A little home cooking, store brands, white house garden
Action News KSBY. “Gas prices are down, food prices are not.
And with the economy struggling, surviving the recession could come down to being able to keep food on the table.
The average gallon of regular unleaded in California is going for $1.79. That’s down from an average of $4.61 on June 19.
In the meantime, for the last nine months or so a dozen eggs sells for around $3.50, and a loaf of whole-grain bread averages around $4.00 at the store.
Baking, making, and buying bread: three facts of life that can’t be ignored no matter how you slice it.”
CNN Money. “More shoppers are hunting for bargains in grocery stores and willing to pay less for a no-name brand, a big U.S. supermarket chain said Tuesday.
The number of people switching to the private-label foods packaged and sold by Kroger Co. (KR) at its stores has been increasing. The company runs 2,477 stores in 31 states. Some of its regional chains include Ralph’s, Fred Meyer and Food 4 Less.
“We’re seeing particularly strong growth in our private selections and value tiers,” Kroger Chief Executive David Dillon told investors in a conference call.
In recent years, large supermarket chains have been beefing up the number of items they sell under their own private-label lines. The items typically sell for less than a name brand on the same shelf.”
LA Times. “”In the times when the economy is really bad, it becomes an even more important question of how you’re going to put food on the table for your family,” says Kelly Alexander, co-author of “Hometown Appetites,” a biography of the pioneering newspaper food columnist Clementine Paddleford.
“If you want to save money, you’re going to have to learn to cook,” Alexander says.
She says she recently saw a pot pie recipe that called for precooked pieces of chicken, a premade crust and vegetables from a salad bar — essentially directions for assembling, not cooking. So by appealing to people who are too busy to cook or unwilling to learn, a modern version of a dish invented to make leftovers appealing becomes a collection of expensive ingredients.
Many Americans never learned to cook as they grew up, and they rely on takeout or packaged food, but dinner was a very different experience during the Depression.”
Chattanooga Times Free Press. “They go by names like Millville, Hearty Harvest and Fit & Active instead of Quaker, Del Monte and Dannon, but shoppers at German-owned discount grocer Aldi say they can’t tell the difference.
What they notice is the money they save by buying unfamiliar brands in place of the household names.
“They have good deals,” said Tom Roberts, who shopped at Aldi in Fort Oglethorpe earlier this week. “One of the best tasting things is their chunky soup.”
The soup is not Campbell’s but a brand exclusive to Aldi called Chef’s Cupboard. Shoppers who buy the less familiar version of chunky-style soup or choose the L’Oven Fresh bread, or any of Aldi’s select brands, can save up to 50 percent on their grocery bill, according to store officials.”
TimesDaily.com. “Jeff Helms, spokesman for the Montgomery-based Alabama Farmers Federation, said the organization, which tracks food prices around the state, notes that while the prices of beef, milk and some food items have fallen in recent weeks, the organization’s volunteer shoppers have found little evidence of widespread price-cutting at grocery stores.
“Some economists around the country are predicting grocery prices are on the verge of starting to ease off, but we have no snapshot data indicating that has happened in Alabama,” Helms said.”
SFGATE “Waters is not alone in sensing that the newly elected, allegedly arugula-loving president is the perfect vehicle for national food reform.
His switch to local, organic, seasonal food would lead the way in fighting America’s epidemic of obesity and diabetes stemming from processed food, chemicals and eating too much from the wrong end of the food chain.”
NYTimes. “Americans have been spending more time in their kitchens since the economy soured and food prices began to rise this year. About 60 percent surveyed in July by Mintel International, a market research firm, said they were cooking more often and dining out less frequently. Marcia Mogelonsky, a senior researcher at Mintel, said that as the economy has worsened, that figure has probably increased.
“In the old economy, people didn’t think twice about spending a little more for convenience,” Ms. Mogelonsky said.”
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