Green Bell Peppers $1.69!!!

[CathyA]

NEVER have they been this expensive. I needed one for chili and bought one for $1.39. To be honest, I didn't even notice the price, since I really needed it. Well, I decided to double the recipe and freeze some and went to 2 different stores for a second pepper.......both were selling them for $1.69! Wow.

[kally]

oh I thought this was a thread exclaiming how cheaply you found them. That is a normal price for around here and has been for a while.

[Gina]

Peppers (and chiles) are one of the things you can freeze without blanching - just cut them up and bag them. Of course when thawed they won't have the same fresh texture, but they are fine for cooking. When you have extras from the garden, or cheaper store ones in summer, it's something to consider. I've still got several sandwich bags of red chiles frozen - just sprinkle out how much you need. Last year was the first year I did that on a large scale, and will again this summer.

Of course I remember 'the old days' when out of season produce simply wasn't found in stores. I remember my mom buying tubes of still greenish tomatoes and then having to wait for them to turn red. Horrid, tasteless things.

[earthshepherd]

I saw red bell peppers for sale for $2.49 here not long ago. So glad I grow my own! I still have plenty in the freezer. I dice peppers and onions and freeze them for using in my recipes all year long. I do love the taste of a fresh pepper any color though. Can't wait till they are in season again.

[Zzz]

I'd just go without!

Of course, that price might not seem quite so high if you consider the price of producing them, and all the hand-labor that goes into growing them, packing them, etc.

[treehugger]

oh I thought this was a thread exclaiming how cheaply you found them. That is a normal price for around here and has been for a while.

Ditto that. But also, I simply don't buy them any more, unless they are on a good sale. These days, I choose which produce to buy by the price per pound and make my menu plans around that.

[CathyA]

The only thing I buy the green peppers for is chili. It just doesn't taste the same without it. Then in summer, I have them coming out the wazoo. (But then who wants to use a green pepper that just came out of the wazoo).:laff:

I know people have mentioned the high cost of groceries for awhile, but I guess I'm just starting to notice it. Meat (especially red meat) is out of sight. I can't believe that people would actually buy ribeyes at $10-12/lb. I used to occasionally buy whole ribeyes for $2.99/lb. I guess those days are over.

[Glo]

At Aldis green peppers are 2/1.49.

[KayLR]

Wow, where do your peppers come from? I've been getting them as low as .69 each here for a while.

[jennipurrr]

We have pretty cheap peppers here too. But, its so weird to me that the red, orange and yellow ones are so much more expensive than the green ones. I don't get it.

[pinkytoe]

I haven't bought a green bp in a long time but that sounds high. Red bell peppers were .67 today which was cheaper than usual.

[Miss Cellane]

At the supermarket today, green bell peppers were $1.99. The red ones were $3.49 and the yellow and orange ones were $3.99. You could also buy a buy of about 5 green peppers for $3.99. Now that I know you can freeze them, I might try the bag of peppers next time.

[CathyA]

The red, orange, and yellow peppers around here are usually $2.50 each.
Jenni......they cost more because they take a month or 2 longer to ripen. So all that time, they need to be watched and taken care of, watered, etc. So it costs more to grow them. Green peppers are essentially unripe peppers.

[Tiam]

Today when I went to the store, there was a sign hanging in the produce aisle explaining that there has been a severe arctic freeze in many produce regions. Iceberg lettuce was two something a head. Not that I buy that, but romaine was a dollar a head and quite small. The peppers were high. Cucumbers were a dollar and ten cents EACH. The prices were lower a week ago, so perhaps that is it.
High prices everywhere. Pretty much finding anything, produce or grocery under two dollars or one dollar, respectively is getting quite difficult.

[loosechickens]

One reason the red peppers are more expensive is they are RIPE, which takes longer. If peppers can be picked green, they can be gotten to market earlier, with less time elapsed since they were planted, less water, less chance for insect damage, less in labor costs, etc. To leave them on the plant until they are ripe and turn red takes more time, gives more opportunity for something to go wrong, adverse weather to occur, requires more labor because growing period is longer, etc.

Peppers, green, red or any color in between is something we try to never buy unless they are organic, which means that we don't often have fresh peppers.......although we do, in season, often buy peppers when the price is good, and freeze, so at least we have them for cooking.

Weather has been horrible this winter and early spring, in much of the country, and many areas that grow winter warm weather crops have experienced freezes, etc. Produce of many kinds is not only expensive but in short supply in some areas. When we were in Yuma this winter, we saw whole big fields of lettuce and other crops that were ruined by cold weather almost at harvest time.

With the wilder swings of weather, both cold and hot, changing patterns of precipitation, etc., that will accompany global climate change, we'd better get used to this, because it's likely to get a lot worse in coming years, not better, IMHO.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I have been amazed lately at how expensive food seems to be getting here in Phoenix, though I think I have been spoiled here for some time. Phoenix is one of the most competitive grocery markets in the country, so I understand, is not far from Mexico, so no great distance to truck in winter produce, and Phoenix has a lot of Hispanic grocery stores that I love to shop at as they have consistently cheap prices, at least until recently. Case in point, I am used to tomatoes being 3 lbs for .99 often, now they are 1.59/lb, ouch!!!! I am used to tomatillos being 3 lbs. for .99, now they are .99/lb. Ouch!!!!! And this is at the Hispanic market, I tremble to think of what they would cost at Safeway! So.....I guess my days of being spoiled are over whether I like it or not.....Why don't we all start a simple-living cookbook, delicious recipes on a shoestring kind of thing? Make some fun out of an unpleasant situation? Rob

[mm1970]

They're expensive because they're not in season. I know we can buy anything at any time we want...not apple season in WA or NY? Chile and New Zealand have got you covered.

Anyway, I live in So. Cal, and it's the season of kale, chard, collards, cabbage, turnips, carrots, oranges. green garlic, radishes, spinach and lettuce. Not bell peppers. Can't speak for the weather in Mexico, or wherever they are coming from right now. They were their normal price at Trader Joe's this week.

I buy produce at the local produce shop sometimes (to round out the CSA/farmer's market). Some of it is local, some of it is shipped in, but I am always surprised at the wide price fluctuations. Onions can vary by 2x in the space of a week, as can broccoli, peppers, apples...gotta be due to supply issues.

[CathyA]

I've been thinking about what we could eat, if we had to just eat locally (especially in winter), and I'm afraid we'd starve to death. (Unless we figured out how to kill rabbits, deer, etc.). But there'd be no fruits or veggies, for sure.
I guess we're REALLY spoiled!
At least we're eating the butternut squash and tomatoes that we grew and froze last summer.
I figured the high pepper prices were from bad weather. Sure would be great to have a big greenhouse through the winter.

[loosechickens]

now we know, CathyA, why our ancestors were so delighted to see those first dandelion greens, the first shoots of the rhubarb plant, because people used to eat in season, and where winters were long, the only vegetables they could eat in the winter were the "long keepers" like winter squash, potatoes, carrots, and other long storage veggies. The advent of home canning made a difference, but the way we are, where we expect to go into the grocery store any time and find exactly what fruit or vegetable we happen to want to eat is something that will probably change with changing climate patterns, more stress on the growing environment from that and rising population, etc. We'd probably better get used to it, because I don't think it's going to change. And as energy becomes more and more expensive, rising transportation costs will mean that the days of cheap food from far away are numbered.

[Gina]

With the price of oil very high, get ready for higher prices in general. The cost of fertilizers will be going up too, as well as transportation costs. The cold and all the rain this year will negatively affect crops too - and with climate change (regardless of the cause) this likely will only get worse. I'd guess over the years we will drift back to the days of less choice of fresh produce in the grocery stores during the off season. We've had it very good for a long time.

It's a good time to plant a garden, and preserving what we grow. :)