Cauliflower was $5 for a very small gnarly head here this week. Didn't buy. It is DH's favorite raw veggie to crunch on, and we love it roasted using several different additions according to our mood like garlic, balsamic vinegar or spiced up with red pepper flakes.

It's probably also the time of year. Everything also seems so expensive in January after the Christmas sales are over. Everyone is broke and not shopping. The stores usually start raising prices then.

Yep, fresh, it's out of season. Hang in there. Frozen has a different texture, but you can get it at more reasonable prices.

Between the drought and the Cdn dollar it's the overall cost of food, adellabedella.

AH, the lesson about buying "in season" and preserving/freezing for out-of-season use. Can you opt for frozen at a lower cost? I also keep freeze-dried cauliflower and broccoli in our home food storage. They even work well for stir-fry.

I purchase very little produce in the winter because it's never fresh enough to have much left in it for nutrition after harvesting/shipping/warehousing/store shelves, plus the high cost. Try growing some broccoli sprouts in a jar and see if that helps you out. http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/the-nutrition-of-broccoli-sprouts.html   

I wanted some cauliflower last week but too expensive. Lower Cdn dollar plus the drought in California. I read in the news that fresh produce prices are going to get much higher and the price of cauliflower could reach at high as $8 in the coming months. I did buy a nice big head of broccoli for $1.99 the other day. I also have been buying the store brand frozen broccoli and cauliflower from Metro or Food Basics and the pieces are big and the bag is not filled with stems like the name brand bags are. I just might have to get a garden put in my backyard this year instead of growing my veggies in pots

Fortunately I'm not a big fan of cauliflower but have you checked the prices of peppers lately - wow!

I paid $2.99 for a head at Trader Joe's yesterday. Thinking of making soup, but it's good raw and crunchy too. You probably aren't paying what we are for gas, Jasdip. Sorry everything is getting so expensive for you.

Our gas is dropping, but it's not as low as it should be, since the barrel dropped to $30.35. The pumps are showing 91.5/litre which is $4.15 U.S.

I don't think the drought has had much effect on veggies like broccoli and cauliflower. Maybe this stuff is grown in the desert this time of the year but the season has ended along the Central coast and there have been no significant agricultural water shortages there. Yet.

It seems like every time I go to the grocery store, prices have gone up or pre-packaged content has been decreased for the same price. This is not limited to produce either. Gas prices have gone way down, so it can't be due to increased transportation costs. Our local paper had an article re. Citrus Greening Disease affecting citrus trees in California, Florida and Texas and potentially wiping out most of the citrus crop, so citrus prices might sky-rocket soon.

Cauliflower is a temperature sensitive crop. Last year it remained too warm over winter. This year warm spells were followed by cold spells. Couple that with an increase in demand, and you have expensive heads--and headaches. ;)

I am getting cauliflower in the CSA box this week....grown locally in rural Arroyo Grande. It is one of our favorite vegetables.

I roast cauliflower in the oven with Brussels sprouts, beets, etc or grill them outside ,and about eight weeks ago I got the biggest head I ever saw for $2.00 at Wegmans. Fast forward to today...$5 for one 1/4 the size.

When I was a girl in the '50's in central Illinois, fresh produce was quite limited in the winter. We ate frozen and canned fruits and vegetables for the most part. I could still buy fresh a few items--onions, garlic, potatoes, hard shelled squash, apples, oranges, tangerines, rutabagas, and iceberg lettuce. I have probably forgotten a few things, but that was mainly it. Everything was out of season and we had those fresh foods that save well on the shelf and in the warehouse storerooms. Today I live in southern California, and with the fantastic transportation system we now have, I eat berries this time of year along with so many other foods I never saw in winter. Some foods come from southern countries, and some come from the warm inland valleys of California and the southwest. I remember I had to buy the celery for our Thanksgiving turkey stuffing early in November or there would be none if I waited till close to that week. We are spoiled these days and expect to buy out of season produce any day of the year. But you pay for that in price and flavor and quality.

Here's an exerpt from our local paper....

Last year, fruits and veggies jumped in price between 9.1 and 10.1 per cent, according to an annual report by the Food Institute at the University of Guelph. The study predicts these foods will continue to increase above inflation this year, by up to 4.5 per cent for some items.

Sylvain Charlebois, the report's lead author, said for every U.S. cent the dollar drops, foods that are imported likely increase one per cent or more.

Adding another little tip..... In the winter when I want/need a small amount of fresh veggies that are out-of-season and/or high-priced, I'll get them from the salad bar at the grocery store. Need 1/4 c. of bell peppers for a recipe but don't want the shock of buying a whole pepper - use the salad bar. It's also an inexpensive way to find toppings for a made-at-home pizza without having a crisper drawer full of things that are going to die of loneliness before you get them consumed. Great for people cooking for one or two.

I'm thrilled today!!! I just received a ad in the mail and a store is advertising a dozen eggs for 99-cents (WOO HOO) - a stock-up price for SURE! They are $2.57 @ Dillons and $1.59 @ Aldi. And I just read an article that consuming 4 eggs each week helps reduce the chance of getting diabetes by 37% (or something like that).... Remember when they were going to kill us due to cholesterol? (LOL) I love eggs and they are now back on the list of "cheap eats" at 99-cents a dozen.

I've had the same food budget ($125/month for two adults) for 9-years, so I know all about prices going up (and how they rarely go down). I notice the price-changes of EVERYTHING - I track them in my PRICE BOOK. I know when to expect seasonal stock-up prices on items - and take advantage of it.

I was looking at the cucumbers at the store the other day and thinking, was it just a few months ago I was giving away produce (especially all those cucumbers) from the garden???? Now I have to take out a loan to buy a nice English cucumber. ;-)

-Grainlady

Cauliflower and brussel sprouts are cool weather crops. Plants are planted mid July (here on Long Island) so the plant will mature in October. Usually the temps are in the forties or less at that time. The whole Northeast had temps 20 degress or more warmer this year. The cauliflower gets the leaves pulled up and tied to cover the flower and allow it to turn the nice white we see . The very warm weather interfered with the process. The plants rotted . Probably will be paying $5-6 till next Fall. The farmers took a big financial hit from production drop.

That maybe explains why our Brussels sprouts were a dud this year. Hot weather!

White? We seem to have purple, magenta and orange...

Plllog, you don't have white cauliflower??? I like cauliflower to be snowy white with green leaves.

We do have white in general. Most stores here have cauliflower most of the time and much of it white (I hate the sulphur smell, which lingers in the house, so I don't make it often). Oh, and there's green too. Some is broccaflower, but there's also green cauliflower. At the store I shop at most frequently, however, they often have the colored kind and no white. It might be a seasonal thing, but I'd guess that people just really like the colors. :)

Jasdip-up here we have either Independant, Foodland,or No Frills to shop "locally",otherwise,its a drive to Peterborough or Belleville.

I priced cucumbers at the Ind. a week ago-2/$6.00!!!!!!!!

Cauliflower and broccoli in the presidents choice bags frozen runs about 3.97/bag,and is not all stems and leaves-actually,I am quite impressed and have found using them in my soups,stir frys,casseroles and stews is working out just fine.

Foodland cauliflower was @$8.00 here last week.....try eating what ppl consider healthy at those prices.In Blvl last week,I managed to get a carton of tiny tomatoes,2 cukes and a heavy head of lettuce for $7.71 @ the Walmart there.Prices up here have gone totally crazy...try the "basics" or no frills stores for frozen for now.

Since the U.S. and Canada, with all our cultural, territorial and economic similarities have such fluctuation in our relative currencies, it's amazing that the Euro has held on for so long. That's wishful thinking, for sure. :)

I checked on the delivery service website. They're touting cauliflower as "in season" and show Whole Foods regular white cauliflower at $2.99/lb., organic at $6.30, and name brand agribusiness at $4.83. Frozen organic is $1.99. Ralphs (Kroger chain subsidiary) shows white at $2.09 and green at $2.49 and frozen (not organic) florets at $1.72. An upscale, local chain has white for $3.99/lb. and frozen florets for $4.78. The catering supply store has white for $2.99/lb. and Costco has packaged fresh florets for $2.35/lb.

OTOH, a sad little house in a so-so neighborhood will set you back really big bucks...

Plog, if you take that $2-$3 per pound of cauliflower and multiply it by the several pounds any given one weighs, you get a price as others have been talking about.

A large factor for the drop of the Canadian dollar (and resulting higher prices for food bought from the US) is the decline of the energy industry and energy prices in the past few years. Canada has significant energy resources spread over its large land area and a relatively small population for local consumption but as with other energy exporters, revenue and profits have plummeted, This puts their currency in less demand which causes its value to drop.

I think the cultural and economic differences between the US and Canada are significant and greatly underestimated. Especially by Canadians. In contrast, most Americans have little contact with the northern neighbor and (as with other foreign countries) know little about it and have little curiosity to know more.

LOL Casey.

It's funny, on the Canadian national morning news there was a segment on our grocery prices. The first question the interviewer asked was about Cauliflower! Too funny.

I learned that even though we grow a ton of wheat, there are no processing plants in Canada, so our pasta, flour etc are bought with the U.S. dollar. As I mentioned earlier, it's far beyond seasonal products, it's our low loonie.

Manufacturing plants are closing, with nothing replacing it. Heinz ketcup, Kellogg's etc.

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My grocery store doesn't have cauliflower, they have a sign up saying it's because of the drought in California. At my sister's grocery store cauliflower was $12.99 a head the other day, this week it's "down" to $9.99 a head!!!!!

I gotta say, sounds like there should be a lot of people building greenhouses and cold frames up there. Broccoli and cauliflower are just not that hard to grow in wintertime.

If it is just the exchange rate, then there's good money in locally producing the product. Are Canadian energy prices reasonable?

Well look what I found this morning! I went to a grocery store I don't normally go to and saw this! They were big heads too. I only bought one since Joe doesn't like cauliflower. I'll roast some for supper with some other veggies.

Wow, good price. Enjoy!

Great score, Casey!!! Zehrs (Loblaws) has large ones for $5 this week. I might have to break down and buy one. Is that Superstore, Casey?

Canada has major energy sources, read "oil", and a major portion of it of the kind that needs major processing, thus raw price is low and we have suffered from having only one potential market for much of it, located as it is far inland ... and when the U.S. buyers knew that they had no competition, were unwilling to pay usual market price. It's sourced in three of our ten provinces.

We also produce a number of other resources, most of them mined, and the prices of copper, zinc, gold, nickel, etc. have been in the toilet for a while ... and by the looks of things, China's large recent market is in trouble, as well, so doubt that there'll be improvement for a while. We also produce various qualities of coal, and much of that is in disfavour due to it being such a polluter - the province in which Jasdip, ont gal, cherry fizz, dances in garden, eccentric and some others of us live shut down their last coal-fired electrical generators a while ago.

Remember when they said that, with the machines producing so much more of the stuff, that we'd be working two days a week and have five in which we could have glorious fun?

Did you ever hear any of the enthusiasts mention that, working two days week ... we'd be paid for only two days a week? How to live on that, unless in a cave?

ole joyful

Well, that's exactly what a decent sized segment of the under-30's is doing! Maybe not a cave, per se, because there aren't enough of those to go around, but self made huts/yurts/trailers, etc., as off grid as they can stand, on a little plot of land where they grow their own food. It's subsistence living, for sure, but they prefer it to working harder for meager wages. If they're going to live meager, they want it to be their own meager. :)

It has been tough to grow this year in Central Texas because of the uneven temperatures. I've has the same issue with my broccoli and cabbage. These are usually easy to grow crops.

We rarely have the sustained even cold temps necessary to grow brussels, but I usually try anyway. Hope springs eternal in my garden.

Jasdip, it's Dominion, same as Loblaws or Superstore I think.

Your picture looked like it was SS so I looked at our flyer and it's not on sale. I was so hoping it was!

"Canada has major energy sources, read "oil", and a major portion of it of the kind that needs major processing, thus raw price is low"

As described in the linked article, oil from Canada's oil sands (one of its major sources) is one of the most expensive types of crude oil in the world. It's because the raw material needs to be heated for the oil to be extracted. The article mentions that with low level of global crude prices, some Canadian-produced oil from sand deposits can't be sold profitably because of how high production costs are. Producing oil from this sand is also environmentally very damaging. THAT'S one of the reasons why Candadian oil exports and the value of its currency are down (and local prices higher) as I had mentioned at a higher level in my early post.

Canadian oil sand problems