A recent Irish visitor to our home remarked how astonished he is at the price of bananas in Australia.
I had to explain to him (least he thinks that's how expensive they are ALL the time) that recent extreme weather events have all but destroyed banana crops along the northern east coast of Australia.
At the moment, in the supermarkets, bananas are selling for anything from $13 to $18 a kilogram.
Recently Australian Federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, tried to blame the price of bananas for the rise of inflation.
Should he have not blamed parsnips as well?
Day before yesterday, I purchased, from my local supermarket, ONE parsnip. I repeat ONE parsnip. Cost? $5.78.
Yes, ONE parsnip for $5.78.
(The last time I purchase bananas, I paid almost $9.00 for three bananas.)
I wanted one parsnip for dinner and I never thought to check out the price as I picked up that one lucky parsnip, that is, not until the girl at the cash register asked me for an exorbitant amount of money for my three paltry pieces of vegetables.
To rub salt into the wound, I drove up to the Blue Mountains Food Co-operative yesterday and found organic parsnips there for $7.90 a kilogram. Hmmmm...
I bought MANY!
