I do most of my shopping at Trader Joe's which is known for making an admirable effort to supply local and organic produce at affordable prices. This week I was surprised to find 11 oz containers of Blueberries for $2.99 at my local TJ's. Thoughts inspired by this simple sign: That's cheap, even for in season blueberries. How are they getting blueberries in February? The season, in the US anyway, is June-September. Are they even going to taste good? Is that why they're so cheap? Maybe there's some crazy New England variety of Blueberry that is ready for harvest in the winter...nope. Shipped in from Chile. Wow, TJ's bad show. Wait. Am I a produce snob? No. I'm trying to be environmentally friendly with my food, and support my local economy. But don't those farmers need money too? Am I going to potentially let this food go to waste for some mildly hoity-toity principle? Is it really hoity-toity? My friends in Virginia work really hard at their craft and are greatly under-appreciated...it went on like this as I wheeled my cart around the entire store.
In the end I went home without the berries. In the meantime, I 'll be having my taste of summer in the form of a cobbler made of some nectarines in my freezer from last summer. It was a good year for stone fruit.
What about you? Do you buy local, organic, seasonal, or any combination thereof? Do you buy based purely on price? Or do you just buy what you want? Are you like me, and have a ranking system? (Which, I realize makes me a little eccentric.) Would you have bought the blueberries?
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