topic Re: Lettuce prices in Kitchen

Lettuce prices

MOMMAVik — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 23:29:53 GMT

$3.69 lb. at my neighborhood Piggly Wiggly this afternoon! Just bought some at same store 2 days ago for $1.29 lb.Like to have salad daily & put some on sandwiches. Oh well, another sign of the times I guess!

Re: Lettuce prices

fthunt — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 23:44:46 GMT

Something is strange - been to Wegmen's twice and only lettuce there was iceberg. I love Boston Lettuce - almost a year missing - no Romain of any kind.

Eating iceberg but not #1 choice.

Haven't heard any thing in the news - perhaps I missed the day W's had it.

Edit to add: bare shelves in the can tomatoes also at Wegman's. Wanted stewed and whole - plenty of Hunts sauce - didn't buy.

Re: Lettuce prices

SusieQ_2 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 23:55:11 GMT

That's interesting, I've never seen lettuce sold by the pound other than the Whole Foods salad bar which is closed for now. I like to have a salad most days too. Right now these are my two favorites.

For sandwiches I used the bagged organic romaine.

Re: Lettuce prices

MOMMAVik — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 23:55:50 GMT

There was all varieties of lettuce at Piggly Wiggly, romaine, green leaf, red leaf all for $3.69 lb. Some heads of iceberg for $2.69 a head. Boston lettuce was even higher.

Re: Lettuce prices

Mindy D — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 23:59:27 GMT

@fthunt wrote:
Something is strange - been to Wegmen's twice and only lettuce there was iceberg. I love Boston Lettuce - almost a year missing - no Romain of any kind.
Eating iceberg but not #1 choice.
Haven't heard any thing in the news - perhaps I missed the day W's had it.

Edit to add: bare shelves in the can tomatoes also at Wegman's. Wanted stewed and whole - plenty of Hunts sauce - didn't buy.

@fthunt @I tried to order from, I think it was Amazon Fresh, a few days ago,and I found just the opposite...there were no iceberg heads availble, only shredded iceberg in a bag. The heads might be back by now, but I'm so spoiled. Before the pandemic I could almost always get what I want.

Re: Lettuce prices

SharkE — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:02:05 GMT

never eat.

Re: Lettuce prices

RedTop — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:09:09 GMT

The humans here rarely eat lettuce, but the guinea pigs can put away the leaf lettuce.

Re: Lettuce prices

Mellyg — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:09:15 GMT

I make salads daily, but haven't come across a shortage yet. I wonder if it could be weather related (fires in California?). I just bought some the other day, and fortunately I didn't notice a price increase.

Re: Lettuce prices

ScrapHappy — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:14:46 GMT

It's about $1.50 here. On sale it's 99 cents. No shortage that I can see in my area. Four years ago, when I lived in California, we were paying almost $4 for iceberg lettuce. And it was grown in the fields across the street where we used to live. The motto was that "we lived in the salad bowl of the country."

Re: Lettuce prices

Reconnaissant — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:55:46 GMT

FRESNO, Calif. (KGPE) — A lettuce shortage is happening up in northern California and you might notice it the next time you visit any fast-food or restaurant. The reason behind it? Those our sister station KGPE spoke with in Salinas, where the crop comes from this time of year, says the unseasonably warm weather has impacted the crop.

They also say a virus is attacking it. Right now some places like Wendy’s are not putting lettuce on burgers or sandwiches.

A sign posted outside the drive-thru says it’s unavailable due to weather-related incidents and wildfires.

“I’m not surprised, I mean it makes sense, I feel bad for the farmers and the restaurants,” said Lindsay Bloom, a Clovis resident.

Christopher Valadez, President of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, says multiple days of extreme heat caused stress on the lettuce crops in Monterey County.

“Which could of lead to the weakening of the plant, lots of certain plants were unable to withstand the heat for a prolonged period of time,” he said.

That’s not the only issue, Valadez says late August-early September, ash from the wildfires made its way onto the crop. But he says crews were able to tear off the outer layer of the crops and give it a good rinse, though there was damage done.

One major concern has been a lettuce virus called Impatiens Necrotic Spot Virus, otherwise known as INSV.

“It’s a disease of lettuce that affects the production of lettuce here on the Central Coast and I’m referring to lettuce grown from Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito,” Valadez said.

Church Brothers Farms in Salinas says the virus is spread by certain bugs. They say it leaves spots on the product.

They hope the problem will soon take care of itself now that the lettuce season is winding down up north.

“We see this virus sticking around for another few weeks, at least until we finish Salinas, with iceberg lettuce we transition to Huron in about two to three weeks 100%, and then we’ll be in the desert in about four or five weeks,” said Josh Ruiz, Vice President of ag ops for Church Brothers Farms.

Valadez says they are working on creating a task force to hopefully get ahead of this virus for the next season.

Re: Lettuce prices

Reconnaissant — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 01:03:09 GMT

FYI, some produce analysts are predicting cauliflower will be as much as $7 a head soon

Re: Lettuce prices

skatting44 — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 01:56:44 GMT

Thanks for FYI. The last heads of iceberg lettuce that I bought had lrge brown areas similiar to the photo that was posted here.

Re: Lettuce prices

santorini — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 03:11:03 GMT

“Which could of lead to the weakening of the plant, lots of certain plants were unable to withstand the heat for a prolonged period of time,” he said.

*************************

This came from a published article? Wow.

Re: Lettuce prices

sunshine45 — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 03:05:17 GMT

@Reconnaissant wrote:
FYI, some produce analysts are predicting cauliflower will be as much as $7 a head soon

oh that is fine by me......i cannot stand cauliflower! lol

Re: Lettuce prices

Sooner — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 03:30:05 GMT

@Reconnaissant wrote:
FYI, some produce analysts are predicting cauliflower will be as much as $7 a head soon

@Reconnaissant Mercifully that will have NO impact on me!

Re: Lettuce prices

Nightowlz — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 03:41:14 GMT

I just bought 2 heads iceberg on Thurs. for $3.18.

I have seen those brown spots on some that I passed on. Wondered what was wrong with it.

Re: Lettuce prices

PINKdogWOOD — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 12:28:54 GMT

Lettuce - so many types, so many types of packaging what to choose.

I will never buy romaine ever again. Too many dangers, way too many recalls. I just will not try this stuff again.

Greens in those shells - hate these things as many are so darn hard to get open after the seal is broken. However, this seems to be the go-to for many. Maybe this type of packaging is cheaper than plastic bags.

I try my best to buy locally grown and/or organic. I've discovered a somewhat local brand at my giant eagle from Medina OH yes in those shells but I LOVE their greens. They always mix it up, beautiful greens, lettuces, and NOW watercress/microgreens mixed in another shell. I started buying only one but we go through these too fast, now I buy two different ones. This brand is called (whatelse in this state of OH) Buckeye Mixed Greens.

Only in specialty stores do I see loose greens in bins sold by the pound. I'd never do this either. No telling how long the stuff has been out. I find this in Lucky's (the one and only still open these days, they started in CO, opened many across the country our's is the only one still open). Not to mention, how many people stuck their grubby hands in these bins. YUCK!

Aldi's has a shell always with 4 diff types of little heads of lettuces that we really enjoy too.

Never romaine, never iceberg (nothing but water, no nutritional value in this stuff, tons of better out there).

Re: Lettuce prices

PINKdogWOOD — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 12:25:12 GMT

@ScrapHappy Holy cow - $4 for iceberg???????????????????? This is higway robbery for cheap awful iceberg. We all can do way better than this.

If I'm paying $4 for lettuce it better be organic and a great variety in one package.

Prices here do not fluctuate with greens here that much, doesn't matter to me that much. I don't buy per price, I buy the best I can get, the brand that I love.

Re: Lettuce prices

ScrapHappy — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 15:02:27 GMT

@PINKdogWOOD wrote:
@ScrapHappy Holy cow - $4 for iceberg???????????????????? This is higway robbery for cheap awful iceberg. We all can do way better than this.

If I'm paying $4 for lettuce it better be organic and a great variety in one package.

Prices here do not fluctuate with greens here that much, doesn't matter to me that much. I don't buy per price, I buy the best I can get, the brand that I love.

Yep. I think it was made worse (for me) because of where I lived. Literally, growing it across the street. Farms everywhere. Places like Foxy, Fresh Express...all there. I now live in GA and find not only lettuce but other vegetables with the same name(s) and usually stamped with the city I used to live in on it for much, much less. Right before I moved, asparagus was $6! No kidding.

Re: Lettuce prices

Bridgegal — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 05:47:17 GMT

I only buy two types of lettuce. My favorite is a lettuce we ate when we lived in England and I managed to find two places that have it here. It's called 'Little Gem' and it is delicious. It looks like little tiny heads of romaine but the taste is a little different. Almost sweeter. They are tight little heads and the ones I get come in a little six pack from Green Giant. Our Market Street has them usually for $3.99 and a local upscale market close to our house has the exact same packages but they charge $5.99 which is down from their winter price of $6.99. Needless to say, I buy mine at Market Street, Albertsons. The other lettuce that I like is butter lettuce but MS was out of it early this week when I was there. I think a head of it was over $5.00 the last time I bought it. When did lettuce get so expensive????