The great green hunt

[SuzanneZ]

Payday! so off I go hunting tortoise-appropriate green things. Because central Mississippi isn't at all big on micro-unpronouncable greens I found lovely reduced price mixed red leaf lettuce, looks like two bits of the frilly French lettuce, arugula and micro something cute all for $1.80. Bought two. The $1.54 reduced one is all arugula. Now if Isabella will get an appetite and help The Little Russian Boy eat it. Have a small bok choy waiting, too. Not reduced. $1.99 a pound. (How do your prices compare?)

 

[TammyJ]

Right now in Kingston Jamaica in the supermarket I saw three small carrots in a little pack for $450.00, and a small Pak choy for $160.00. Good thing I live in the hills and my critters can get free plants and flowers from the yard, and I can bloody well eat canned peas.

 

[wellington]

I found a box of baby arugula and it was over 9 bucks. Ridiculous! Needless to say, I passed on it.
Otherwise though, most of the other greens are reasonable, but honestly I usually just grab and ignore the prices.

 

[wellington]

Right now in Kingston Jamaica in the supermarket I saw three small carrots in a little pack for $450.00, and a small Pak choy for $160.00. Good thing I live in the hills and my critters can get free plants and flowers from the yard, and I can bloody well eat canned peas.

Seriously, 450.00 and 160.00 Or you mean 4.50 and 1.60?
Cuz who in their right mind would pay 450.00 and 160.00?

 

[TammyJ]

Seriously, 450.00 and 160.00 Or you mean 4.50 and 1.60?
Cuz who in their right mind would pay 450.00 and 160.00?

A Jamaican in Jamaica using Jamaican Dollars!

 

[wellington]

A Jamaican in Jamaica using Jamaican Dollars!

Oh geez good thing. I wasn't thinking outside of US dollars.

 

[SuzanneZ]

Right now in Kingston Jamaica in the supermarket I saw three small carrots in a little pack for $450.00, and a small Pak choy for $160.00. Good thing I live in the hills and my critters can get free plants and flowers from the yard, and I can bloody well eat canned peas.

Thats 450 dollars for 3 carrots?!

 

[Warren]

Google said that $450 Jamaican dollars equals about $2.93 US dollars.

 

[SuzanneZ]

Google said that $450 Jamaican dollars equals about $2.93 US dollars.

Ok, thanks.

 

[SuzanneZ]

Ok, thanks.

A buck a carrot.

 

[TammyJ]

Thats 450 dollars for 3 carrots?!

Absolutely. I am not sure what the problem really is, but that's the situation now.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Ooh, I love looking at prices! I just looked up my city and our cost of living is 81% higher than the national average. 😮 I knew it was high but good grief. A regular store here is ridiculous. If weeds aren't in season I rely largely on our weekly farmers market and ethnic grocery stores which are much cheaper and have way more variety. I can get along with about $6 of mostly high fiber foods.

I wouldn't be surprised if a head of frisée at the pricy grocery store nearest me near me is over $4. A 5 ounce bag of mixed lettuces like you mentioned is currently $4 and the cheapest arugula is on sale at $3.50. She is an outside tortoise so if it was extremely hot out I'd want something that wont wilt and get the most expensive and crunchy type of lettuce--radicchio. It's on a really good sale right now, I think three small heads might last us a a week at $9, normally I'd expect to pay at least $12. Hence why I almost never shop there. It is nice to be able to grab just a couple of okra or two mushrooms or green beans from the open bins there; that's cheap enough.

My Russian is a very good eater so I'd need at least two bags of the lettuces you mention, along with arugula. Add a bit of bok choy and a couple of mushrooms and I'd pay $13 compared to your $5. Ridiculous. I would have the option of buying a medium head of basic chicory there for $2.50 today, however, and would swap that out for the bagged lettuce; giving me a much cheaper total of $7. I'm not sure the chicory would last us a week but I'd give it a shot. This is only supplemental food mind you; she eats plenty straight from our yard. A full diet would be more. 😶

 

[SuzanneZ]

Ooh, I love looking at prices! I just looked up my city and our cost of living is 81% higher than the national average. 😮 I knew it was high but good grief. A regular store here is ridiculous. If weeds aren't in season I rely largely on our weekly farmers market and ethnic grocery stores which are much cheaper and have way more variety. I can get along with about $6 of mostly high fiber foods.

I wouldn't be surprised if a head of frisée at the pricy grocery store nearest me near me is over $4. A 5 ounce bag of mixed lettuces like you mentioned is currently $4 and the cheapest arugula is on sale at $3.50. She is an outside tortoise so if it was extremely hot out I'd want something that wont wilt and get the most expensive and crunchy type of lettuce--radicchio. It's on a really good sale right now, I think three small heads might last us a a week at $9, normally I'd expect to pay at least $12. Hence why I almost never shop there. It is nice to be able to grab just a couple of okra or two mushrooms or green beans from the open bins there; that's cheap enough.

My Russian is a very good eater so I'd need at least two bags of the lettuces you mention, along with arugula. Add a bit of bok choy and a couple of mushrooms and I'd pay $13

compared to your $5. Ridiculous. I would have the option of buying a medium head of basic chicory there for $2.50 today, however, and would swap that out for the bagged lettuce; giving me a much cheaper total of $7. I'm not sure the chicory would last us a week but I'd give it a shot. This is only supplemental food mind you; she eats plenty straight from our yard. A full diet would be more. 😶

I forgot about chicory and okra. Here we garden-grow okra (it loves late summer heat), but when it's out of season it's gone. Except for frozen. I suppose that would work. Do you leave the seeds in?

Can't find radicchio. I know it only from the Food Channel. Mushrooms are an enemy best enjoyed by others. I'm pretty much a scavenger, but is it stealing or scavenging to harvest a mushroom from the store floor? Or a grape? I don't, but I want to.

Oh, I sampled a little tort salad and it's the first lettuce in years that wasn't bitter.

Sample prices on food I eat: cauliflower $2.74
celery $1.79
turnips/mustard $1.48 (bundle you can barely get both hands around at the stem end. In some cases complete with sand.)
imported sweet onions $1.48 #
butter, generic $3.98 #
baby spinach $2.98 a carton
sweet potatoes $.98 # (tasteless unless from specific counties) (the town of Vardaman is famous for them. yellow crookneck squash $1.48

 

[RosemaryDW]

Bitter is better when it comes to tortoises so you'll want to keep poking around.

Feed the entire okra. Okra leaves are excellent too, It's a mallow, like hibiscus, and very high in fiber. My Russian likes both, although it took her a while to eat the leaves. I'm not sure about frozen okra but I'd certainly try it.

Also feed the mustard and turnip greens including the stem. Both are high in calcium, the turnip will likely be more popular.

A slice of either the squash or sweet potato is great. I'd give squash more often then the other.

A tortoise might like a little regular cauliflower on occasion, I'm not sure. I would offer a slice of the stem as well, as it has the most fiber. Ours sometimes gets a broccoli-cauliflower hybrid that is mostly stem (our farmers market has some unusual things) but I've never offered the regular kind. I would never have thought to offer the hybrid either, maybe because I'm not a fan? There is a stall that sometimes offers us broken off bits and pieces for her and that's how we found she likes it.

I promise the store will sell you one mushroom. Self checkout makes it less obvious but I'll use a regular line with no shame. The farmers market folks know I'm always buying two okra or a few zucchini flowers. One tiny summer squash or a single Romano bean. It's hard to work things like this in with a Russian because they are small but you'll get used to it. I'm a scavenger myself so eventually it became less awkward to buy tiny amounts; whatever it takes!

 

[SuzanneZ]

Bitter is better when it comes to tortoises so you'll want to keep poking around.

Feed the entire okra. Okra leaves are excellent too, It's a mallow, like hibiscus, and very high in fiber. My Russian likes both, although it took her a while to eat the leaves. I'm not sure about frozen okra but I'd certainly try it.

Also feed the mustard and turnip greens including the stem. Both are high in calcium, the turnip will likely be more popular.

A slice of either the squash or sweet potato is great. I'd give squash more often then the other.

A tortoise might like a little regular cauliflower on occasion, I'm not sure. I would offer a slice of the stem as well, as it has the most fiber. Ours sometimes gets a broccoli-cauliflower hybrid that is mostly stem (our farmers market has some unusual things) but I've never offered the regular kind. I would never have thought to offer the hybrid either, maybe because I'm not a fan? There is a stall that sometimes offers us broken off bits and pieces for her and that's how we found she likes it.

I promise the store will sell you one mushroom. Self checkout makes it less obvious but I'll use a regular line with no shame. The farmers market folks know I'm always buying two okra or a few zucchini flowers. One tiny summer squash or a single Romano bean. It's hard to work things like this in with a Russian because they are small but you'll get used to it. I'm a scavenger myself so eventually it became less awkward to buy tiny amounts; whatever it takes!

Love it.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

I've settled with a shared meal shopping. If my tortoise eats okra, broccoli and mushrooms this week then kids do eat them too.

I use separate food dishes, just in case

 

[TammyJ]

I've settled with a shared meal shopping. If my tortoise eats okra, broccoli and mushrooms this week then kids do eat them too.

I use separate food dishes, just in case

Definitely separate food dishes, of course. We don't want our tortoises picking up any disgusting human diseases!

 

[RosemaryDW]

If my tortoise eats okra <snip> this week then kids do eat them too.

Noooooooo! There are limits!

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Noooooooo! There are limits!

I guess you are not worried about the kids now?
I didn't mean that I feed them a bag of cactus one week and a bag of hibiscus leaves another. It just pinches of variety food, in addition to "staples". No living being deserves such punishement like "broccoli week".

 

[RosemaryDW]

I guess you are not worried about the kids now?
I didn't mean that I feed them a bag of cactus one week and a bag of hibiscus leaves another. It just pinches of variety food, in addition to "staples". No living being deserves such punishement like "broccoli week".

I mean this human can never support "Okra Week!"

I was a picky eater in my youth but these days I'm pretty open minded about vegetables with a few exceptions. I'll never be good with spaghetti squash or okra. That's it, actually, just the two. Fried okra doesn't count.