Straight Off the Tree

The supermarket has the canned goods, pasta, rice, refrigerated items like milk, butter, yogurt, paper goods, etc.  But produce is in it’s own special shop.

You buy produce by weight… unlike the United States, we use the metric system.  So everything is weighed in grams and kilos.  I’ve finally gotten comfortable with the metric system!  Yay!  I pick out the stuff I want, they weigh it all and I pay for it.  Easy…  None of this 3 bell peppers for $5 stuff.  You’d be shot for prices like that over here.  I can get a huge bag of bell peppers for $1.  I can walk away with two HUGE bags of produce (so heavy I can barely moved my hands by the time I’m home), for about 30 NIS ($8).  I need one onion?  1 NIS (25¢).

I buy my bananas straight off the vine.  I have my own lemon tree in my courtyard.  My potatoes still have dirt caked on them as they came from local farmers.  Cucumbers have amazing flavor and come in large bags from local farmers.  Mint, sage and other herbs are also all grown local.  The flavor is mouth watering.

The ONLY disadvantage is I’m pretty limited to those fruits and vegetable that are seasonal.  However, when they are in season, they are amazing and cheaper than the cheapest you could get over in the United States.