F ³: Eating the Difference

I woke up this morning to discover that NPR making the claim: Prices are up, but Mother’s Day still means brunch, Alina Selyukh, Scott Horsley.

It's the biggest day for America's restaurants, and one of the biggest for flower sales. Despite anxieties over rising gas prices, people are ready to splurge to celebrate.

Really? Which people would that be?

Last night as I was making up a grocery list I discovered that a tub of Kerrygold Butter, a special treat for my mother in law who loves her mashed potatoes with a dollop of good Irish butter, has reached the eye-watering price of ten ninety-nine..

I don’t know how one grocery item can break your brain but this was too much. At fourteen ounces, it isn’t even a full pound of butter. To be sure, it’s a special treat, possibly a bit of a luxury item. But ten ninety-nine for a package of soft butter?

I can’t do it. I found myself facing a mental hurdle I couldn’t get over. 

Of course the Irish butter is symbolic of all of the increasing prices around us. Gas prices, yes, but also food prices - - at the grocery store and when going out to eat. I found myself reading an article in the Banner about patronizing local restaurants with a more jaded eye than usual.

Eat this, not that: Skip the fast food in Howard County, Jess Nocera, Baltimore Banner

Despite that sentence, it’s not about eating healthier or cutting calories. It’s about the variety of local choices we have in local eating establishments. Nocera sets up a series of comparisons between readily available chain restaurants and what she sees as superior mom-and-pop options. Despite a few apples-to-oranges comparisons, it’s an interesting piece.

But…

I would have enjoyed this article much more had I not been wondering what the cost comparison was. Yes, I strongly support eating local,  but: right now I am wondering how people can afford to eat out at all. It’s possible that the local recommendations are more expensive than their chain restaurant counterparts. But I don’t think that cost is mentioned anywhere in the article. 

Who are the HoCoLocal folks that this article is hoping to reach? I guess they are the same people who are “ready to splurge to celebrate” Mother’s Day.

My family members are not particularly brunch people nor do we equate the Sunday brunch experience with celebrating Mom. I was under the impression that there were a wide variety of ways to celebrate the day. Who knew brunch was de rigeur?

In the meantime I know the perfect present for my mother-in-law. I wonder if she’ll think it odd that there’s a gift-wrapped item in her refrigerator? 

How’s your grocery money holding out?

Village Green/Town² Comments