Don’t go to Wegmans and buy this basket. It will break the bank.
Sandy Spring CSA Week 15
I used the interesting online tool to create a shopping list to compare. The tomatoes alone, for organic, cost more than what I pay for my CSA. $3 a pound. All together I have 11 pounds of tomatoes there. My CSA share costs $29.75 a week. The tomatoes, the romas at least, went here.
Tomato Sauce for the Freezer
We got:
1 Bunch Blue Hyssop ( I swapped for a second bag of romas)
6 Ears Bi-Color Sweet Corn, $3
1 Bag Red Roma/Paste Tomatoes (4 1/2 pounds, I got two bags, 9 X $3 = $27)
1 Italian Eggplant $2.50
1 Bag Romano Beans(closest I could Find is wax beans for $3)
2 Leeks $4 each, yes, Wegmans charges $4 each for organic leeks) $8
3 Green Bell Peppers $2.29 each X 3 = $7 approximately
1 Bag Purple Viking Potatoes, 3 pounds, $2.50 X 3 = $7.50
1 Bag Sweet Onions $3.75
1 Bag Purple Cayenne Peppers, closest I could find is hot peppers for $3.75
1 Bag Heirloom Tomatoes, 2 pounds X $3 = $6
Total to buy organic at Wegmans is $71.50. More than twice what I pay! And, these aren’t weird veggies. These are organically grown high quality veggies that a family could use all week.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Wegmans. But, CSA’s rock!
hocofood@@@
AnnieRie Unplugged 
Thanks for this, from another huge fan of CSAs — and Wegman’s 🙂
Tell us more about the online comparison tool.
Wegmans is a regional high end grocery store. Whole Foods on steroids. Really great place.
Their web site tracks your purchases. Scary. Big brother stuff. Telling me what I bought there. They have a beta site for a shopping list. Put in what you want, like tomatoes. It tells you the price at the local store. I just entered all my CSA veggies. Cost comes up. The purchase total is then easy to compute.
I wonder if I could do that at Harris Teeter too..
If you pay for your purchases with anything other than cash, yes, the stores track your purchases. They do it for a variety of marketing reasons, including the ability to send you customized coupons to get you back into the store.
But sometimes it’s a good thing, a couple years ago we bought some bialys at the Hunt Valley Wegmans. About a week later there was a recall on the bialys (don’t remember why) and we got an automated phone call from Wegmans informing us of the recall. Our two bialys were long gone (Grin) with no ill effects, but I did appreciate them informing us of the recall.
Cool! Thanks for the information.