Cauliflower
 

Is there a shortage of cauliflower lately? When I can even find it, it's so expensive! I found it at Trader Joe's yesterday and bought some for my daughter at a decent price. Went back today and they were sold out. Didn't even have any frozen cauliflower at any price. I have a recipe I have been wanting to make for awhile now but no reasonably priced cauliflower.

Maybe green giant bought it all......my store has massive new case of their mashed cauli, riced cauli, cauli tots....... :lol: :yum:

Hope you find what you need soon. I hate it when something so basic is MIA.

Cauliflower availability is definitely seasonal. Not sure where you're located, but for most of us in the northern regions it's hard to find from late winter through the early part of summer. Obviously it's too early for crops to grow locally, and becoming too HOT in southern regions from where we import over the winter. Over the years I've just come to accept that cauliflower won't appear on the menu very often (if at all) from April through July. If I can find it frozen, I score a few bags because it will sell out quickly.

What is the recipe you're wanting to try? Let us know; maybe someone can suggest a substitute veggie that would work just as well :idea:

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Actually the recipe probably would work ok without it. It's a bacon cheeseburger soup from wholesomeyum which is my favorite go to for low carb recipes. I think the cauliflower is in there just to add some bulk like the original recipe had with potatoes, and nutrients. I may try it with frozen spinach, which is lower carb anyway. Or I may just leave it out.

cabbage might work, it's in the brassica family too. i like to let it sit for 10 minutes after i chop it, and before i cook it. it seems to have a milder taste

a lot of veggies are grown in california and apparently their drought has turned to flooding. lettuce is 4$ a head right now because of it.

Frozen cut green (or yellow) beans are a great addition to soups .. low-carbs, very mild taste and cook quickly. And they're available year-round :idea:.

I've been buying 1 kg bags of frozen cauliflower for years, which used to be available at all grocery stores in my area year 'round, but in the past couple of months, local Safeways no longer carry any plain frozen cauliflower at all, just mixed with other vegs. And my local Coop now only carries 500g bags. So something is up. I've also noticed more grocery stores switching to small steam-in-plastic packages of various vegs with seasonings & canola/soy oil added (and a huge price markup). But I only steam/cook in glass or stainless steel and prefer to add butter or OO and my own seasonings or just salt. I may try to grow my own cauliflower this summer if the growning season is long enough.

Robin120 may be correct that Green Giant has been buying up and diverting it to processing facilities to get higher profits. Half the frozen "vegetable" cases that used to contain plain, frozen 100% vegetables have been taken over by Green Giant vegetables & products at most of my local stores.

At my favorite grocery there are signs up that higher prices & unavailability of some produce are due to bad weather in the growing areas. We're not a vegetable area - our biggest crop is hay - & I'm thinking that because of the flooding the price will be up this year. I'm seeing fields that should be growing grass right now still flooded knee-deep or more. It's really bad this year - at least 6 cave-ins have happened on roads closing them - 2 of the cave-ins were on the highway. Life is getting interesting here. ;)

Went to my local store and cauliflower was $4.99 a head. No way! I did find one pound bags of frozen for $1.49 and bought some.

Yes, there is a shortage of cauliflower, as reported in the morning paper, because of growing conditions in California.

My hair stood on end at my grocery: Cauliflower at $6.99 a head. I was shopping for dinner guests, and had planned to make our favorite Mashed Fauxtatoes. So I bought it anyway. But not a regular menu item for now.

Thanks for the alternative veggie suggestions. I bought a huge cabbage to make a delicious dish with a Middle Eastern flavor.

Bonnie- yikes! Hope you have emergency stuff in your car. Even just keeping a blanket and bottled water and such in the trunk is a good habit.
Hope the flooding is over soon.

And hope I didn't sound flippant to anyone living in the areas effected. I had forgotten the terrible weather out west, and was just making a joke about green giant!

I seem to remember a shortage of Cauliflower and/or high prices reported here last year about this time. In addition to the Cali flooding, I wonder if we are just in-between harvests? Cali does produce a lot but so does South Texas, Florida and Mexico exports tons....

No problem - we all tend to think our own areas are the normal one. :)
And it is strange - my son is on the coast & said while they're had more rain than normal, it isn't a heck of a lot more. But he's right on Puget Sound, so I don't think he'd really notice. Daughter in Texas sent me pictures - lots of flooding in her normally dry area.

The only bit of emergency stuff I don't have is water. I always take it out in the winter because it freezes solid & haven't gotten around to putting it back in.