I mostly see it from November to March in Canada. It’s mostly found at upscale independent grocery stores. I’ve never seen it at one of the chain grocers.
It’s also a lot more expensive than celery stalks. More labour intensive to harvest, I suspect.
I don’t think any stores are overloaded because it’s a bit of a pain to prepare, with the acidulated water. I feel the same way about preparing artichokes. I only prepare those 2 or 3 times a year.
I find using acidulated water with artichokes to be more of a looks thing than a taste thing. I just snip the tips of the leaves, make a fresh cut on the stem, and boil them about forty-five minutes. They are homely but delicious, hot with lemon butter or cold with mayonnaise. I make them as often as I find them at a halfway decent price.
I admit, I’ve lost interest in almost everything that is pumpkin spiced. I will order a few Pumpkin Spiced Lattes ( PSL ) in the fall, and sometimes I’ll try a Pumpkin Spiced pastry of some sort.
The way this fall flavour is encroaching into mid Summer is pissing me off lately.
I will wait until September 21st until I eat pumpkin pie or Pumpkin Spiced Lattes. I might even wait until Canadian Thanksgiving, depending on the weather.
I don’t buy or eat any Halloween candy or other Halloween treats until October. LOL
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I am also annoyed by Easter candy that is marketed before Lent even starts. I’m not too religious in most ways. This is the main way I’m religious. I won’t eat Easter candy during Mardi Gras /Carnevale, and I won’t eat Xmas sweets or candy before Dec 6th (St Nicholas Day).
I also think Xmas and Winter holiday parties held in November are stupid. A lot of Xmas office parties or festive winter holiday office parties in Ontario are held in late November lately.
If you need to host in November, make it Diwali-themed (Diwali is earlier this year, Oct 20-21), American Thanksgiving themed, and/ or Beaujolais Nouveau- themed. Haha
Hear! Hear! Halloween decorations and candy hit the stores right after the fourth of July. Yikes and no thanks! Also, pumpkin spice might have been good for a muffin, but we are fast approaching a world in which pumpkin spice pizza might be offered. Maybe they are just trying to lure us into fantasy land and offer cool weather goodies as we swelter, sort of like the Hallmark Channel’s Christmas in July. I’d rather they handed me an icy cold Corona with a lime wedge and a plate of spicy nachos.
Instacart tells me a couple of stores — like Wegman’s — carry it, but it’s out of stock. Harris Teeter says they have it. Most places don’t even carry it. It’s impossible to tell if Whole Foods has it, of course. Bezos Busy Bushels doesn’t seem to, but their web interface is useless for searching.
I’m sure someone has mentioned this, but I hate the specials, especially on soda, where I have to buy three, or four, or five of an item to get the sale price. I especially dislike it when the app doesn’t say this on the first display of a sale item, but only when you click through.
(The pricing is often such that if you want three, but take four, the total ones down!)