Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Eye For a Bargain
I'm usually the careful shopper, but sometimes I stuff it up. Like last Saturday for instance. The proper raspberry season has started, at least the first part. The raspberry plant is quite clever and says hello with a crop just in time for Christmas, goes quiet for a bit, then there is a farewell crop around March, just as apples come into season.
Leading up to the real start of their season are punnets of raspberries going for an enormous price. I suppose if you are desperate for a taste you could fork out, but invariably these early fruit are never properly ripe, so we wait. The week before we bought our first punnets for a reasonable price and hungrily devoured them. They were so good.
So last Saturday at the market, when I saw a table full of them at three dollars a punnet, I pounced. Looking around for some more fruit, I saw the biggest, juiciest cherries and the sign at the back of them said ten dollars. Yes please, I'm having those, so I asked for a kilo. As the women serving me scooped up the cherries into a bag she revealed something on the sign I didn't want to see. They were ten dollars a half kilo!
There was some internal dialogue.
"They look so good."
"Come on, $20 a kilo!"
"The cherry season is so short."
"Don't pay too much."
"I bet they're sweet and juicy, just look at the size of them."
"Look around, there are cheaper for sure."
"I want them."
"You'll be sorry."
And that was it, they were coming home with me.
When I told my wife D, she had a sort of a shocked look on her face. D never pays too much for anything. But still cherries are cherries and she happily got stuck right in, she even asked me if I would like some too.....when there were about six cherries left.
Just to add insult to injury, yesterday D bought some more, just as big and juicy as the ones I had bought.
"Guess how much I paid."
"I don't know, tell me."
"Ten dollars a kilo."
I know she did that on purpose.
Leading up to the real start of their season are punnets of raspberries going for an enormous price. I suppose if you are desperate for a taste you could fork out, but invariably these early fruit are never properly ripe, so we wait. The week before we bought our first punnets for a reasonable price and hungrily devoured them. They were so good.
So last Saturday at the market, when I saw a table full of them at three dollars a punnet, I pounced. Looking around for some more fruit, I saw the biggest, juiciest cherries and the sign at the back of them said ten dollars. Yes please, I'm having those, so I asked for a kilo. As the women serving me scooped up the cherries into a bag she revealed something on the sign I didn't want to see. They were ten dollars a half kilo!
There was some internal dialogue.
"They look so good."
"Come on, $20 a kilo!"
"The cherry season is so short."
"Don't pay too much."
"I bet they're sweet and juicy, just look at the size of them."
"Look around, there are cheaper for sure."
"I want them."
"You'll be sorry."
And that was it, they were coming home with me.
When I told my wife D, she had a sort of a shocked look on her face. D never pays too much for anything. But still cherries are cherries and she happily got stuck right in, she even asked me if I would like some too.....when there were about six cherries left.
Just to add insult to injury, yesterday D bought some more, just as big and juicy as the ones I had bought.
"Guess how much I paid."
"I don't know, tell me."
"Ten dollars a kilo."
I know she did that on purpose.
11 Comments:
As kids we used to walk around with them on our ears as earrings, like valuable jewellery. Little did we know!
But Neil you told yourself, you knew the price would drop. I don't know, I think I would have done the same thing D did. Maybe you can find them for less next week.
Hi kitchenhand, too true. Maybe it just took a drought to make us realise.
Hi tanna, aww come on. It's just a bloke thing.
Geezus, I haven't bought any cherries yet - must make it to the market before they're gone again!
Aaaah, cherries. I seriously can't resist them and have been known to pay exorbitant prices for them. Whenever I go to a summer market abroad, yo can bet the first thing I will do is to buy a bag and walk around munching thoughtfully on them. There is something so totally decadent about popping one in your mouth and slowly pulling off the stem through your pursed lips, and the first rush of deeply-flavoured juice as you bite into it... My favourite cherry momory is of my mom and I going grocery shopping on a family holiday and finding ripe, bliack cherries at the market. We bought an expensive bagful, debated on the way to the car and reached the conclusion that we were the only members of the family who would REALLY appreciate them and then... finished them between the two of us in the time it took us to drive home!
Hi jeanne, I'm certainly paying attention to the way you eat them ;-) I think D feels as if she is the only one who really appreciates them....or I need to be quicker.
Hi ellie, better hurry up before all the good varities are gone.
$5 a kilo at the Farmer's Market in Canberra last weekend; $7 the week before that.
The rest of the week you can buy them from the growers at the side of the road.
And the stone fruit from Araluen's pretty spectacular, too.
Hi zoe, aaaargh, but at least I don't have to put up with the pollies! The orchard where I go sells some varities for $8 kg but there is the drive to get there.
Yes, I did run into Tony Abbott in a cafe one day, which was upsetting.
Two varieties this week, big fat red ones from $6, and little sweet black ones for $3. It's embarrassing how many cherries you can eat when they cost $3.
Hi zoe, you're killing me, I mean really killing me. If I told my wife, she would be up there like a shot!
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