A dollar a bag
A couple of weeks ago Judith Klinger of Aroma Cucina asked what $10 would buy in the way of fruits and vegetables in her readers’ local markets.
Here’s what I got from the ladies seated in front of the Alhondiga in Guanajuato yesterday. This is not a place for bargaining. The plastic bag makes it easy to offer items bundled up in MN$10 units (US$1). Here’s $7.50-worth.
Clockwise from left to right. Apples from Santa Rosa, ten miles away and nearly 10,000 feet up making it possible to grow such produce. Small, tart, and the only apples worth buying here IMHO. Pears ditto. Litte crillo avocados which you can eat skin and all (the regular avocados are expensive and watery right now). Green beans. Calabazas which are sweet and delicious. And in the center, figs.
A big bunch of verdolagas (purslane) that broke the $1 a unit rule, coming in at 60 centavos (60 cents). And a plastic bag of huitalacoche (corn fungus) too messy to unwrap.
Free livestock.
Pretty good haul for $7.50, especially considering the variety. I didn’t know purslane was commonly used in Mexico (nor did I know the name verdolagas, but now I do!). I learned to love purslane (glystrida) in Greece. I so wish I could get huitlacoche here; I’ve never had it,but then I’ve never had a fungus I didn’t like, so I’m keen to try it.
I don’t really need the livestock. :-)
If I went to the grocery store here in southwestern Virginia and just bought “whatever” from the produce aisles (local or not) I’d end up with about half that amount of stuff for the same dollar amount. If I went to the farmer’s market and bought local stuff I’d end up with about one quarter to one third of the amount of stuff for the same dollar amount. :(
Yes Karen and Lulu, I think it’s pretty good specially given that if some items (verdolagas and calabazas) are everyday cheap items here, others (huitalacoche and figs) are pricey.
Lulu, I have to say that huitalacoche does not excite me. It’s often described as having an inky black taste (???) but I find all kinds of other mushrooms much tastier. I would never turn it down and do cook it from time to time. Maybe my taste buds are deficient but I think a lot of its popularity has to do with novelty value.
Nice Haul! equiv. of $10.00 here in Burundi would buy, in the central market of Bujumbura:
Sweet Potatoes – 4 kg. [roasted or boiled]
Plantains
Rice – 2 kg.
Cabbage – 5 lg.
Amaranthus – 10 bunches [cooked as veggie]
Maize meal – 3kg. [made into pate]
Manioc – 3 kg. [made into pae
Manioc leaves – 4 bunches [pounded & cooked, as veggie]
OOps – pushed to ‘go’ button too early; should add:
Plantains – 10 lg. [made into stew with greens]
This would be the food basket of a ‘middle class’ Burundian family of 4 or 6 for a week. Pretty expensive, when considering that the family head will be bringing in about $60.00 a month.
So, lots of families/people just eat a lot of pate with a little veg. sauce and roasted sweet potatoes. Usually, only one meal a day. Increasing food prices of late thus mean that many families do not go hungry, but they are increasingly sufferning from poor nutrition and / or under-nutrition.