and roast a chicken if you eat meat and THAT'S a hearty winter meal.

Course, you may explode from the gaseous nature of the meal, but there are trade offs to everything.

[HuckleB]

20. Hot House tomatoes have never been cheap.

What's your point?

[texastoast]

24. Inflation began in the Bush regime

Just like it began in the Nixon presidency and Jimmy Carter got blamed for it.

We have to clean the stinking pile of Bush crap he left behind and part of its name is the economy.

[tranche]

27. Buy American. Buy an in season tomato. You're to blame for this shitty economy.

You should be eating canned tomatoes this time of year.

[aikoaiko]

30. Don't buy it.

;-)

[leveymg]

33. That must be one hell of a big tomato for 4 bucks.

One that size could eat a family of 4 for a week.

[RagAss]

34. Wait for the California crop....Florida was ravaged by the winter.

[blindpig]

36. It sure as hell ain't just tomatoes.

Damn near everything in the grocery store has gotten more expensive. A recent trip to the big box hardware store nearly gave me a stroke. And then there's gasoline.....and meanwhile unemployment is sky high.

Where is the relief?

[cali]

37. don't fucking buy nasty winter tomatoes. duh.

I spend no more than 65 bucks a week for groceries and that includes sundries and I eat well and healthily. Certainly that means being careful and not buy crap like hothouse tomatoes or processed food but it can be done.

[CTyankee]

38. Might as well get a can of good Roma tomatoes if you are gonna cook with it.

To me, "fresh" tomatoes in the winter are not tomatoes at all...

[cali]

40. no kidding. good canned tomatoes are far preferable to the fake winter tomatoes.

[KittyWampus]

39. why are you buying tomatoes in early March?

[NNN0LHI]

43. Maybe the poster was craving a BLT?

Who knows?

Don