There's a myth afoot that cooking from the farmers' market is more expensive. I decided to break down my tabouli by cost to show you otherwise:
Quinoa - between $3.69 and $4.29/lb. So let's generously say $4.00 is in the middle. I used a little over 1/4 pound, which comes out to a dollar and change.
Cucumber - I bought 5 small-to-medium organic cukes for $2.50 and used 2, for $1.00. At a local grocer, medium-to-largish organic cukes were $2.65.
Lemons - I paid fifty cents each for organic. Local grocer, non-organic - 2/99 cents.
The tomatoes were my splurge, because they aren't in season. They were $3.99 for the pint. So, adding it all up. . .$1.00 for quinoa, $1.00 for cukes, 50 cents for the lemon and $3.99 for the tomatoes....$6.50 for either 3-4 main dish servings or 6-8 side salads. Not too much for good, simple and mostly-organic and local home cooking.
June 4th, 2011
I had to go to the regular grocery store because my farmers' market was rained out. The organic celery and the conventional celery were the same price. The conventional cukes were less than half the price of organic. The carrots were pretty much the same price, but they were sold in different quantities. The organic was a wee bit more expensive. Romaine lettuce - organic and conventional were about the same, but I imagine I washed the organic a bit more...small price to pay.
My farmers' market-bought, locally sourced, humanely and sustainably raised tri-tip was more than twice the cost of the regular stuff, but (1) I don't buy beef very often and (2) I'll probably get at least 3 more meals from it, in addition to the three we had today, so it came out to less than $4.00/serving. Coincidentally, when I was a kid, a fancy t-bone at the local diner was $4.99. And that was a long, long time ago. . .so yeah, it's more than you pay for the feedlot-raised, anti-biotic laden beef at the grocery store...but it's still a bargain -- especially in terms of the health of our planet.
