The great lettuce shortage of 2018

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sat Dec 08, 2018 12:18 pm


Aldi's and Trader Joe's are run by brothers, one chain each.

Kelsie

Post   » Sat Dec 08, 2018 10:43 pm


In the past few days, I have gone to several local supermarkets looking for leaf lettuce. I went to Whole Foods and even they did not have green leaf or red leaf lettuce. The produce manager told me he wasn't even sure when they would be able to get any from their distributor. Finally today, I was able to find two extremely small heads but they were selling for $2.49 each. Now I do only buy organic lettuce but still, I have never seen it that expensive. I usually pay anywhere from $1.30 to $1.60 per head. I live in Western WA and we are very close to farmlands and yet most of our produce is still priced quite high.

rpaws

Post   » Tue Dec 11, 2018 8:05 am


Saw a notice yesterday from one place they will start getting lettuce from Yuma, Arizona an unaffected area. I didn't know you could grow lettuce in Yuma.

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Tue Dec 11, 2018 11:46 am


Yuma actually has some of the largest lettuce farms in the country and they grow lettuce in the fall and winter. In August, the e.coli strain making people sick was traced to Yuma lettuce irrigated by water canals. The canals pass by a cattle feedlot and cattle carry e.coli. Investigators had a positive match with the strain of e.coli found in the water.

In spring and summer lettuce is grown in Salinas, CA, so maybe the Yuma growers will have time to figure out what to do next.

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Sun Dec 16, 2018 2:21 am


Target had romaine heads today and the packages of mixed lettuce. Their sign said none of the romaine in the mixed packages were part of the recall. They also have organic spring mix but it’s pricey - $5.99 for a plastic pack. I’m sticking to red and green leaf when I can get it.

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RavenShade
Thanks for the Memories

Post   » Sat Dec 22, 2018 7:09 pm


We get something called Hungry Harvest (mostly a Baltimore area thing). We've gotten lettuce from them with roots, and we just don't use it all and plant it. HH also supplies plenty of other veg we use. I didn't do the shopping today so I don't know what's currently in stores. Mostly spring mix last week.

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JaneDoe

Post   » Sun Apr 28, 2019 7:28 pm


Four months after this post Pepino has been having some tooth/neck issues so I am giving him whatever he wants (vegetables) just to get food into him. Romaine lettuce is one of the things he'll eat, it's cheap and easily attainable. Something I've noticed, however, is he is peeing a LOT and his water bottle is almost full so I figure it must be the Romaine--I hear that it is a bladder irritant. Could that be the cause?

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Mon Apr 29, 2019 6:13 am


Interesting! I haven't heard of that. The only issue some of my guys in the past had with romaine, was that it seemed to increase calcium deposits.

TheCageCleaner

Post   » Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:21 pm


^^ Same here, whenever we've fed romaine in the past we've noticed more white/chalky spots on their fleece, so we haven't used it in years.

Seconding growing your own lettuce depending on your climate. If cooler, use a small greenhouse. If warmer, try to plant on a porch or other shady area. Using the 'cut and come again' technique rather than uprooting the entire head means you'll have yields for quite a while from the same plant.

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:21 pm


Romaine has a high water content, higher than a lot of veggies and other leafy greens. So maybe that’s the reason why the water bottle isn’t emptying but piggy is peeing more.

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JaneDoe

Post   » Mon Apr 29, 2019 10:32 pm


Thanks, everyone. Both pigs have been peeing up a storm. I felt bad--I put them in their carriers to clean their cages and Pellegrino was SOAKING wet. So I'm gonna have to figure something else out.

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