I always have chickpeas on hand. A week without hummus is just a mistake.

One day a can of spam was the highlight of my day. On a cross Sierra hiking trip from Mammoth to Yosemite valley, we came to the Merced High camp. We bought some chocolate and a tin of spam. The chocolate was M&M's but tasted incredible. But that soon paled by comparison when we opened that tin right beside a river and cooked up the spam in slices. The mouth feel was incredible, the first animal fat we had in a week. I will never stand by and let others bad mouth Spam unchecked after that experience. I wonder if Spam might be god?

(January 3, 2016 at 6:39 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: I wonder if Spam might be god?

It would explain a lot. I will tithe to the Church of Spam from now on.

Build it and they will come.

(January 3, 2016 at 12:35 am)Kitan Wrote: Of course, America has become such a lazy country that convenience can no longer be an excuse. Tin is just convenience turned lazy.

It's always easy for someone to say "lazy" when they're not shoehorned into situations that require them to work a job with a 45 minute one-way commute to pay for their families.

(January 3, 2016 at 3:30 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Farmer's markets often have great deals, as do dollar stores which sell groceries. Of course, you have to live with blemishes.

Blemishes aren't bad. The Farmer's Markets just often aren't convenient. And then too, my grandmother lived in a house where she could grow a ton of tomatoes, but then she could can them and store them.

I don't have storage in my apartment to do that. So you know, I don't mind buying 'cheap' canned food.

I'm grateful for places like Trader Joe's which sell cheaper fresh veggies. But not everyone has those places.



Until you grow your own food and try to store it, or live in poverty level conditions, don't fucking bitch about how people eat. It literally makes me want to shove a "check your privilege" in your face. I had to learn the hard way.

(January 3, 2016 at 1:34 am)Brakeman Wrote:

(January 2, 2016 at 11:44 pm)Aractus Wrote: Tinned food isn't cheaper. If you're on a tight budget you're better off buying the cheap veggies likes carrot that can be had for $1-2/kg year-round, and of course rice. Pumpkin can be readily had for around $2.50/kg for much of the year as well (as it is right now as it happens):
..
If it did come in a tin it'd be very unlikely to be cheaper than (or even the same as) the fresh price.

Wow Australians are so out of touch!
Fresh produce is restricted by area, yet canned goods can come from anywhere in the world. Generally speaking for the continental US, it is not true that fresh is cheaper or often comparably priced. Pumpkins in fresh produce in stores are only sold if they are picture quality and that makes them expensive, but factory farms aren't picky and cut away all the good flesh of basically any pumpkin that isn't rotten and cans only the edible flesh and none of the skin and seeds. Here in South Carolina a pumpkin pie made from fresh pumpkin today in January would cost 3 - 4 times more than a canned version. It's not even close.

Well if that's the case then explain why the price of this tinned pumpkin is USD 3.29/lb or USD 7.26/KG. That's AUD 9.93/kg (or $20 for a single butternut pumpkin). That's about twice what you would expect to pay for fresh pumpkin here in Australia. You expect to pay about $2.00-5.00/kg, depending on the time of year etc. And it's five times as much as the minimum you'd expect to pay ($2/kg). And the cost of food in the USA is, by all accounts, cheaper than it is here - so if anything it should be cheaper than what we would pay. Pumpkins are native to America, so I have no idea what justifies the huge cost of that can.

I don't believe for a second that fresh pumpkin would cost the equivalent of close to $30-40 per kilo this time of year (out of season) in the USA.

(January 3, 2016 at 3:43 pm)Mermaid Wrote: that's butternut squash. When you buy canned pumpkin, this is what you get:

Pumpkins are a type of squash. They're domesticated from the same plant, thus all pumpkins are squashes but not all squashes are pumpkins. Like all cattle are mammals. But we tend to use the more specific term when talking about food - ie this is cow meat (or beef) this is lamb meat, etc, instead of just labelling it "mammal meat" which could mean anything. Yes Butternut is a specific pumpkin, so 'Butternut pumpkin' and 'Butternut squash' will mean the same thing, but to me the phrase "Butternut squash" sounds as silly as "Wagyu mammal". In any case, it doesn't cost any more than Kent or Jarrahdale, so whatever pumpkin you want are usually similarly priced.

(January 3, 2016 at 11:38 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: Blemishes aren't bad. The Farmer's Markets just often aren't convenient. And then too, my grandmother lived in a house where she could grow a ton of tomatoes, but then she could can them and store them.

I don't have storage in my apartment to do that. So you know, I don't mind buying 'cheap' canned food.

I'm grateful for places like Trader Joe's which sell cheaper fresh veggies. But not everyone has those places.



Until you grow your own food and try to store it, or live in poverty level conditions, don't fucking bitch about how people eat. It literally makes me want to shove a "check your privilege" in your face. I had to learn the hard way.

Oh, I'm not bitching. I don't look down on folks who don't share my diet, I'm just pointing out that some of the objections aren't really objections in many cases. If your case is one where they are, you still have to eat, and far be it for me to look over your shoulder.

I've got some experience with poverty as an adult. In one instance, because I lived not too far from a 99-cent store, I was still able to keep fresh vegetables in our diet. I understand that isn't the case everywhere, especially in so-called "food deserts" -- inner-city slums with no proper food market for miles.

(January 4, 2016 at 2:18 am)Aractus Wrote:

(January 3, 2016 at 1:34 am)Brakeman Wrote: Wow Australians are so out of touch!
Fresh produce is restricted by area, yet canned goods can come from anywhere in the world. Generally speaking for the continental US, it is not true that fresh is cheaper or often comparably priced. Pumpkins in fresh produce in stores are only sold if they are picture quality and that makes them expensive, but factory farms aren't picky and cut away all the good flesh of basically any pumpkin that isn't rotten and cans only the edible flesh and none of the skin and seeds. Here in South Carolina a pumpkin pie made from fresh pumpkin today in January would cost 3 - 4 times more than a canned version. It's not even close.

Well if that's the case then explain why the price of this tinned pumpkin is USD 3.29/lb or USD 7.26/KG. That's AUD 9.93/kg (or $20 for a single butternut pumpkin). That's about twice what you would expect to pay for fresh pumpkin here in Australia. You expect to pay about $2.00-5.00/kg, depending on the time of year etc. And it's five times as much as the minimum you'd expect to pay ($2/kg). And the cost of food in the USA is, by all accounts, cheaper than it is here - so if anything it should be cheaper than what we would pay. Pumpkins are native to America, so I have no idea what justifies the huge cost of that can.

I don't believe for a second that fresh pumpkin would cost the equivalent of close to $30-40 per kilo this time of year (out of season) in the USA.

(January 3, 2016 at 3:43 pm)Mermaid Wrote: that's butternut squash. When you buy canned pumpkin, this is what you get:

Pumpkins are a type of squash. They're domesticated from the same plant, thus all pumpkins are squashes but not all squashes are pumpkins. Like all cattle are mammals. But we tend to use the more specific term when talking about food - ie this is cow meat (or beef) this is lamb meat, etc, instead of just labelling it "mammal meat" which could mean anything. Yes Butternut is a specific pumpkin, so 'Butternut pumpkin' and 'Butternut squash' will mean the same thing, but to me the phrase "Butternut squash" sounds as silly as "Wagyu mammal". In any case, it doesn't cost any more than Kent or Jarrahdale, so whatever pumpkin you want are usually similarly priced.

But....pumpkins are a type of squash. Butternut squash is also a type of squash. It is not a type of pumpkin...

The top half was exhausting to read. Canned food is way cheaper than fresh in America period. I don't know where you're getting $30-40 per kilo of canned pumpkin but it sounds like crazy talk.

(January 4, 2016 at 2:54 am)Losty Wrote: It is not a type of pumpkin...

By that reasoning, Calabaze is a type of squash and not a pumpkin.

Everyone else knows that Butternut and Calabaze are types of squash also described as pumpkin.

When I go into woolies I don't expect to see Tomatoes labelled as "big red berries" and Bananas labelled as "long yellow berries". I don't expect to see "white cabbage" instead of "cauliflower", nor do I expect to see "green cauliflower" instead of "broccoli".  Butternut, Calabaze, Kent, and every other type of pumpkin is a part of the squash family, just like cauliflower and broccoli are part of the cabbage family, and tomatoes, bananas, and for that matter pumpkins as well are berries.

Quote:The top half was exhausting to read. Canned food is way cheaper than fresh in America period. I don't know where you're getting $30-40 per kilo of canned pumpkin but it sounds like crazy talk.

The canned stuff I linked to costs AU$10/kg (USD 2.98/29Oz = USD 3.29/lb = USD 7.26/KG = AUD 9.93/kg). Pumpkin in Australia costs $2-5, generally, a kilo. Explain to me how the tinned stuff is cheaper - because the maths just doesn't add up. At $2-5 a kilo, the 29Oz tin should cost between USD 0.59 - 1.48. And if it were to be just 3x cheaper than fresh (as claimed by Brakeman who said tinned veggies cost 3-4 times less than fresh) then it should cost no more than USD 0.49. But the can costs SIX TIMES that amount.

My point was that he claimed that canned food is 3-4 times cheaper than fresh. Since this can costs AUD 9.93/kg (close enough to 10/kg), that would mean fresh pumpkin would sell for between AUD 30-40 a kilo. Or, if you prefer, between USD 9.87 - 13.16 /lb.

I think it's just a difference in the way language is used?
"Everyone else knows that Butternut and Calabaze are types of squash also described as pumpkin." Butternut and Calabaze are squash but they're not pumpkins.
All pumpkins are squash. All squash are not pumpkins.

You are right that fresh is not 3-4 times the price of canned.