[Sca-cooks] curious at the cost of mushrooms

[Barbara Benson]

>Kiriel> A few people have mentioned that mushrooms are in the "luxury" price range, which has piqued my curiosity.



> Bear> A kilo of the least expensive mushrooms available normally costs between
> eight and nine dollars US
>Jadwiga> Here in the Lehigh Valley of PA, we pay about $1.99/lb (which works out to
> about $6.40 a kilo if I'm doing the math right?) but I have a source for
> mushrooms at $1.49/lb which works out to, I think, less than $5/kilo. (all
> prices U.S.)

Greetings,

Here in Atlanta we are in the $1.99 / lb range. When I first started shopping for my feast the cheapest I could find
Asparagus was $2.49 /lb so I bought it, and then for some unknown reason on the day of the event all the stores started
running it at $1.99 /lb. But I had already bought mine (arrgh!).

I think the feeling that mushrooms are a luxury is the sheer volume of mushrooms that must be purchased if you want to
feed a decent sized portion to people. The incredible shrinking properties of cooking mushrooms boggles the mind. For
me, and my mushroom preferences, 8 oz of uncooked mushrooms = 2 servings. So you are looking at a pound per 2 people.
175/2 = 87.5 lbs  87.5 x 1.99 = $175 just for mushrooms.Add in cheese, pastry, spices and onions for the le Menagier
pasties and you have a "veggie" dish that is running you well over $200.

To contrast, My recipit for Platina's carrots works out as follows. For 175 people 15 lbs carrots = $5. 4 cups of
AppleCider vinegar = about $3 Spices = maybe $5 total. Total cost to feed 175 = $13. Now granted, this is the cheapest
side that I have ever made, most fall somewhere in between the carrots and the mushrooms, but I hope it illustrates the
point I am trying to make.

Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva