Food in the time of a pandemic

[heidih]

Oh I have several but not used. Full size in basement - only used for college parties (back in the day) . Safely latched. Freezer stand alone in garage - again safely disabled. One in house is regular size but I keep it low. My personal quirk. Currently housing lots of frozen greens

[weinoo]

9 hours ago, chromedome said:

Hyup. I'm currently buying "C" grade Honeycrisp apples from a local grower's storefront at $1.20/lb, which is 35-50% of the regular retail at stores. What makes 'em "C" grade? Random sizes, irregular shapes, and the odd cosmetic blemish. (shrug) Works for me...

 

Nice.  At the farmer's market where I shop, I don't know if the growers are selling their "C" grade Honeycrisps, but they're generally $2.99/lb. And believe me, they're certainly random sizes. Of course, driving in to, and setting up in Manhattan, the logistics involved, I understand the pricing. And you can always find pre-packed 3 - 5 lb. bags of different varieties of apples for a lot less.

[rotuts]

My pandemic plan includes

 

periodic purchases of ' staples ' from Target.

 

Ive mentioned this before.

 

I enjoy following ' the markets '

 

as economics interests me same as The Tide would 

 

@ the seashore.

 

@target ive gotten about 4 - 5 stapes over time

 

initially in Feb :  plentiful.    then they slowly became scarce over several months

 

then came back over the late summer .

 

a few weeks ago , most of my Pantry Items were in stock

 

including all of my personal chef's [ed.:BoyAreDee  Chef of the Can -- no stars ]

CBODee's lasagna  is the one to get.   SagBol w meatballs , not so much.

 

over a week or two , all have disappeared from Target.

 

as has BeanwBacon soup , and RiceaRoni

 

what does this mean ?

 

probably not so much.   but gatherer are gathering.

 

this has happened before.  but the food supply in this country is

 

resilient , and this items will return again

 

in a few months

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

10 minutes ago, rotuts said:

this has happened before.  but the food supply in this country is

 

resilient , and this items will return again

 

in a few months

 

Based on articles like the one below, I'm hoping things will even out more quickly this time.

Grocery store rationing is back, but relax: The supply chain is doing fine

[ElsieD]

Of all the odd things our supermarkets seen to be out of, it's HP sauce.  You can find the Bold flavour, but not the regular.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

44 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Of all the odd things our supermarkets seen to be out of, it's HP sauce.  You can find the Bold flavour, but not the regular.

 

I feel your pain.  I tried to buy HP sauce last week.

 

Meanwhile, Whole Foods has expanded it's delivery area.  Until recently I could order but my friends who live nearby could not.

 

Unfortunately Whole Foods is back in the "You're lucky if we deliver to you at all" mode.  I wanted things for yesterday but I had to keep refreshing the checkout page to get any delivery slot at all.  Which should be tonight.  I'm planning a @Wolfert recipe with all sorts of ingredients they are sure to be out of.  No one has started working on my order yet.

 

[gfweb]

The cretins at our local Acme Market keep running sales on things that they cannot restock.

Morons.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Amazingly Whole Foods had 16 of 17 items in my cart.  The only substitution was for a bag of organic yellow onions.  (No points for guessing why I need a bag of onions.)  Of course, the order is still out for delivery.  We'll see what actually arrives.

 

Meanwhile the tuna and beans I was about to eat had molded.  Didn't smell so good either.  And by that time I can't say I was hungry.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Amazon did pretty well, considering.  Though I have to remark they sent me the wrong cherries.  I ordered Rainier cherries.  Red cherries were what arrived.  Second time this has happened.  The PLU codes are different, not to mention prices.

 

Nonetheless it is remarkable to me how well these people do.  I am very thankful to have the service available to me.

 

[heidih]

I usually make my own marmalade, jam and the like. I did check the shelves at market - wow has it been scanty and pricey. Then today THIS shows up at $2.99.  I like chocolate with cherries in a baked good so "hello cuteness" Also one of my favorite jars to save - nice wide mouth.  

 

[liamsaunt]

The gobble box came.  

 

 

I am sharing with my parents and my mother in law.  We also ordered a pie from the farmer's wife, who has a bakery.  This is pumpkin with sesame crunch.  Of course my Mom phoned today to say that she is bringing me two pies tomorrow in exchange of her share of the gobble box!  I am sure that my niece and nephew will eat all of each pie.

 

[heidih]

Jealous of the br sprouts. All the ones I have seen lately look "aged"  even the on the stalk ones.  Sesame crunch - interesting. 

[Toliver]

I just remembered this...

When I shopped at the local Walmart Neighborhood Grocery store this past weekend, they had lots and lots of yeast. They even had these large 16oz vacuumed-pack blocks of instant yeast on an aisle end cap. In the sugar/flour aisle, they had a lot of single packages of yeast, the regular kind and the instant kind.

The hoarders haven't bought all of the yeast...yet! 

[liamsaunt]

I just received the worst Instacart delivery since this pandemic started.  2 gallons of organic whole milk swapped in for organic 2% (nobody drinks whole milk), Brigham's ice cream swapped in for Haagen Daz, Thomas' bagels swapped in for Dave's Killer Bread, and worst of all, I ordered fresh garlic and ginger, and they brought me the shelf stable jarred kind!  The store was also out of cornmeal, buttermilk (not surprising, I think a lot of people are making Samin Nosrat's buttermilk brined turkey this year), pine nuts, english muffins, and crackers.  None of which is the shopper's fault of course.  Usually the shoppers text if they are going to make a substitution, but this one didn't for some reason.  Oh well.   I am sure the store was crazy and they did the best they could.  I froze the whole milk to use in cooking, and the teens will likely eat the crummy bagels and ice cream.  The only thing that I don't think will ever get used is the jarred garlic.  I might try posting it on the buy nothing page for my town.

[Anna N]

10 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

I just received the worst Instacart delivery since this pandemic started.  2 gallons of organic whole milk swapped in for organic 2% (nobody drinks whole milk), Brigham's ice cream swapped in for Haagen Daz, Thomas' bagels swapped in for Dave's Killer Bread, and worst of all, I ordered fresh garlic and ginger, and they brought me the shelf stable jarred kind!  The store was also out of cornmeal, buttermilk (not surprising, I think a lot of people are making Samin Nosrat's buttermilk brined turkey this year), pine nuts, english muffins, and crackers.  None of which is the shopper's fault of course.  Usually the shoppers text if they are going to make a substitution, but this one didn't for some reason.  Oh well.   I am sure the store was crazy and they did the best they could.  I froze the whole milk to use in cooking, and the teens will likely eat the crummy bagels and ice cream.  The only thing that I don't think will ever get used is the jarred garlic.  I might try posting it on the buy nothing page for my town.

Well I admire your composure. Not sure I could have been so phlegmatic. 

[dtremit]

1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:

I just received the worst Instacart delivery since this pandemic started.  2 gallons of organic whole milk swapped in for organic 2% (nobody drinks whole milk), Brigham's ice cream swapped in for Haagen Daz, Thomas' bagels swapped in for Dave's Killer Bread, and worst of all, I ordered fresh garlic and ginger, and they brought me the shelf stable jarred kind!  The store was also out of cornmeal, buttermilk (not surprising, I think a lot of people are making Samin Nosrat's buttermilk brined turkey this year), pine nuts, english muffins, and crackers.  None of which is the shopper's fault of course.  Usually the shoppers text if they are going to make a substitution, but this one didn't for some reason.  Oh well.   I am sure the store was crazy and they did the best they could.  I froze the whole milk to use in cooking, and the teens will likely eat the crummy bagels and ice cream.  The only thing that I don't think will ever get used is the jarred garlic.  I might try posting it on the buy nothing page for my town.

 

I mean, I say this as the guy whose Instacart profile says to please cancel my order for 16oz of peeled garlic instead of substituting the 6oz package — but the day before Thanksgiving, I'd rather get jarred garlic than no garlic! 

 

I normally hate the jarred stuff, but it's called for in a lot of Indian recipes, and it's pretty indistinguishable when you're adding it at the beginning of a long-cooking curry. I might be tempted to mix the jarred ginger and garlic 50:50 and freeze it in small portions for just that purpose.

I wonder if they meant the bagels to be a substitute for the English muffins and just entered them on the wrong item? That would make *slightly* more sense — both Thomas' branded breakfast items.

[dtremit]

We ended up ordering Thanksgiving dinner from a favorite local restaurant — picked it up today. Have to say, I am shocked at how stingy the portions are — it was billed as a Thanksgiving feast for two with plenty of leftovers for making turkey sandwiches, but there's only maybe 8oz of turkey in four slices. And though there are two desserts, the pumpkin pie is in what looks like an egg tart pan (maybe 3"?) and is somehow intended for sharing. I actually messaged them to make sure we had everything, I thought maybe something got mixed up.

I can't bear the thought of complaining given how hard things are for restaurants right now, but it's really making what I thought would be a nice treat (fancy meal! no cooking!) feel like yet another 2020 letdown.

Edited November 25, 2020 by dtremit (log)

[haresfur]

1 hour ago, Toliver said:

I just remembered this...

When I shopped at the local Walmart Neighborhood Grocery store this past weekend, they had lots and lots of yeast. They even had these large 16oz vacuumed-pack blocks of instant yeast on an aisle end cap. In the sugar/flour aisle, they had a lot of single packages of yeast, the regular kind and the instant kind.

The hoarders haven't bought all of the yeast...yet! 

 

Pandemic fatigue -> Bread fatigue

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:

I just received the worst Instacart delivery since this pandemic started.  2 gallons of organic whole milk swapped in for organic 2% (nobody drinks whole milk),

I know this may not help in this specific incidence, but I switched from 2% milk (or worse) to whole milk and never looked back. It just tastes so much better. It's a whole 30 calories more per cup.

[liamsaunt]

3 hours ago, dtremit said:

 

I mean, I say this as the guy whose Instacart profile says to please cancel my order for 16oz of peeled garlic instead of substituting the 6oz package — but the day before Thanksgiving, I'd rather get jarred garlic than no garlic! 

 

 

Luckily, I am not out of real garlic.  I was just getting low.  I will try again next week.  

 

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

I know this may not help in this specific incidence, but I switched from 2% milk (or worse) to whole milk and never looked back. It just tastes so much better. It's a whole 30 calories more per cup.

 

To me, it tastes too rich and cloying in cereal.  I do use it in cooking though, so it will get eaten eventually.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

 

To me, it tastes too rich and cloying in cereal.  I do use it in cooking though, so it will get eaten eventually.

 

I drink whole milk.  I use heavy cream on cereal.  Real garlic goes with almost anything.  You've never had garlic ice cream?

 

[MetsFan5]

@liamsaunt what a bummer. I had the opposite experience today— my Instacart delivery had everything I asked for with two proper substitutions.  I scheduled it for the first delivery time possible and made sure to communicate with my shopper but I was still shocked I got what I wanted. I’ve found it varies depending on the grocery store. I ordered mine from a smallish higher end store, Kings. 

[dtremit]

On 11/20/2020 at 6:28 PM, Anna N said:

I’ll bet you are. But my question for you is how/where will you store all this fresh produce? I have a relatively large French door LG refrigerator but no way could I fit all of your fresh produce that needs/benefits from refrigeration into the crisper drawers.

 

One thing that has helped us immensely with our CSA is very large Ziploc bags. About two years ago I got a deal on this 100 count package of 2 gallon Ziplocs which we are still working our way through. (It was $20 at the time — I think the current high price is a weird out of stock aberration). I find a lot of stuff that we'd normally put in the crisper does just fine in those.

 

As for "too much fridge" — we currently have our main french door fridge in the kitchen, two dorm fridges (one is meant to replace the other aging one, but I figured it could wait until after the pandemic subsides), and a compact upright freezer (~7 cu ft). All this in a 1000 ft2 condo.

[dtremit]

On 11/21/2020 at 6:47 AM, weinoo said:

Nice.  At the farmer's market where I shop, I don't know if the growers are selling their "C" grade Honeycrisps, but they're generally $2.99/lb. And believe me, they're certainly random sizes. Of course, driving in to, and setting up in Manhattan, the logistics involved, I understand the pricing. And you can always find pre-packed 3 - 5 lb. bags of different varieties of apples for a lot less.

 

Once or twice a year when we're in the mood for a nice drive, we head out to visit the farm that sells apples at our farmers' market. The price there is usually about $1 or $1.50 less than at the market. Figure it's a reasonable charge for the schlep.

[rotuts]

I live in MA.   a little W of BOS

 

there are still a number of family owned apple orchards around

 

the ones that will last longer are off the main arteries feeding BOS.

 

there is a very nice one one town over.   but the better ones are N.W.

 

there are no arteries going that way.  one in Stowe , had a blackboard w harvest times

 

for the various varieties .   they do come in a different times.

 

they sold the apples in paper sacks w handles , same as local stores

 

but much cheaper.   they had a ' seconds room '  apples misshaped , as few blemishes

 

very very reasonable.  my favorite was ' Winter Banana ' , probably by name only.

 

I made a lot of Apple crisp back in those days , and apples to munch on.

 

they had pies , some they made , and some made locally from their apples

 

fairly priced w nice crusts

 

but aside from the seconds room :  they made their own apple cider

 

non-pasteurized .  you kept it in a cool place for a week or so or more

 

and released the ' gas' from time to time , until the fermenting stopped.

 

then refrigerated it.   it came out fairly dry , and mighty tasty 

 

batches flavors varied w the apples used at the time.

 

it was about 2.50 $$  or so a gallon.  something you could not buy another way.

 

I hope they are still at it next fall.

Edited November 27, 2020 by rotuts (log)