Cauliflower's soaring cost affects local businesses
While oil is scraping new lows, vegetable spikes due to drought and low loonie
Oil and gas producers are likely watching the price of cauliflower with a mix of awe and jealousy these days.
The price of the white veggie has skyrocketed thanks to droughts in California and a Canadian dollar that's scraping rock bottom.
Brendan Nichol manages Sunterra Market in the Bankers Hall in Calgary. He says it normally costs about $50 for a crate of a dozen cauliflower heads, but the price has gone as high as $90 in the last week.
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"For our Valentine's Day meals, cauliflower soup was supposed to be one of the soups, and we've had to readjust our menu for that," he said.
At Bistro Rouge, Paul Rogalski is struggling to ensure his customers don't pay extra for the restaurant's popular cauliflower fritters, while Sunterra is absorbing some of the costs on its salad bar.
The "cauliflower crisis" has provided ample fuel for social media commentary.
Some were nostalgic for a simpler time.
The marks of decrepitude are upon me in this university classroom: my reading glasses, my BlackBerry, my memories of cheap cauliflower
—@lizrenzettiOthers were counting their billions.
If I win the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Powerball?src=hash">#Powerball</a> jackpot, I'll be able to buy that cauliflower I've had my eye on
—@lilmizshelleyMeanwhile, still others were considering the market implications on commodity trading (or something).
A barrel of oil is currently trading at just over three heads of cauliflower.
—@paulisciThere were also plenty of people dismissing the oft-overlooked veggie.
Most days, I'd pay $7 to have the cauliflower taken off my plate.
—@InklessPWExpensive cauliflower and cheap gas are circumstances I can live with.
—@manofbirdAnd some took the time to consider the bigger picture and the privilege of complaining over the cost of a vegetable.
Hears about $7 cauliflower, looks at snow outside. Thinks about severe drought in California and how far it's shipped here. Sips $5 latte.
—@manaboutcowtown