The Cost of Everything

          A few days ago I required more space in my freezer so I pulled out 14 lb. of raspberries to make wine. Then I checked my sugar supply and determined the wine would require more than I had on hand so off to town I went. I popped into my usual grocery store, headed to the baking supply isle and reached for a 10 kg bag of sugar. Then I noticed the price - $25.99! I called my husband over. “Look at that!” I said. “Can you believe it?” I was shocked and somewhat angry. 

I need sugar for wine, for cooking, for canning. The bees’ survival is dependant on feeding sugar water at this time of year. SUGAR IS A BASIC STAPLE for heaven’s sake! It was almost $10 per bag less the last time I bought it, and that was not long ago. I carried the bag of sugar around in my cart with a few other items for a bit then gave my head a shake, returned everything to the shelf and walked out. 

We decided to drive north to another community. There the price of sugar was $9 less. Three days later I went to my more usual shopping community to the south west. There sugar was $12.99 for a 10 kg bag. I also needed canning jars. Price variation from store to store for same brand regular pints was from $12.99/dozen to $20.99. 

I guess the moral of this story is Buyer Beware. It seems some stores are taking advantage of those of us unwilling or unable to shop around.

Why do grocery prices vary so drastically from store to store? I understand sales/purchasing volume plays a role, but I’m not talking about convenience stores here, I’m talking about large chain stores. How do stores determine their prices?

I don’t know how people are managing these days with rising prices and interest rates while wages and pensions remain the same. I don’t claim to understand economics, but raising the base interest rate to curb inflation, in the wake of the Covid measures that destroyed many small businesses and from which many others are still struggling to recover, seems to contribute to the problem rather than relieve it. It raises the cost of everything, from production to distribution to retail - including the basic necessities. Once raised, prices rarely come back down.

When one person or group loses another gains. There is always someone ready to take advantage of another’s misfortune. It’s common sense - follow the money. While the majority of us struggle to maintain our standard of living in this fiscal climate, there are others lining their pockets. 

Mary Lynn Tipton

Autumn Scramble

AUTUMN SCRAMBLE

I have a casual attitude about gardening. If you are a weed looking for a home your  chances of survival are good under my care. I try to weed enough to give the veggies or flowers I’ve planted room to grow and I occasionally claw out great clumps of chickweed that have taken over my “alleyways”, but once the preferred plants gain sufficient size I have a casual attitude about gardening. If you are a weed looking for a home your  chances of survival are good under my care. I try to weed enough to give the veggies or flowers I’ve planted room to grow and I occasionally claw out great clumps of chickweed that have taken over my “alleyways”, but once the preferred plants gain sufficient size and strength my weeding takes a back seat to thinning, harvesting and preserving.

This year was an odd one, it seems most years are. Cold, no rain, tons of rain, smokey skies, excessive heat… resulting in huge, chest high, bushy, unruly (and, as per my gardening style, unpruned) tomato plants which appeared to flower little and set almost no fruit. By early September, though, I discovered dozens of good sized tomatoes well hidden amongst the vines! And here I thought I was nearly done canning

And beets! Last year a hungry hoard of rodents devoured my crop leaving only the greens and a tiny bit of beet. So this year I grew extra and the critters left them alone leaving me with over 30 pints, bunches given away, and a large pail to put down the cellar in peat moss.

My specially purchased costly heirloom pea seeds barely grew, so I harvested the whole crop for seed, getting 300 grams. Potatoes turned out great - big no scabs. I got only two decent sized buttercup squashes from one  giant plant, too many zucchini, enough honeyberries (Haskap) for a batch of wine, 120 lbs. of raspberries (3 batches of wine, many quarts of juice, jam, vinaigrette, some frozen and many devoured), and lots of sunflowers for beauty, bees and birds. I will harvest thousands of seeds from the last years carrot that I planted. All in all a pretty good year. But, with Autumn officially around the corner, both my husband and myself are getting antsy to see the end of gardening. Most nights are within a degree or two of freezing and the bees are sticking close to home. It’s time to “get ‘er done” so the garden can be tilled up, manured and ready for next year.