Last week the price of a lettuce in Australia was famously ten dollars. Why people felt the need to pay for a lettuce at that price I don't know, and pubs were even reassessing the traditional salad next to the famous chicken parmigiana and chips, an Australian icon of mythical proportions. KFC are, apparently, putting cabbage in burgers and with the minimum wage rise this week, people are joking they've being paid an eighth of a lettuce more.

But seriously, I've never seen such huge price hikes with fruit and vegetables in all my days. I have these set prices in my head and once they reach a certain price I'm not really willing to pay it. I understand some increases are necessary, but others are just gobsmacking. I mean, nearly 10 bucks a lettuce is insane.

It's like all of a sudden Australia is having to think about problems that other countries have had for years.

Whilst rising fuel costs and inflation are responsible for some of the crazy prices, some is due to extreme weather - farmers lost one crop of greens in floods, and then freezing temperatures meant they couldn't plant the next crop in time. I hear that srirarcha in American might halt production due to a very poor crop of chillis this year - and that's enough to have me sweat in fear as I love chilli sauce!

So what's to be done? A lot of us are reassessing our budgets and food stores, and even our survival skills! This is getting more serious than the famous Australian pandemic toilet roll debacle of 2020. And people are doing equally dumb things like snapping the stalks off broccoli at the supermarket. (a side note - grate broccoli stalks and carrots to make your vegan kofta balls or add them to a chunky mediterranean soup.}

I feel grateful to the foraging skills I've acquired over the years, and my palate and creativity that happily can forego lettuce for, say, red cabbage and broad bean growing tips. I'm grateful for my five acres that means I have a wealth of lettuce that self seeds because I shake the seed heads over the garden. I'm grateful for knowing that I can plant the end of purchased spring onions in the ground and have them grow back again.

I'm also grateful for knowing certain wild or semi wild plants that are both edible and nutritional. Whilst we are not pinching pennies yet, I refuse to buy highly priced foods just because my palate demands it, and buy what's available and not priced up due to the season or trucking strikes and fuel costs.

Whilst I get frustrated with us lot in the west for being wasteful with our food, I understand it's because we just haven't been forced to deal with shortages or to be frugal out of necessity, especially if you have a reasonable income. Personally, I feel it's disrespectful to nature to throw out what can be eaten - beetroot tops, for example, celery leaves or fennel stalks. Leftovers and excess can be frozen or made into preserves. In Victorian backyards lemons are common and often drip from the trees and rot without being used. Why not learn to preserve lemons or look at a recipe for lemon curd rather than go buy jam? I don't get it. It should be part of a compulsory school curriculum to learn these things, but that wouldn't suit the economy as it stands.

Besides, with the internet, there's no real excuse not to be able to do anything. Can't make marmalade? Look up a recipe. Follow a Youtube video. And if that doesn't sweeten your jam, try a library and recipe books. Or HIVE, of course. There's no end to the resourceful talents and innovations born of frugal necessity on this platform.

And if you're wondering how to get cheap or free food to make such delights from, try community groups in your area - some towns have swap exchanges where you can swap your own produce or creations for other produce, or there are Food Aid banks that are expressly for this purpose. Learn what wild foods grow in your area. And if none of these options are available, look for discounted fruit and veg at the supermarket or shop at vegetable markets that often don't have the mark up that big supermarkets will. Of course, I recognise that it is different in every country - I am only talking about what works here in Australia. And I also know that for those who are out of work or on very low incomes or are struggling with interest rate rises, that this might not be so easy, and is fact crippling hard. If none of this resonates with you so far, please feel free to stop reading.

Hence, this nettle and wild green soup - mallow helps to thicken if you are short on potatoes, and the topping of last year's onion seeds and fresh calendula petals adds further nutrition and brightness. There's also plantain in there, and broad bean tops, and nettle, and nettle leaved goosefoot, as well as spring onion tops and garlic leaves. I plant clumps of garlic too, or let them grow where they like, because the leaves are useful for me during winter before the other plants and their full bulbs are gone.

Nettle & Wild Green Soup

2 potatoes per person
Same amount proportionately in chopped celery or fennel - use leaves as well as the flesh
Wild greens - a few handfuls each of nettle, nettle leaf goosefoot, plantain (young leaves - plantago major even better but the lanceolata will do)
Any kind of allium - leek tops, onion, spring onion, garlic, garlic tops will all do
Water to cover
Stock cube or salt
Toppings - garden flowers, fetta, toasted pepitas, pepper etc.

Saute the onion with olive oil, add your onions or garlic or both and saute til the flavour is released into the oil and it smells fragrant. Add the celery and saute, then the potatoes and water to cover. Add stock to taste. Simmer til the potatoes are nearly soft, then add your wild greens to wilt. Blend til creamy. Add toppings and serve!

Then of course there are mushrooms. Nearly everyone I know will say to me 'oh, I couldn't possibly forage for mushrooms - I'd kill myself!'. Now, of course you should stand warned, and triple check against books and the internet to make sure. I also confirm on a Facebook group where plenty of myco experts are willing to agree or tell you what it really is. Start with one or two easy ones - they do say stay away from brown mushrooms that are too easy to confuse - and gain confidence from there. This week I have pulled two kilos of mushrooms from the forest next to me that will make breakfast fry ups full of fibre, proteins, and other nutrients, risottos and stir fries.

In short, here's a few ways to dodge the supply chain blues:

• Eat seasonally, learning to make do with the produce that is affordable. If lettuce costs $10, don't eat lettuce.
• Shop at discount produce markets or stores
• Eat the whole vegetable - beetroots can be roast and the tops thinly shredded for salad or put in a soup, for example.
• Get yourself a few wild food or mushroom foraging books close to your area and learn what foods around you are edible.
• Learn to grow a few simple vegetables, even in large pots on your verandah. Spring onions and lettuce are super easy to grow.
• Keep a few chickens for eggs - note I was in Aldi last week and there were no eggs at all!
• Buy in bulk - it's cheaper
• Don't turn down a cheap bag of oranges - learn to make marmalade and sell/gift/swap with others. What goes around comes around - and I'm not just talking oranges. Stew and preserve or freeze apples. Make lemon curd and chilli sauce. This stuff ain't just for grandmas - it's for cool hipsters too haha - and it's really not rocket science. Anyone can put their mind to it if they want to learn.
• Join or look for local food swap meets or Food Banks.
• Don't be afraid to be part of a culture or community that gifts - look after your neighbours, and they'll look after you.

I'm sure many of you have your own tricks to beat the supply chain blues - what are yours? Comment below.

Oh, and the chilli sauce problem? I made my own chilli hot sauce from this year's jalapenos I grew myself, plus, I found srirarcha at Aldi for $3 each. So I have chilli sauce for the apocalypse after all.

And I apologise to most of HIVE for our first world problems here in Australia. We're doing all right, really. We're just freaking out because one or two things aren't on the shelves and we imagine the end of the world.

But maybe it's coming - have you got YOUR supply of hot sauce?

To be honest, I'd hate to be a big family on minimum wage with a mortgage to pay - heart goes out to those doing it hard in these uncertain times.

With Love,

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