I love Whole Foods. We never shop there, though. As you say, it’s just too expensive. They’re claiming their “partnership” with Amazon will bring costs down.

We shall see.

I love tomato season and basil season. We try to grow basil every year, but end up harvesting it to death before it can get established. We’re already on the second plant this year – LOL. It’s still cheaper than buying batches of basil. By “a batch,” I mean a packet (about 6 ounces) that is enough to make about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of pesto when it’s all said and done. That is less than half what we get from a live plant before we’ve harvested it to death for roughly the same price – about $6.

As for tomatoes and a wide variety of other fruits and vegetables, well, we live in a farming community. Most of the farmers have their own market stalls on the edges of their properties, or set up roadside stalls for their wares. No grocery store can compete for the either the price or the quality this time of year right up into the Autumn. The only drawback is that they usually accept only cash. Who carries cash anymore?