This is going to be a bit disjointed as I had a glass too many of wine tonight. And rather than let radio silence reign, I’m going to post anyway. My apologies in advance…
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I’m sorry, but I’m calling disillusioned bullshit on the Farm Bureau’s announcement today that Thanksgiving for 10 people will cost $44.61 this year. They are obviously (see below) willing to see people eat crap to make that number work. You’d thing that the farm bureau would be more interested in the real cost of such food when bought from real farms and made with whole ingredients… But obviously I’m still too naive for the political side of eating locally…
The cost of a 16-pound turkey, at $19.09 or roughly $1.19 per pound, reflects an increase of 9 cents per pound, or a total of $1.46 per turkey compared to 2007. This is the largest contributor to the overall increase in the cost of the 2008 Thanksgiving dinner… Other items showing a price increase this year were: a 12-oz. package of brown-n-serve rolls, $2.20; a 12-oz. package of fresh cranberries, $2.46; a 30-oz. can of pumpkin pie mix, $2.34; two 9-inch pie shells, $2.26; a 14-oz. package of cubed bread stuffing, $2.57; a relish tray of carrots and celery, 82 cents; a half-pint of whipping cream, $1.70; a pound of green peas, $1.58; and three pounds of sweet potatoes, $3.12.
I’m only responsible for the turkey, pies and squash this year and they alone cost more than that… Thoughts? What are you spending on Thanksgiving?
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Twitter is one of those things you should only try if you’re willing to pick up yet another online addiction. We’ll see if I really have time for yet another online commitment…
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Two restaurants committed to local, organic, sustainable food have been tried since my arrival in Sacramento. Both are noteworthy, but reviews will have to wait until tomorrow.
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It seems that I should have had my food philosophy nailed down long ago. And I did, in my own mind. But I’ve never really liked the SOLE way of stating it, and Michael Pollan’s easy phrase seemed too simple. This one however, I can really get behind.
Blech!! I know people eat Thanksgiving dinner like that, but not me! Besides which, if you’re having -that- Thanksgiving, you also need canned yams, marshmallows, cool-whip instead of whipping cream, and some fried onions. And where in the world do you get a relish tray of celery and carrots for 82 cents?!?!
A “real” turkey alone costs more than that. Our local farmer is charging a flat-rate $40 for a heritage breed turkey, and I think that is a deal compared to store-bought organic.
Personally, I’m spending money on gas for Thanksgiving. We’re headed to my dad’s for a family holiday. I’d offer to bring something, but dad is already planning turkey, ham, and lamb, for starters, so I think I’ll probably just be helping with the eating part.
I’m still scared of Twitter but finally tried Facebook – but only because long-lost friends were coming out of the woodwork. It’s nice to be in touch more than twice a year, but it is a little overwhelming. Good luck!
Wine eh? lol. Wine makes the best of any bad situation.
Actually though, here would be my thanksgiving.
Turkeys, not bought, but raised ourselves (free range, so not a lot of cost there).
Pies: The shells are homemade so, flour, oil and salt.
Pumpkin: Home grown and canned, cost of the seed and electricity to can them.
Rolls: homemade.
Cranberry sauce, ok you got me there, I like mine homemade, but still have to buy them.
Potatoes, could be home grown, but aren’t. Butter is home made.
But, this is the life I Want to live, so the cost to produce all of this stuff by me, isn’t included. I agree with you, the only way they could get a dinner for 44.00 for that many people is if everything was home grown, home canned, home raised and the labor costs weren’t included.
Hmmm, now I’m hungry! Where’s my wine?
Terrye
Knitting Editor (and homesteader)
http://knitting.craftgossip.com
Hey, Twitter! What’s your username on there? I am colourandlight if you want to follow me.
I’m a bad one to ask. My turkey alone is going to cost more than $100, at $7.75 a pound for a heritage, organic (but not certified) bird hand-fed by our friend the salumi-maker. Even Diestel’s organic birds are $3.99 a pound.
I remember the days when you’d get a free bird (ha!) if you spent $100 at Safeway; they may still do that, I have no idea. But supermarket turkey was (and perhaps is still) so cheap that my mom used to buy an extra and jam it into the freezer for some meal down the road.
(Out of curiosity, I just looked at the Safeway ad online. They’re selling turkeys, with a Club Card, for $5.99. Each. Not per pound. That’s disgusting.)
Denise – I know! If you’re going to eat a “traditional” Thanksgiving you need ALL the processed trimmings. We’re eating the extra turkey from last year, and it alone cost more than they $44. Even using homegrown pretty much everything else there’s no way we could do it for their price.
Terrye – Your dinner sounds like just the kind I’d like. We’re trying to figure out if we can raise our own turkeys for next year, but I’m not sure we’ve got the space to designate.
Erin – I emailed you.
Anita – that’s disgusting. Not the cost of your turkey, the cost of the Safeway one. Last year I popped into the grocery by our old house for some extra whipping cream (organic, local) and while I was there they were marking the turkeys down to like $0.15 a pound. That can’t even cover the feed! Will your turkey taste more like salumi than poultry?
Nothing chaps my hide more than pre-processed Thanksgiving food. Isn’t Thanksgiving the ONE TIME most people actually cook from scratch (green bean casserole notwithstanding)? That is the whole point of the holiday, to appreciate food and the work it takes to make it.
As for that price, our turkey (fresh organic) alone costs $60 ($2.99/lb). Yes, I could gotten on much cheaper – though I was also tempted by the local Bourbon Red Heirloom turkey, but $5.29/lb was a lot even for me. But everything else is way cheaper – like Terrye mentioned above, flour, butter and salt is cheaper than pre-made pie crusts and brown n serve rolls. I am having 10 people for dinner, I will see how much it costs me.
I love that Hearth graphic – they should have it as a poster! I dig all the WWII food posters, like this one: flickr.com/photos/tikimama/2821442533/in/set-72157607073162488/
$44.61! That’s expensive. Scott and I had our whole Thanksgiving planned from the Longs mailer the other day. Canned cranberries, StoveTop stuffing, canned yams and boxed mashed potatoes were a $1 each! Without turkey we were looking at $4 for the entire meal. Now that’s a deal! Yummy.
kidding…you know that though, right?
Other than having to cook some vegetarian stuff for YoungSon’s girlfriend, this is going to be a typical “gee, what sounds tasty” holiday meal at our house. Which mean sI have no idea yet.
As far as a turkey, I think I have one on the way…. let’s see, 16lbs should run about $96. Sigh… it sure better taste good.
I feel ashamed to admit it, but we are buying a mass-produced frozen turkey this year…a 20 pounder to feed 18 of us. We wanted to buy a local free range organic turkey, but at over $3.00/lb, there was just no way this year. This is our first year ever hosting Thanksgiving (my first ever cooking a turkey, even), and thankfully everyone else is pitching in on the other dishes, but to do a fully local (especially organic) Thanksgiving will be something to strive for (next year) when we hopefully will come to our senses and not host both our full families.
I did point out that if we raised our own turkeys next year at least we’d be in control of the organic and free range part, and even if the bird really cost $60 or more to produce, at least that would be spread over the year and wouldn’t feel like such a blow.
This is crazy, but probably true for the average person….cause the average person eats crap!
I saw 20lb turkeys for $9.99 yesterday at Safeway. $9.99! What kind of disgusting conditions must exist for someone to raise a turkey for 4 months and still make money by selling it for less than $10?
I had to spend over $80.00 for our heritage turkey, because I had to special order it….it’s still within my 200 mile cap, but it wasn’t my first choice.
You just made me even more grateful for the fabulous Thanksgiving dinner ahead of me. Store-bought pie crusts? Cheap factory farm turkey? Bleh.
Try to actively Twitter for about a month. I thought it was really narcissistic at first, but I am totally hooked now. I love seeing what other gardeners are up to.
Yep, our turkey too will cost more than $44.61 … probably closer to $60 … but it’s worth it to us to use a local not-mass-produced bird.
My son’s English class is reading Fast Food Nation, so we talked about your (their) list of Thanksgiving foods. We thought it was interesting that 4 of the 9 items were processed foods. But oddly, given the list, we expected even more… The Farm bureau apparently expects the folks that cut bread to make stuffing to make fresh cranberry sauce instead of buying a can, and to whip cream instead of using Cool Whip. Yea, right!
Ack! I hit send and then immediately noticed a goof. I meant to write, “The Farm bureau apparently expects the folks that *won’t* cut bread…”
Sorry!
That is crap Laura, our birds cost a lot to raise like our chickens did, imagine feeding for at least double the weeks as your meat chicks. We raised the whites, and the poults were $2.50 each, a heritage breed poult will run around $7 – $8, then you have to feed them. For $44.00 you will get a lot of garbage food. But, the Foodday section of the Oregonian this week was filled with “quick and cheap recipes” -so thank goodness for people who are trying to eat better and support farmers, I worry about the rest…
I bet the ‘brown-&-serve’ rolls will taste great, too!
I am baking my own dinner rolls!
I would rather have better quality and less of it than a bunch of crappy food. (underline better and less) Good food taste better than a heaping plate of yuck–right?
This is my first trip to your blog (from Anita’s), and I just want to thank you for the link to the food philosophy. I’ll try to be more that way myself, now.
Beautiful work. Keep it up.
Heather – I know – the joy of this holiday is the time spent cooking with quality ingredients. I went and looked and our turkey was $70 (bought last year in a turkey mix-up). Love the vintage posters – maybe I just found the decorating solution for my kitchen!
Kendra – for just a moment I felt my blood pressure go up for you. Glad you were kidding!
Meadowlark – that’s how we do Christmas around here. As for your turkey, I assume it was a happy turkey for that price?
Amy – there’s really no shame in doing what you need to for your finances and situation. Enjoy the holiday! As for raising your own turkey – I’m pondering the same thing for next year.
NicoleRene – Anita emailed me and said her local safeway had turkeys for $6!?! I understand the loss-leader principle but still! Gross.
Renee – Twitter is already becoming an addiction.
Cindy – I agree, it’s a weird mix of expecting people to make from scratch and processed foods. I wonder which industry lobbyists influenced that list…
Throwback – what did your turkeys cost you to raise in the end? I’m thinking about raising a couple next year but I’m concerned if I have the space. Don’t they have to be separate from the chickens?
Monica – right! Our meal this year will likely be a mix as while we feed everyone that comes here local and organic, it’s not always as important to everyone else as we are.
Tana – welcome and thanks!