[AGL] Re: [FedUp] A couple of items for the grocery discussion...

[Wayne Johnson]

Whatever happened to the Food Co-op on North Guadalup, some blocks north of UT/Dirty Martin's?

Whole Foods is DeLuxe Yuppie Foode Ville in Palo Alto, CA.  The Berkeley Coop was much the cheaper.  There were, of course, people like Delmonicos in the Stanford Shopping Center which was Ultra Gourmet Expensive but especially good if one just HAD to serve 24 different kinds of imported olives at one's Sunday Brunch!

JJ&F Market just south of Stanford Campus had great veggies because John or maybe Frank it was who went down to the produce morning at 4 am every day to pick 'em out.  

We shopped heavily at various local farmer's markets in the summer even if we spent as much money.  At least I could look into the eyes of the women and men who actually grew and picked most of the food.  Many small Italian and Armenian farmers still in the area there.  But you have to look hard to find them some times and all farmer's markets are NOT the same.  No way.

Some of the best sweet corn in the world was grown near Hutto and Granger north of Austin.  G'town had great pears, peachs and pecans.

wgJ
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Frances Morey 
  To: Jane Walker 
  Cc: Austin List 
  Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 11:20 AM
  Subject: [AGL] Re: [FedUp] A couple of items for the grocery discussion...


  Hi, Jane,
  I can credit you with the early-on info on Whole Foods...
  Write once in a while.
  Best,
  Frances

  Frances Morey <frances_morey at yahoo.com> wrote:
    One early-on employee told me that first-time-shoppers at WF would cruise the lanes and fill up their baskets as usual only to find that the total after check-out was as much as double what they were used to paying. On many occasions, she told me, such shoppers would turn away and leave their full grocery basket behind without paying, stunned from market shock.

    Whole Foods is more about conspicous consumption than anthing else. After all a tomato is a tomato is a tomato. What is the opposite of organic anyway, inorganic?
    Pesticides can be washed off. Who would find it more desirable to share the food supply with insects than wash their produce with soap and water? Often shoppers will turn up their noses at any evidence of insect bites which are inevitable without some form of an insecticide shield.

    The wealth in America is staggering, unprecidented in human history. Any venue for showing it off is embraced, even grocery shopping. I go to WF as I would to a restaurant and think of it as the biggest deli on earth. I'm glad to know that WF pays well, which not always reflects in employee attention to customers. I discontinued using Celestial Seasoning tea when I saw a mention in a business zine that bragged about their paying minimum wage.

    Thanks for turning us on to the Johnson Farm on Holly St. I saw it and thought it was some kind of community garden. I paid $4.50 last Wednesday for their smallest brownie and two little turnips at Boggy Creek Farm, paying for the the chance to see their chickens, old timey garden and hob nobbing more than for the food. The boquet of snapdragons cost as much as a similar sized boquet of roses at HEB. 

    I preferred Trader Toms (or something like that) when I was in San Francisco. It was kinda like a chain of Wheatsville Co-ops with even more reasonable pricing. Before Alamo Drafthouse South captured the old Fiesta, nee City Market, location on S. Lamar I envisioned a Tom's as a kick ass competitor to both WF, Central Market and Wheatsville. Ah, no luck. They only operate on the West Coast and up East.

    Frances Morey


    Sherry Coldsmith <sherry at coldchrist.org> wrote:
      The first link is to an article that rags on Whole Foods.  The second 
      link may be of interest to Austinites who really do want to buy 
      locally.  I get my veg from Johnson's and the quality if superb.   Tho 
      you have some control over what they bring you in the weekly or 
      bi-weekly box, you'll also get some exotics, like kohlrabi, which will 
      require you to sharpen your culinary skills and look up a few recipes. 

      Sherry

      http://www.slate.com/id/2138176/

      http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M12509





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