Buy when it's cheap

A BLESSING OR A CURSE?

If you want to save money when shopping for food, then stick to what is seasonal - it will be cheaper and also better because it will be at its peak. That's the general wisdom anyway - and I'm not arguing with it.

Currently cauliflower is the bargain of the day. As witnessed by the fact that for our quick Italian meal out in Lygon St. after a film on Friday, one of the specials of the day was linguine with roast cauliflower, pancetta and chilli. And very delicious it was too. I had bought a cauliflower a week or so ago because it was so cheap, but then David, out on his own bought one too because they were still cheap. Fortunately you can do a lot of different things with cauliflower, so it's all good. You need to use them fairly quickly though or they go yellow.

I also bought three large fennel the other week - yes you can do lots of different things with them, and they do keep quite well, but you wouldn't really want fennel day after day.

And that's the thing with a glut isn't it? If you buy a lot because it's cheap you have to do something with it quickly. In the case of fruit you can always make jam of course. Vegetables need to be used though - well some of them do. You wouldn't buy beans in bulk unless you were going to efficiently freeze them, because they go off so quickly.

Then there's the opposite problem. You don't buy them when they're cheap because you don't happen to fancy them on that particular day, and before you know it they have shot up in price. I did this with bananas recently and now I am regretting it as they would be a pleasant alternative to yoghurt on my fasting days, but suddenly they shot from bargain prices to expensive.

Then there's the things that have such a short season - gooseberries (blink and they're gone), cherries and apricots. You wait until they have come down in price, but suddenly they are gone. Judging the right moment is tricky.

So yes - do buy when it's cheap but be sensible about how much you buy! Or it becomes a false economy and you end up throwing away good food.