I am using a blackberry q10 as Dumbphone and daily driver. I know that there was a native application to connect with a Pebble (I have the bar file) and that I can install apps for Android up to 4.4.2 but I don't know if I will be able to continue connecting the phone to a Pebble today.
I ask more out of curiosity. I'm getting into digital minimalism and I think using a blackberry and pebble this days would be funny, somewhat ironic and definitely cool.
Also the BB Q10 is the perfect qwerty dumbphone today, I recommend it.

First, the TikTok about a woman whose boyfriend was arrested and he still misses her, reminded me of my own experience. We had neighbors that moved in when I was 5 and we all quickly become friends. Well, at 5 I had a crush on one of those boys, but y’know I was 5 so it maybe lasted a week and I went back to my sailor moon obsession. Well, 13-years later I started getting jail post cards from him. I thought it was a funny story about my 5-year-old 5-minute crush on him and so I told him. I was not expecting him to turn around and say that he’s had a crush on me SINCE I was 5, and still does. What was in for you might ask? Drugs… and for being pressured into stabbing a snitch in jail. He tried writing to me again recently from his latest stay, but I’m a recovering people pleaser, so I won’t be.
Second, we do have fruit trees and gardens in a lot of places in the US do have fruit trees and gardens, just not in the concrete jungle that is a large city because there’s no room. But those are the places that most people visit so they tend to think it’s reflective of the whole country, and the people that live there would be the ones who don’t know that you can just pick and eat an apple.
I’m from a western but not costal one. We only live one 1/4 of an acre in the suburbs, but my parents packed it. We had 5 garden plots, raspberries and blackberries, a current bush, a grape vine, 6 apple trees (with several varieties), 2 plum trees, 2 apricot trees, a pear tree, and a cherry tree. A lot of people in my state, even in the suburbs have gardens and trees.
To answer why the US doesn’t often plant fruit trees in public, because they’re a lot of work, cleaning up after them, choosing to spray them or not. Though some areas have them, it’s not common.

(As always, flyers are out Wednesdays, most store sales for the new flyer start on Thursdays)
Adonis

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $4.99 per lb -- Nice! Good price!
• Royal Sea Bream - $6.88 per lb -- Very nice! This may be my week to try this fish!
• Cooked shrimp (Blue Tide, 61/71ct) - $4.99 340g bag -- Great price for a smaller shrimp for various dishes that need big honkin' ones.
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome! Their last week's hothouse tomatoes were quite nice! Let's hope these are as good!
• Cherries - $3.99 per lb -- Awesome!!
• Blueberries - $1.99 full pint -- Awesome!!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.99 400g bar -- Nice! $5 brick cheese!
• Cheese counter - Baladi - $2.29 per 100g -- Baladi is soft, creamy, and tangy in flavor, similar to feta.
• Cheese counter - Bulgarian feta - $2.29 per 100g -- Smoother, creamier, more elastic texture than Greek Style Feta because it holds more moisture
• Cheese counter - Kashkaval - $2.29 per 100g -- Piquant, spicy and somewhat salty taste with a slight hint of olive oil, famously called the "Cheddar cheese of the Balkans".
• Deli - Italian ham or porchetta (Mastro) - $2.29 per 100g -- Ouu porchetta, hmm!
• Deli - MTL smoked turkey breast (Solmaz) - $1.99 per 100g -- Nice price!
• Deli - Beef bologna (Alzahraa) - $1.29 per 100g -- Good ol' cheap sandwich meat!
• Deli - Bastourma - $3.79 per 100g -- Unique stuff! Garlicky and piquant and spiced with industrial quantities of paprika and fenugreek
• Roasted pistachios (Cedar) - $7.99 454g bag -- Nice! That's a good size bag!
• Produce Price Rating: Medium, but always has well-priced chicken, the deli meat sale rotations are always fantastic, and just the overall variety of goods is refreshing. Personal favourite store.

Farm Boy

• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Fair price for asparagus, especially for a higher-priced outlet.
• Red vine tomatoes - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for tomatoes
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Excellent price for cucumber.
• Cheese Counter - Red Wax Gouda or Edam balls - $2.49 per 100g -- Hmm! Interesting! Good price for a nicer cheese.
• Deli - Capocollo (hot, Schneiders) - $1.99 per 100g -- Good price for decent deli!
• Produce Price Rating: High

Farmers Pick (can be a little late on their flyer) (https://www.farmerspick.ca/flyer-specials)
Food Basics

• Ground beef-pork mix (lean) - $2.88 per lb -- Ouu! Excellent price for protein! It is a blend, which is not always ideal, but the price is right and it's easy to get creative with beef-pork ground.
• Eggs (Selection) - $5.49 18-pack -- At 30c an egg, we're not setting any records, but it's better than 32-33c.
• Asparagus - $2.98 per lb -- Fair price for asparagus.
• Avocados - $0.98 each -- Sigh... What happened to cado prices... Seems like 6 months ago you can't go shopping without tripping over a $3-4 bag of them.
• Green beans - $2.98 340g bag -- A little high-priced for green beans. Like, it's fair, and you can sometimes score $2/lb deals, but you have to hunt for those deals.
• Carrots - $1.98 2lb bag -- $1/lb is not bad for carrots. It's tough to find lower.
• Vidalia onions - $3.98 3lb bag -- Ouu! Nice! That's 1.33/lb for vidalias!! Excellent price!
• Eggplant - $1.68 per lb -- Good price. Often more in the $2/lb range.
• Napa - $0.98 per lb -- Great price! Hard to find it for lower.
• Flat cabbage - $0.98 per lb -- Great price! Hard to find it for lower.
• Lobok - $0.98 per lb -- Great price! Hard to find it for lower.
• Cosmic Crisp apples - $0.98 per lb -- Ouuu that's a nice price for apples, and a really good variety to boot!
• Blueberries - $1.67 full pint -- WOW! Crazy price for a full pint!
• Cantaloupe - $1.98 each -- "Colossal"! I wonder if I can use cantaloupe for ginger beer ferment... Hmmm..
• Pineapple - $2.98 each -- Nice! Good price for a pineapple, about $1 off compared to regular at Basics.
• Cherries - $4.98 per lb -- Not quite Adonis $4/lb, but still good!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Nice! $5 brick cheese!
• Honey (Casablanca) - $6.98 1kg jar -- Great price for honey! These jars are usually $2 more.
• Lots of bulk rice deals - $12.98 7-8kg bags -- Always keep a healthy supply of rice hand, just don't overpay for it!
• Luncheon meat (Holiday) - $1.98 340g can -- Good price for these cans! Important ingredient in a lot of SPAM-influenced Asian dishes.
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low

FoodLand

• Ground beef (lean) - $3.99 per lb -- Scene Member Price. Great price for ground. We've seen lower, but this is hard to beat without waiting or grocery tripping across town.
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Fair price for asparagus. Everyone seems to have it on their flyers this week.
• Pineapple - $3.49 each -- Fair price. Any higher and it's not quite a sale. But ya, I wouldn't scoff at this price.
• Brick cheese (Compliments) - $4.47 400g bar -- Very nice!!! Excellent cheese price!
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-high to high.

Freshco (price matcher)

• Beef sirloin tip steak (AA) - $7.99 per lb -- Not bad. Not amazing, but fair for steak.
• Breakfast sausage - $5.00 450g -- No brand mentioned. The price is ok. It could be a quality thing. Some breakfast sausage can go as low as 3.75/lb.
• Peameal bacon (Lou's) - $2.99 per lb -- Great price for peameal! Usually floats past $4.50/lb.
• Cucumber - $0.88 each -- Excellent!
• Bok choy - $0.99 per lb -- Great price! Hard to find it for lower.
• Napa - $0.99 per lb -- Great price! Hard to find it for lower.
• Flat cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Great price! Hard to find it for lower.
• Green onion - $0.99 per bunch -- Nice! Don't take $1 bunches for granted. It's often more $1.49 now.
• Ginger - $1.99 per lb -- Good rate on ginger.
• Cherries - $2.99 per lb -- WOW! That's a CRAZY price for cherries!
• Strawberries - $2.99 454g shell -- Not bad. Not great, but not bad.
• Butter (Gay Lea) - $4.99 454g bar -- Nice! Good price for butter.
• Jasmine rice (Golden Panda) - $15.98 8kg bag -- A little pricier than Basics' deal, but given it's jasmine-scented, it's not off-mark.
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low (more on the medium side)

Giant Tiger (*note the VIP prices; sales begin today) (price matcher)

• Bacon (Bob's) - $2.22 375g pack -- Limit of 4.
• Oranges - $2.88 per lb -- Great price for oranges!
• Cantaloupe - $2.88 each -- Good price.
• Cauliflower - $2.88 per head -- Great price! Hard to find a head for less than $4.
• Canned beef or ham (Mario's) - $2.97 340g can -- More spam and corned beef.
• Cream (Lactantia) - $1.48 473ml carton -- Great price for cream! And a nice size/format. Can be used for a nice alfredo-esque sauce.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally on the low side.

Green Fresh Supermarket (Vanier) (check https://greenfreshottawa20.wixsite.com/greenfreshottawa) * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
IGA (price matcher)

• Ground beef (lean) - $3.99 per lb -- Great price for ground!
• Argentinian wild shrimp (Green Ocean, 20-30ct) - $12.99 680g bag -- Good price for bigger shrimp.
• Eggs (Compliments) - $2.49 12-pack -- Excellent price for eggs! This is what gets you in the store. But watch out, look through their flyer, and see their pricing. It's been tending past "medium" into "high" ranges, even to a point of upset. And they're mucking around with their price fonts to mess up how you see if it's per lb or a fixed weight.
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Excellent price!
• Radishes - $0.99 per bunch -- Scene Member Price. Reg 1.49. Great price!
• Strawberries - $1.77 454g shell -- Scene Member Price. Reg 2.99. Fantastic price! Try to get some if you can take advantage of that discount.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium to high.

Independent

• Ground beef (medium) - $4.49 per lb -- Good price for ground beef.
• Whole chicken - $2.49 per lb -- Good price. We've seen better, but this is good.
• Broccoli - $2.49 per lb -- Actually decent per lb price for broc, especially if the stems are minimal. But, in the same way, watch, and don't pay for broc that's mostly stem.
• Watermelon (11lb avg) - $5.99 each -- Good price!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Nice! $5 brick cheese!
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Loblaws

• Ground beef (medium) - $4.49 per lb -- Good price for ground beef.
• Whole chicken - $2.49 per lb -- Great price!
• Beef strip - $7.00 250g -- Ohh really?! For 250g? Can't just say "$14/lb"? And then they advertise $8/lb eye of round right beside it? Like, get real....
• Broccoli - $2.49 per lb -- More of that per lb broc.
• Bok choy - $2.99 per lb -- WHAT?! Dude, that's 3x what other places charge!
• Strawberries - $1.99 454g shell -- Great price (and some redemption for that bok boy...)
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Nice! $5 brick cheese!
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Provigo

• Beef inside round roast - $5.99 per lb -- Good price for beef round.
• Beef inside round steak - $6.99 per lb -- Silly to charge $1/lb more for just cutting the sale round into slices. Buy the round and cut them as thick as you want.
• Pork side rib - $2.99 per lb -- Good price for side rib.
• Whole duck - $3.99 per lb -- Standard price for duck.
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Fair price for asparagus. Seems to be the average this week.
• Strawberries - $1.99 454g shell -- Great price (and some redemption for that bok boy...)
• Brick cheese (Ptit Quebec) - $4.88 400g bar -- Nice! $5 brick cheese!
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Maxi (price matcher)

• Chicken breast (skinless, bone-in) - $3.45 per lb -- Great price for a nice cut of chicken.
• Asparagus - $2.44 per lb -- Good price, better than $3/lb averages we're seeing this week.
• Beeksteak tomatoes - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for tomatoes, but we're also seeing a few 99c/lb sales.
• Cucumber - $1.49 each -- Meh.
• Avocado - $1.99 each -- Woh woh woh, what happened here.
• Cherries - $2.44 per lb -- WOW! Awesome price!
• Prunes - $1.99 per lb -- Good price for prunes!
• White sugar (Lantic) - $1.99 2kg bag --
• Canned tomatoes (Unico) - $1.79 796ml can -- Not bad.
• Canned tomato soup (Aylmer) - $0.57 284ml can -- Excellent price for an easy meal. And, I've seen some people pull off some creative stuff with canned soup.
• Canned tuna (No Name) - $0.95 170g can -- Nice!
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium low pricing! This store can post some impressive deals at times.

Metro

• Chicken breast (skinless, boneless) - $4.88 per lb -- Great price for chicken breast.
• Beef inside blade steak - $5.99 per lb -- Blade steaks are made by cutting directly across the top blade muscle, which is actually pretty tender. The one negative is there's a seam of connective tissue running through the centre of it, which means that every section of steak has a piece of this tough strip of gristle right in the middle.
• Lamb shoulder chops - $4.99 per lb -- Loblaws stores have these going for $6/lb, which is not a great deal. But $5/lb, now we're talking.
• Lobster (cooked) - $10.99 each -- Not bad. You can sometimes score it for less, but this is essential right on target with averages.
• Store-made sausage - $4.44 per lb -- Really hard to beat! This is a fantastic deal for a good product that starts and ends in the back with the butcher.
• Salmon steaks, Haddock fillet, Fresh Ontario Lake Trout fillet - $9.99 per lb -- Lots of fish options with good and fair pricing!
• Mini-cucumber - $2.49 6-pack -- Not bad. Could be better, could be a lot worse lol.
• Zucchini - $0.88 per lb -- Excellent price!!!!
• Vidalia onions - $0.88 per lb -- Excellent price!!!!
• Potatoes (Russet) - $2.49 5lb bag -- Great price!
• Cherries - $3.99 per lb -- Fair rate on cherries this week.
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.99 400g bar -- Nice! $5 brick cheese!
• Deli - MTL smoked beef - $2.99 per 100g -- Not super amazing as deli prices go, but ok. It's a good product, and the price is reflected in that.
• Deli - Cooked ham (Moisson) - $2.49 per 100g -- This kind of highlights the MTL smoked meat deal.
• Deli - Mortadella (San Daniele) - $2.69 per 100g -- Sigh... It's crazy that Adonis has this stuff for 1.99/100g or the Roma-brand for as low as 1.49/100g.
• Produce Price Rating: High. Kinda like Sobeys. You can see a 50% average mark-up compared to a lot of other stores. It's nice produce, but it costs you.

No Frills (price matcher)

• Pork back rib - $2.99 per lb -- Good price for pork rib.
• Salmon fillet - $9.77 per lb -- Good price for pink fish.
• English cucumber - $0.44 each -- Fantastic cucumber price!
• Mini-cucumber - $3.88 11-pack -- Good price for these packs, given 6-packs are about $2 at best.
• Asparagus - $2.88 per lb -- Going-rate this week.
• Avocado - $4.88 5-6 pack -- Not bad. Cado pricing is all over the place, but this should be worthwhile.
• Kale, collard greens - $1.33 per bunch -- Good price for fresh greens.
• Carrots - $3.88 5lb bag -- Nice! But it's a lot of carrot. Could be good for chopping, freezing, baby food, things like that.
• Potatoes - $4.99 10lb bag -- Good price for potatoes. 50c/lb is a great rate.
• Mushrooms - $3.88 454g shell -- Good price for mushrooms. Half-lb shells can go for 2.50 or more often enough.
• Green and red peppers - $3.88 4-pack -- So, fun store, I weighed the 4-packs at Basics, and they clock in at 1.5lbs. That might be a useful measure to remember when considering if these are good deals. So, this should float around 2.50/lb. Food Basics' last deal was for 2.98, which puts their deal in the $2/lb range.
• Salad kits (PC) - $1.88 340-397g kits -- Great price for an easy salad kit.
• Limes - $0.44 each -- Great price! Citrus prices are swinging a lot week-to-week, I find, no matter the store.
• Mango - $0.99 each -- A proper and fair price for a mango!
• White sugar (Lantic) - $1.99 2kg bag -- Great deal on a good pantry staple.
• Silk plant bev - $2.88 1.74-1.89L jug -- Great sale!
• Tofu (Rooster) - $1.68 454g block -- Really good deal! These can be between $2 and $2.50.
• Basmati rice (Quality) - $8.99 8lb bag -- A little high compared to the Basics deal for 8kg bags for $13, but it's basmati, which can command a higher price.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally quite low, selectively amazing for some items.

Produce Depot (usually a little late on the flyer) https://producedepot.ca/

• Pepper steaks - $6.99 per lb -- Probably a standard cut, but pre-seasoned and ready for the pan or grill.
• Pork back rib - $4.49 per lb -- Unfortunately on the high side for pork rib. $3/lb is the target price.
• BC Snapper fillet - $8.99 per lb -- Great price for good fish!
• Hothouse tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome price! I wonder if these are the same I got from the Adonis the other day. They were REALLY nice. Basically perfect.
• Cauliflower - $2.79 per lb -- Awesome deal on cauliflower!! Hard to find under $3.
• English cucumber - $0.59 each -- Fantastic cucumber price!
• Green peppers - $1.99 per lb -- Good going-rate on peppers. Fundamental ingredient to a lot of cooking, especially the good ol' Cajun Holy Trinity!
• Pineapple - $3.99 each -- A little up there for pineapple pricing, but these are advertised as "large", which may justify a little premium. I wouldn't pass one up if they're really nice.
• Deli - Mortadella (San Daniele) - $1.99 per 100g -- Ah, there's our $2/100g deal! This is lovely deli meat for a good price!
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-low with very competitive specials on a shortened flyer. The small flyer is nice because it doesn't uselessly feature $6 heads of cauliflower and extremely high-price items that are either a confusion on the consumer, or an insult on the injury of not being able to afford supreme quality items.

Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)

• Chicken drumsticks or thighs (bone-in, with skin) - $2.44 per lb -- Fair deal. Not the best, but fair. Wouldn't shy from buying it if it was my only protein option, but I wouldn't stock up at this price.
• Mini-cucumber - $4.00 11-pack -- Fair price for these 11-packs.
• Corn - $0.79 each -- Far cry from the 40c range deals we saw last week.
• Beefsteak tomato - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for tomatoes. But, not really a fan of beefsteak. I find they can be grainy when they're not local.
• Potatoes (Imperfect) - $6.00 15lb bag -- Awesome price for potatoes! 40c/lb!
• Grapes (red or green) - $2.99 per lb -- Fair rate on grapes. $2/lb is a fantastic deal, and $4/lb is an average sale or regular price.
• Silk plant bev - $2.88 1.74-1.89L jug -- Great sale!
• Olive oil (Gallo) - $12.88 1L bottle -- That's a REALLY good price for olive oil. It ain't fancy stuff, but perfect for cooking. I reserve really good oil for salads.
• Basmati rice (Quality) - $8.99 8lb bag -- Same rice deal as No Frills.
• Tofu (Rooster) - $1.68 454g block -- Really good deal! These can be between $2 and $2.50.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium-low pricing, selectively amazing for some items.

Sobeys

• Ground beef (lean) - $3.99 per lb -- Scene Member Price. 4.99 reg. Good rate on ground.
• Beef inside round roast or steaks - $5.99 per lb -- Good price for inside round! It's a very versatile cut. Keep as a whole roast, or go for the marinating steaks.
• Pork loin, roast, chops - $3.99 per lb -- Fair rate for pork loin, but not a door-crasher or anything. Just a good mentionable alternative.
• Atlantic salmon - $9.77 per lb -- Scene Member Price. 12.99 reg. Good sale rate price on salmon. Note, it's a 4 day sale.
• Bok choy - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome price for choy!
• Blueberries - $2.77 full pint -- Good price for a full pint. We're seeing some other good deals on blueberries this week. This one is a bit higher than the others, but still reall quite good!
• Mangoes - $5.99 case (6?) -- Scene Member Price. Hmm! Good price on mangos. I'm assuming by the photo that there are 6 in a case.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally a high price store, especially for produce. Some items are 50% more than more value-oriented stores. Kinda like Metro, some of the deals can be quite good.

Super C

• Beef t-bone steak - $8.87 per lb -- WOW! That's a great deal on t-bone! This cut combines the meaty flavor of a strip steak with the signature tenderness of the filet mignon.
• Chicken drumsticks or thighs (bone-in, with skin) - $1.99 per lb -- Great chicken deal!
• Smoked ham toupie (Selection) - $7.99 675g -- Good deal for a simple ham that you can use for sandwiches, a breakfast side, for soups, lunches, and more. It's basically deli ham, but for $1.18/100g
• Argentinian shrimp (Marina Del Rey, 20-30ct) - $6.95 300g bag -- Good price on big shrimp!
• Italian sausage (Marcangelo) - $6.99 500-675g 4-pack -- Great sausage at a decent price. I made some of these over the weekend. From thawed, set them in a pan with about 1cm of water, and cover but leave a crack. Flip half way into the water boiling off. Then, once the water is about run dry, add in a chopped onions, and cover with the lid sealed to the pan - this should help the onion breakdown. Watch until the onion begins to disintegrate, and you should end up with a juicy sausage and savory onion sauce.
• Beefsteak tomato - $0.88 per lb -- Excellent deal!! Wow! It's beefsteak, but I don't care. That's a good price.
• Mini-cucumber - $0.88 6-pack -- Wow! Amazing deal! These are usually $2 or more!
• Sweet peppers - $2.99 4-pack -- Nice! Similar to the Basics deal last week. Should clock in close to $2/lb if the pack is 1.5lbs.
• Zucchini - $1.49 per lb -- Good rate on zuch. We've seen better, but this is fine. $1/lb is about as low as it goes, while $2.49/lb is a common upper limit.
• Eggplant - $1.49 per lb -- Great price! Underrated ingredient and centrepiece to a meal!
• Cherries - $2.44 per lb -- Another awesome deal on cherries!
• Blackberries - $1.63 170g shell -- Nice! Blackberries are tough to find under $2. So this is a win.
• Butter (Selection) - $4.88 454g bar -- Very nice! 11c under the 4.99 mark isn't much, but it's certain eye-catching.
• Canned tuna (Clover Leaf) - $0.97 170g can -- Nice! That's a good price for good tuna!
• Walnuts (Irresistibles) - $10.00 750g bag -- Very good price for walnuts!
• Almonds (Irresistibles) - $10.00 1kg bag -- Another great nut deal!
• - --
• Produce Price Rating: Generally low, but can creep into medium for some items. But, there's always something decent available!

T&T Supermarket https://www.tntsupermarket.com * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
Walmart

• Bacon (Smithfield) - $3.27 375g pack -- Good price for bacon!
• Sausage (breakfast, dinner, Maple Leaf) - $7.27 varied weight -- You'll want to measure the weights in-store. $4/lb is a good target, so if these are 2lb packs, then you're getting a good deal.
• Vine tomatoes - $0.74 per lb -- WOW! What a price!
• Salad greens - $3.97 454g bin -- These are the BIG bins. Normal bins are 142g and usually about $3-4. This is 3x that for the same price.
• Cucumber - $1.47 each -- Meh...
• Flat cabbage - $0.88 per lb -- Very nice! Good to see cheap cabbage!
• Daikon/Lobok - $0.88 per lb -- Ouu! Maybe a new pickling/fermentation project is in my future if I manage to hit a Walmart.
• Bok choy - $1.88 per lb -- Fair price. Not 99c/lb, but still ok. Definitely not the $3/lb earlier in the review...
• Ginger - $1.88 per lb -- Nice! Anything around and under $2/lb is a good price for ginger.
• Red Delicious apples - $0.64 per lb -- WOW! What a deal! Get these!
• Pineapple - $2.97 each -- Good and fair price for pineapple. $2/unit sometimes happens, but it's increasingly rare.
• Lemons - $0.67 each -- Let's math this out a bit. A typical 2lb bag has about 7 lemons in it. That lands us at 4.69 for a 7-unit bag of 67c lemons. So, really, if you need a lot of lemons, go find a $4 2lb bag. Otherwise, 67c/unit ain't bad if you can't see using that many.
• Mangoes - $8.88 5lb case (6 units?) -- Not as good as that Sobeys deal, but still decent considering you can pay up to $2 for a mango these days...
• TV ad funny - -- So, they got sales on Samsung TVs in the flyer. And in bold they advertise "small steps to sustainability", suggesting that these TVs help saving energy. But what's hilarious is that it's about 300kg of CO2 to produce a single TV. The average car produces about 200g of CO2 per km, meaning producing a TV is like driving 1500km (or more if you're driving a smaller vehicle). Just some food for thought. Makes me wonder why they would assert anything about sustainability...
• Produce Price Rating: A little all over the place. Some really good prices between a lot of average pricing.

Costco (Note that these are the online/shipped prices - reduce each item by $3 for in-store pricing)

• NOTE: NEED TO REVISE - --
• Paper Towel (Kirkland) - $27.99 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 160 sheets
• Paper Towel (Bounty) - $27.49 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 86 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Kirkland) - $25.99 30-roll pack -- 2-ply; 380 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Cashmere) - $24.99 40-roll pack -- 2-ply; 250 sheets (on sale)
• Dish soap (Dawn Platinum) - $18.99 2.66L -- Food Basics often has this jug for $10!
• Laundry detergent (Purex) - $24.99 9.24L -- 250 loads
• Garbage bags (30 gallon; large) - $15.99 100-pack -- Amazon has Glad standard 74L bags, 100-packs for $23, sometimes less if on sale
• Countertop green bin liners - $21.99 125-pack -- Amazon has Glad Compostable green bin liners 100-packs for $18, sometimes less if on sale
• Produce Price Rating: I need to do a proper check to be sure, but I find it's pretty average. There's an illusion of getting a good deal because of the bulk. Just be careful.

Jean Coutu (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: I have to start checking these just in case...

Shoppers Drug Mart (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: Sometimes they have cheap butter, eggs, and milk on weekends.

Some additional references!

• Grocery Review Google Drive Location https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xhLvBP1smXb1eSnxAW5yyBjO2aYFLJHC?usp=sharing
• Cooking Tips and Recipes https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TCcHm9y0kWIa3x18hznKN2ix0BPcUv-m?usp=drive_link
• Google Maps list of the Grocery stores in Ottawa https://maps.app.goo.gl/YT7cZmv8vMQWU4J59

Reddit wouldn’t let me upload a screen recording so here’s the link to the video, timestamp 11:21-13:00
I’m a bit of a silent scroller here, but figured I’d put in my two cents after watching this. I understand no one is perfect in relationship: you’re going to have moments of unconstructive criticism toward your partner along with the constructive, you may overcorrect, etc. HOWEVER, it appears to be very skewed between Claudia and Jesse. Just a few thoughts here:
Her incessant comments start to noticeably pile up in every video where she’s not the editor. Correcting Jesse on what blackberries are is funny to me because it’s taken so seriously on her part. Haven’t most people lost a word and gone along with one they know clearly isn’t right? She says this right after a clip where Jesse describes seaweed papers as low-calorie potato chips because of the “crunch” they add ((10:46) it can be understood what he’s going for), and she immediately interrupts saying it’s nothing like a potato chip and “it’s a good texture.” There are a handful of little comments that continue within the time stamp, but what I think is most notable is her self-talk versus her talk toward Jesse. Ei. “I messed up, but it still looks good,” toward her own, then going as far as saying even the cat doesn’t like his painting 🤣 Like, what are you trying to achieve with this?
*** I just realized while typing that she’s an incredibly serious/literal person, and because he isn’t, that’s where we see a lot of polarity. I think Claudia needs to realize this for herself and know that both personalities can exist simultaneously and not shoot down the less serious one because it’s something she’s not ***
Anyway, the “following the rules” in art (in a condescending way) bothers me here. Jesse is a creative person, obviously finding his niche to have a successful career. He needs to continue exercising that aspect of his individuality or he’ll lose it. He doesn’t need to be good at art as a medium or paint the prompt exactly as it’s shown. Best way I can describe this thought is with the poem “The Little Boy” - Helen E. Buckley. Hopefully you can see my angle here.
If this is what she’s okay being portrayed as on camera, you can only assume it’s 10x worse off-camera because what we’re shown is straight-up mean girl. I hope she can be more mindful with the way she shows up instead of staying in denial because ultimately, the only people she’s going to impact in her romantic relationship is herself and Jesse, not the followers/viewers.
Edit: I’m in no way trying to defend her behavior, and deleted any of the nuance that might’ve made it seem otherwise

(As always, flyers are out Wednesdays, most store sales for the new flyer start on Thursdays)
Adonis

• Crab section (thawed) - $7.77 per lb -- Interesting! Could be fun for making neat meals!
• Coho salmon fillet - $7.77 per lb -- Wow! That's a great price for salmon!
• Sea bass (fresh, free cleaning) - $7.99 per lb -- Fair price for fresh fish.
• Basa filet (thawed) - $4.99 per lb -- Nice! It's not fresh filet, but it's a good price,.
• Chicken thighs (boneless skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Not amazing, but ok for boneless chicken.
• Grain-fed veal blade roast - $5.99 per lb -- Interesting! It's a more tender cut, more delicate flavour, which might be nice!
• Beef eye of round - $6.99 per lb -- Good and fair price for eye of round. It's possible to find it for less, but it's a hunt. This is a regular Adonis deal.
• Rib-eye steak - $17.99 per lb -- Makes me think of a post I saw this week of a standard prime rib roast in Calgary sold at $55/kg, 27/lb or something. Which is crazy!
• Red greenhouse tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome! Great price for tomatoes, but I found the other produce prices advertised were a little lackluster.
• Apricots (fresh) - $4.99 per lb -- Low-ish price for fresh apricots.
• Brick cheese (Cracker Barrel) - $5.77 400g bar -- Not under $5, but still worth snagging a bar if it means skipping a trip elsewhere.
• Cheese Counter - Canadian feta - $1.99 per 100g -- Nice! $2/100g for feta is good.
• Cheese Counter - Tuma - $2.29 per 100g -- Interesting! "Tuma cheese is renowned for its delicate mild milk flavour, and its smooth, velvety and firm texture."
• Cheese Counter - Akawi - $2.29 per 100g -- Ahh, this is a lovely cheese. Not cheap, but it's good stuff!
• Cheese Counter - Fior de latte - $2.29 per 100g -- Good price. This is the stuff you need for a Caprese salad!
• Pâté (Bretagne) - $5.00 for 2 150g packs -- Great price! These regularly go for $4 or so.
• Deli - Chicken breast (Solmaz) - $1.79 per 100g -- Nice!
• Deli - Smoked ham (Olymel) - $1.49 per 100g -- Excellent!
• Deli - Turkey breast (Alzahraa) - $1.49 per 100g -- More great deli!
• Deli - Prosciutto (Negroni) - $2.79 per 100g -- Ah! Nice! Different brand, same great prosciutto price!
• Walnuts and mixed nuts (Cedar) - $4.99 454g bag -- Nice! That's cheap!
• Almonds (Cedar) - $5.99 454g bag -- Good price for almonds!
• Pistachios (roasted, salted, Cedar) - $12.99 454g bag -- Pistachio prices are a little funny. $10/lb is really the price to aim for, but this isn't far off. And it's not uncommon to see 200-250g bags for $7-8 or more.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium, but always has well-priced chicken, the deli meat sale rotations are always fantastic, and just the overall variety of goods is refreshing. Personal favourite store.

Farm Boy

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Fair price for chicken breast.
• Wild-caught Argentinian shrimp (23-30ct) - $7.99 340g bag -- This is a good rate on decent shrimp!
• Fresh sausage deal - $5.99 500g packs -- Nice little sausage deal here. Fresh sausage avoids the preservatives!
• Mini cucumbers - $5.00 for 2 6-packs -- Good price for mini cucumber.
• Fiddleheads (fresh daily) - $5.99 per lb -- Neat! These are fun to see on the shelf. Try a fun seasonal item!
• Hothouse tomatoes - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for tomatoes!
• Eggplant - $1.49 per lb -- Great price for eggplant! Often $2/lb or more!
• Zucchini - $1.49 per lb -- Good price zucch! You can find them for less, but you'll have to hunt for it.
• Green onion - $0.77 per bunch -- Nice! It's crazy to be happy about green onions for under $1…
• Blueberries - $2.99 full pint -- Ad is for 473g pints. This is a great deal! Worth snagging some!
• Produce Price Rating: High

Farmers Pick (can be a little late on their flyer) (https://www.farmerspick.ca/flyer-specials)
Food Basics

• Ground chicken (lean, Zabiha) - $3.88 450g pack -- Great price for ground chicken!
• Pork side rib - $2.98 per lb -- Good price for pork rib!
• Pork tenderloin - $2.98 per lb -- Great price for tenderloin. More often found for $4/lb.
• Fresh beef burger patties - $4.00 4-pack -- These are 1/4lb patties, meaning we're clocking in at $4/lb, which is honestly pretty good! Season them up and grill! There's also Selection 8-pack of buns on sale for 1.77. So, that's basically $10 for 8 burgers. That's value!
• Asparagus - $1.98 per lb -- Excllent! This is a great price! And it's not even the 340g bunches, no, this is per lb!
• Sweet peppers - $2.98 4-pack -- Nice!
• Sweet potato and sweet purple potato - $1.28 per lb -- Fair price for sweet potatoes. It's fun to see purple ones get lumped into the same bracket.
• Coleslaw kit (Green Giant) - $5.00 for 2 340g kits -- Great price for salad kits.
• Mini potatoes - $2.98 5lb bag -- Good price for mini potatoes!
• Strawberries - $1.67 454g shell -- WOW! Cross our fingers they're nice AND cheap!
• Cherries - $5.98 per lb -- Decent price for cherries. I like making homemade yogurt popsicles with fresh cherries. Bit if a pain in the ass to pit, but so worth it.
• Brick cheese (Selection) - $4.44 400g bar -- Nice! Sub-$5 bricks!
• Salametti (Matro) - $6.49 300g chubs -- May include other varieties
• Baby genoa (Mastro) - $8.99 600g chub? -- Hard to read the ad, but this is a good deal for a big chub of genoa!
• Mortadella (San Daniele) - $8.99 750g chub -- Works out to $1.20/100g, which is a substantial savings compared to the deli counter or buying it presliced and packed!
• BBQ Sauce and Mustard (Selection) - $1.00 each -- Nice! I personally love mustard and a good BBQ sauce. Might be nice to stock up for that burger night!
• Chips (Irresistibles) - $1.00 150g bag -- I usually don't point out chips and seed-oil-snacks, but this is a great deal!
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low

FoodLand

• Beef top sirloin steaks (AAA) - $7.99 per lb -- Great price for AAA steaks. Top sirloin isn't the best place to get a steak cut, but it could be fine. Have a look in-store and judge for yourself.
• Shrimp (31-40ct, Compliments) - $6.99 per lb -- Good price for shrimp, but note that these are small.
• Bar scallops (80-120ct, Compliments) - $6.99 per lb -- These are quite small, but they could be interesting to thaw, pat dry, and sear quick on high heat for use in salads. Or perhaps as a top to a risotto?
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Scene Member Price.
• Corn - $5.00 for 5 years -- $1 an ear!?!#@! Are they mad?! Do they not watch the news about boycotts and how consumers are pissed? And then you're going to charge them $1 for an ear of corn? My goodness…
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-high to high.

Freshco (price matcher)

• Bacon (Schneider's) - $3.99 375g pack -- Good price for brandname bacon. Sale also extends to some of their wieners and bologna.
• Frozen burgers (Compliments) - $9.99 1.13kg box (8-pack) -- This stretches us down into a $3/lb mark for beef. Which is pretty good all things considered, but know it's a processed meat. Read the ingredients: beef, water, bread crumb, soya flour, and salt and seasoning. You're paying for recovered meat mixed with bread crumb and flour. And the nutritional info on the pack reads 73% daily value of sat-fat in one 142g burger. A 152g fresh patty lands you at 60%. Know your food!
• Wild-caught Argentinian shrimp (23-30ct) - $6.99 300g bag -- This is a good rate on decent shrimp!
• Sweet peppers - $2.99 4-pack -- Nice!
• Mushrooms - $2.99 454g shell -- Great price!
• Green beans - $1.99 per lb -- Awesome price for green beans!
• Royal Gala apples - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for a nice apple variety. However, you can also sometimes score these for $1/lb if you wait and dig around for the sale.
• Blueberries - $2.49 full pint -- Nice! Another great blueberry sale!
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low (more on the medium side)

Giant Tiger (*note the VIP prices; sales begin today) (price matcher)

• Hotdog wieners (Olymel) - $2.47 375g 5-pack -- Sigh… Good price for wieners, but still… Don't overdo it. These are categorically terrible for you!
• Ambrosia apples - $2.88 3lb bag -- Great deal on a tasty apple variety that hits that $1/lb mark!
• Blueberries - $2.88 full pint -- Man! So many blueberry deals! Where are these coming from?!
• Romaine lettuce - $2.88 3-pack -- Nice! Fair price for romaine hearts.
• Baby spinach - $1.97 140g bin -- Good price for 140g. The prices of these bins are the weights are all over the place. Some places charge $4 for the same bin. And then some others charge $4 for 300g bins. Treat carefully!
• Canned tomatoes (Primo) - $3.00 for 2 796ml cans -- Good price for nice tomatoes. Funny enough, in this week's flyer, they advertise the Great Value (housebrand) tomatoes for 1.77 being 50c, but if you buy two Primo cans they work out to 50c less than the Great Value (confused yet? Lol)
• Fireworks - various -- LOL I just wanted to mention they got fireworks and firecrackers hahaha
• Produce Price Rating: Generally on the low side.

Green Fresh Supermarket (Vanier) (check https://greenfreshottawa20.wixsite.com/greenfreshottawa)

• Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.

IGA (price matcher)

• Hotdog wieners (Lafleur) - $5.00 for 2 packs 375-450g -- More hot dog prices for our analysis. I'm noting these to get a sense of what the heck is going on with these….
• Lobster (cooked or live) - $7.75 per lb -- Scene Member Price. 9.75/lb regular. Awesome deal!
• Tomahawk steak - $13.99 per lb -- That's pretty good for a fancy steak cut. I like thick cut steak because you can get that and crust without overcooking the meat. Pro tip: always salt and set your steak uncovered to dry in the fridge. That's what gets you a top-notch crust!
• Veal loin rack - $13.99 per lb -- This is more interesting than a value proposition. Expect a decent-sized rack to run you a pretty penny, but it should cook nicely. Remember to let it rest after it reaches the desired internal temp. Be patient!
• Whole chicken (fresh) - $1.99 per lb -- Great price!!
• Eggs (Nutri, Burnbrae) - $5.79 18-pack -- Not a ground-breaker price. Maybe it's just nice see some price stability in egg prices.
• Corn - $4.00 for 10 ears -- Excellent deal at 40c an ear!
• Cherries - $4.99 per lb -- Awesome!!! Cherries can easily reach into the $8-9/lb range.
• Bologna (Lesters) - $5.49 675g chub -- This is a good price for a chub. It's not fancy deli, but it beats the prices by 2-3x or more given you're paying 81c/100g.
• Deli - Cooked ham (Olymel) - $1.99 per 100g -- Speaking of deli prices, consider this unholy monolith slab of ham versus that slice-it-yourself bologna. This "hamalgum sibling" is 2.5x the price of the bologna by Lesters… Just saying…
• Produce Price Rating: Medium

Independent

• Pork back rib - $3.99 per lb -- Meh price for pork rib… $3/lb is good, but $4/lb doesn't seem worth it when it's largely bone anyway! I'd rather buy the duck they have for $4/lb….
• Atlantic salmon - $9.99 per lb -- Average price for pink fish.
• Beef striploin steaks (AA) - $7.88 per lb -- Good enough price for steaks, but FoodLand had AAA grade for the same price.
• Duck (fresh, grade A) - $3.99 per lb -- Good rate for duck.
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Meh rate. There's better.
• Strawberries - $2.49 454g shell -- Good price for strawberries.
• Butter (Lactantia) - $5.99 454g bar -- Sigh… I wish butter would come down in price…
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Loblaws

• Pork back rib - $3.99 per lb -- Meh price for pork rib… $3/lb is good, but $4/lb doesn't seem worth it when it's largely bone anyway! I'd rather buy the duck they have for $4/lb….
• Atlantic salmon - $9.99 per lb -- Average price for pink fish.
• Beef striploin steaks (AA) - $8.88 per lb -- Ben là là! Same AA steak, $1/lb more…
• Beef boneless blade roast (AA) - $8.99 per lb -- Ok price for beef… It's kind of meh… Consider visiting local butchers to see what they have going on.
• Duck (fresh, grade A) - $3.99 per lb -- Good rate for duck.
• Sweet potatoes - $3.99 5lb bag -- Great price for sweet potatoes
• Mini-cucumbers - $1.99 6-pack -- "Save $2". Ya, we know Loblaws. I've been saving $2 on these packs for months now at other stores.
• Blueberries - $1.99 full pint -- Great price for blueberries!
• Mango - $0.99 each -- Fair price for mango considering I've seen Loblaws charge much more for them. Also, I expect we'll see some nice sub-$1 deals in the future.
• Butter (Lactantia) - $5.99 454g bar -- More $6 butter.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Provigo

• Pork chops - $2.49 per lb -- Good price for pork chops.
• Chicken breast and thighs (boneless skinless) - $4.99 per lb -- Good price chicken.
• Atlantic salmon - $8.99 per lb -- Good price for pink fish.
• Corn - $5.00 4-pack -- What?! How can we have these disparities… Maxi has theirs for 33c an ear. That's $1.30 versus $5 for 4 ears… Insane difference in price…
• Watermelon (9lb average) - $3.88 each -- Nice price for watermelon.
• Mango - $0.99 each -- That $1 deal again. "Save $2". Meaning regular price was $3. Insanity.
• Deli - Mock chicken (Gaspésien) - $1.29 per 100g -- Good price for deli, but it's mock chicken. I would refer back to the IGA deal on Lesters bologna. Buy whole chubs, slice it yourself, and save.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Maxi (price matcher)

• Ground beef (medum) - $8.88 1.1kg -- About 2.5lb of beef, which clocks this in at about 3.50/lb. That's pretty good!
• Corn - $0.33 per ear -- Awesome price for corn! It's crazy. Provigo had their 4-packs for $5. Which
• Mini-cucumbers - $0.88 6-pack -- Very nice! A regular "good deal" is $2.
• Coleslaw kit (Florette) - $1.88 340g kit -- Great deal for a salad kit.
• Potatoes (Imperfect) - $4.88 15lb bag -- Excellent!!
• Mini-carrots - $4.88 2lb bag -- This is a good deal given a 2/3lb bag can be $2-3.
• Watermelon - $2.88 each -- Nice price for watermelon, but no weight advertised.
• Kiwis - $4.88 600g pack -- Pretty good. Can be as low as $4, but this is a fair price.
• Apples (Cortland, Empire) - $5.88 4lb bag -- Ok price for what should be over-winter apples. Mind the bruising.
• Fancy cheese deal - $18.00 for 3 -- Check the flyer and in-store for more details.
• Sriracha (Flying Goose) - $3.88 730ml bottle -- Nice! It's a different brand, but the price is right. I wonder what the difference is.
• Silk plant bev - $6.88 for 2 1.75-1.89L jugs -- Good deal.
• White vinegar - $2.88 for 2 4L jugs -- This might be good to get in advance of some pickling plans.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium low pricing! This store can post some impressive deals at times.

Metro

• Pork back rib - $2.99 per lb -- Good price for pork rib. It's that magical $3/lb mark. It's hard to find rib for less. And, I wouldn't pay over $3/lb.
• Beef top sirloin steak or roast (AAA) - $6.88 per lb -- Great price for AAA grade beef! They also have "platinum angus medallions" for 8.88/lb.
• Fresh sausage - $4.99 per lb -- Great price for fresh sausage. You can spend $1/lb more and get organic stuff by Dubreton.
• Cucumber - $0.77 each -- Awesome!!!
• Cauliflower - $2.99 each -- Decent. Not amazing, but decent given a head can go for $4-5 easily.
• Portabella mushrooms (Belle Grove) - $6.99 4-pack -- Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye out for prices on portabellas. This doesn't seem that bad off the hop. I know sometimes you can get 4-6 packs for about $4-5, though. But, you have to hunt around town for deals like that.
• Blueberries - $1.99 full pint -- Great price for blueberries!
• Cherries - $5.99 per lb -- Nice! Fair sale price for cherries!
• Watermelon (15lb average) - $9.99 each -- Trying to make sense of these watermelon prices. This isn't as good as some other deals. But considering on the same page they advertise 1.49/lb for sliced watermelon, it suggests this watermelon could cost you up to $22.
• Butter (Selection) - $4.88 454g bar -- $5 butter.
• Produce Price Rating: High. Kinda like Sobeys. You can see a 50% average mark-up compared to a lot of other stores. It's nice produce, but it costs you.

No Frills (price matcher)

• Beef burgers (No Name) - $9.99 1.36kg 12-pack -- Just more frozen burger musing. Basically much like the Compliments ones we saw earlier, but 113g each, but with more sugars and funny ingredients, and the same amount of sat-fat! (And they skip mentioning that 75%-ish daily value number for the sat-fat). Like, what the heck are "onion extract" and "corn syrup solids". Do they squeeze the onion and throw away the rind? And isn't solid syrup just solid sugar? lol....
• T-bone/Wing steak - $6.99 per lb -- This might seem like a good deal, but it's ungraded beef. Why pay this price when metro has AAA-grade steaks for a smidge less?
• Picnic pork shoulder - $2.44 per lb -- Excellent price! These are AWESOME for smoking and braising for pulled pork!
• Ground chicken or turkey - $8.00 870g pack -- Not bad. Works out to about $4.20/lb or so.
• Ground beef (lean) - $6.00 450g tube -- Really a meh price for "tube meat".
• Steelhead trout fillet - $9.99 per lb -- Standard pricing for pink fish.
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Ok price for asparagus. I expect better from No Frills.
• Green beans - $2.99 per lb -- Same with the green beans, I expect a bit better.
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Good price for cucumber.
• Mini-cucumber - $3.99 11-pack -- Fair price on the 11-pack. Meanwhile, Maxi has the 6-pack for 88c… Sigh…
• Watermelon (9lb average) - $2.99 each -- Good price for melon.
• Ataulfo mangoes - $5.64 5lb case -- This should work out to about 8 or so mangoes. Good deal.
• Pineapple - $2.99 each -- Good price for pineapple.
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $5.49 400g bar -- Hmm, ya, seeing some 50c to $1 upward pressure on cheese pricing a little everywhere….
• Earth's Own plant bev - $3.79 1.74-1.89L jug -- Good price. Regular floats well into the $5-ish ranges.
• Dry pasta (Italpasta) - $1.25 750g packs -- Good price for dry pasta. Stock up a little. Maybe there's a potluck pasta salad in your future.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally quite low, selectively amazing for some items.

Produce Depot (usually a little late on the flyer) https://producedepot.ca/

• Ground beef (lean) - $4.99 per lb -- Fair rate for ground beef. Considering No Frills is selling 450g tube meat for $6, I'd buy this in a heartbeat. It's just not stock-up pricing.
• Beef New York striploin steak - $12.99 per lb -- I wish they'd mention the grade, but if it looks nice, it could make for a nice BBQ item.
• Whole atlantic salmon (fresh) - $6.99 per lb -- Now, it's not filet and deboned, but it's a heckin' deal for salmon.
• Wild-caught squid - $8.99 per lb -- Perhaps there's calamari in your future?
• Hothouse tomatoes - $1.29 per lb -- Great price for tomatoes!
• Green and red leaf lettuce - $1.69 per head -- Great price for leafy greens!
• Sweet orange peppers - $0.99 per lb -- AWESOME price for peppers!!!
• Brussel sprouts - $1.49 per lb -- Fantastic price for brussel sprouts! Often over $3/lb.
• Blackberries - $1.49 half pint -- Good deal for blackberries. Lots of blueberries going around, though.
• Red seedless grapes - $1.99 per lb -- Fantastic price for grapes! Often $4/lb.
• Peaches - $2.49 per lb -- These are from the USA. It could be a they come out a little tough. Leave them on the counter to ripen, but eat them fast after that!
• Cheese counter - Landana smoked cheese - $2.39 per 100g -- I'm partial to smoked cheese. This could make for a nice fancy burger topping.
• Deli - Genoa salami (Mastro) - $2.59 per 100g -- This isn't fantastic pricing, but fair. A 600g chub can clock in at $10-12 or so, this deli counter pricing is fairly competitive.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-low with very competitive specials on a shortened flyer. The small flyer is nice because it doesn't uselessly feature $6 heads of cauliflower and extremely high-price items that are either a confusion on the consumer, or an insult on the injury of not being able to afford supreme quality items.

Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)

• Beef rib-steak (ungraded) - $7.88 per lb -- More ungraded beef at graded prices.
• Pork tenderloin - $3.49 per lb -- Fair price for tenderloin.
• Duck (frozen, grade A) - $3.99 per lb -- Fairly regular price for duck.
• Golden Pompano (frozen) - $2.88 per lb -- This is advertised a lot at the RCSS. I've never seen it elsewhere. Does anyone have experience with it?
• Dressed Tilapia (frozen) - $2.88 per lb -- Dressed means tail and fines removed,
• Potatoes - $5.50 10lb bag -- Great price for potatoes.
• Corn - $0.40 per ear -- Awesome price for corn. This is probably loss-leader territory.
• Watermelon (11lb average) - $3.99 each -- Good price for a big melon.
• Pineapple - $3.00 each -- Good price for pineapple.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium-low pricing, selectively amazing for some items.

Sobeys

• Chicken thighs (boneless skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Fair price for boneless chicken. There's better out there, however.
• Beef striploin steaks (AA) - $8.77 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Beef sirloin tip roast or marinating steaks (AAA) - $8.99 per lb -- Hmm, striploin AA versus sirloin tip AAA… Might be a toss up. Sirloin is leaner and has less marbling. But AAA might lend to a tenderness. This may be give and take, here…
• Lobster (live) - $10.99 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Pork chops - $3.49 per lb -- Not a great price, really, but it may be your option if you're stuck with Sobey's this week. Ad mentions it includes roasts.
• Picnic pork shoulder - $3.49 per lb -- We saw No Frills offereing this at 2.44/lb. A $1/lb more isn't great, admittedly. But, it's an option.
• Asparagus - $2.44 per lb -- Good price!
• Green beans - $2.67 per lb -- Good price!
• Bok choy - $0.99 per lb -- Amazing price. I don't get how other places charge $2/lb+ for choy, and then you have Sobeys of all stores swooping in to corner that side of the market.
• Asian pears - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome price!
• Brick cheese (Cracker Barrel) - $5.77 400g bar -- More of this elevated cheese pricing… Hmm….
• Produce Price Rating: Generally a high price store, especially for produce. Some items are 50% more than more value-oriented stores. Kinda like Metro, some of the deals can be quite good.

Super C

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $4.44 per lb -- Awesome price!!
• Atlantic salmon - $9.88 per lb -- Standard sale price for pink fish.
• Pork tenderloin (marinated) - $3.44 per lb -- Good price. Not amazing. But, pre-marinated? Hmm, makes for an easy meal.
• Corn - $1.88 for 5 ears -- Awesome price!! Under 40c an ear!
• Broccoli - $1.33 per crown -- Very good price for broc, especially if the crowns are nice. A good crown can easily range over $2.
• Radishes - $0.99 per bunch -- Nice! A good addition to salads or veg trays.
• Green onions - $0.99 per bunch -- Fair price for green onion. It's hard to find it under $1.
• Mini-carrots - $0.99 340g bag -- Nice!
• Mini-cucumbers - $1.99 6-pack -- Fair going-rate now for mini cuce. A very welcome change from charging $4 for these packs.
• Mini-potatoes - $1.99 3lb bag -- Good price for mini potatoes. There's still better value in regular size potatoes most of the time. But, sometimes, these sales can negate that value proposition. Plus, these are nice a thousands ways to Sunday. They cook very quickly, and are great oven-roasted, steamed, and BBQ'ed with other veg.
• Apples (Empire, Spartan) - $3.99 3lb bag -- Fair price for apples these days, it seems. I think we'll be hard-pressed to find certain varieties for under $1/lb for a while.
• Strawberries - $1.63 454g shell -- Awesome price!!!
• Pineapple - $1.88 each -- Fantastic!
• Oranges - $2.99 3lb bag -- Good price for oranges!
• Mangos - $0.99 each -- Good price. Mangoes should clock in at around $1 each. Enough of these $2-3 mangos…
• Cantaloupe - $2.99 each -- Good price/fair sale price for cantaloupe.
• Cherries - $4.99 per lb -- Wow! Great price for cherries!!!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond, Ptit Quebec) - $4.87 400g bar -- Nice to see we still ahve sub-$5 cheese options this week.
• Fancy cheese deal - $18.00 for 3 -- Apparently includes 20 different varieties.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally low, but can creep into medium for some items. But, there's always something decent available!

T&T Supermarket https://www.tntsupermarket.com

• Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.

Walmart

• Ground beef (lean) - $3.97 per lb -- Excellent rate on ground beef! Make your own burgers!!!!
• Chicken or Pork kabobs (Marcangelo) - $7.87 480-640g 8-packs -- It's basically $1 a kabob. That ain't bad for a ready-to-cook item. But, note that this translates essentially into 8/lb at worst, or 5.50/lb at best. There are WAY better deals on pork and chicken around.
• Asparagus - $2.97 per lb -- Fair price for asparagus.
• Corn - $0.32 per ear -- Best price on corn this week!
• Potatoes - $4.97 10lb bag -- Good price for a 10lb bag.
• Coleslaw kit - $2.77 397g kit -- Good price for a decent-size slaw kit.
• Strawberries - $1.84 454g shell -- Awesome price!!!
• Pineapple - $3.97 each -- Not bad. I like to see $3, and less shouldn't be taken for granted. Remember, it takes 2 years to grow a pineapple. One bad fungal disease and we should see these shoot up to $6-8 a piece. Treasure well-priced pineapple!
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $4.94 400g bar -- Another $5 brick cheese sale.
• Produce Price Rating: A little all over the place. Some really good prices between a lot of average pricing.

Costco (Note that these are the online/shipped prices - reduce each item by $3 for in-store pricing)

• NOTE: NEED TO REVISE - --
• Paper Towel (Kirkland) - $27.99 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 160 sheets
• Paper Towel (Bounty) - $27.49 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 86 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Kirkland) - $25.99 30-roll pack -- 2-ply; 380 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Cashmere) - $24.99 40-roll pack -- 2-ply; 250 sheets (on sale)
• Dish soap (Dawn Platinum) - $18.99 2.66L -- Food Basics often has this jug for $10!
• Laundry detergent (Purex) - $24.99 9.24L -- 250 loads
• Garbage bags (30 gallon; large) - $15.99 100-pack -- Amazon has Glad standard 74L bags, 100-packs for $23, sometimes less if on sale
• Countertop green bin liners - $21.99 125-pack -- Amazon has Glad Compostable green bin liners 100-packs for $18, sometimes less if on sale
• Produce Price Rating: I need to do a proper check to be sure, but I find it's pretty average. There's an illusion of getting a good deal because of the bulk. Just be careful.

Jean Coutu (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: I have to start checking these just in case...

Shoppers Drug Mart (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: Sometimes they have cheap butter, eggs, and milk on weekends.

Some additional references!

• Grocery Review Google Drive Location https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xhLvBP1smXb1eSnxAW5yyBjO2aYFLJHC?usp=sharing
• Cooking Tips and Recipes https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TCcHm9y0kWIa3x18hznKN2ix0BPcUv-m?usp=drive_link
• Google Maps list of the Grocery stores in Ottawa https://maps.app.goo.gl/YT7cZmv8vMQWU4J59

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It's Mother's day this weekend. Don't forget about your mom!

THURSDAY - MAY 9th

Nicki Minaj @ Toyota Center @ 8PM With MONICA
Ongoing - Happy Hour @ MFAH @ 5PM Meet your friends at the MFAH for the best night of the week. Explore the campus, visit the galleries, and get a drink at the bar. General admission is free.
‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Screening @ Market Square Park @ 8PM
Kenny Chesney @ Woodlands Pavilion @ 7:30PM With Megan Moroney
Blackberry Smoke @ 713 Music Hall @ 8PM
Theo Lawrence @ Discovery Green @ 7PM
Brother Cane @ Warehouse Live @ 6PM
Rowdy + Wellborn Road @ Scout Bar @ 8:20PM

FRIDAY - MAY 10th

Experience Europe Day @ POST @ 7PM Embark on a European adventure with vibrant culture, delectable cuisine, captivating music, and more from across the Atlantic.
Kurt Elling Quartet + Danilo Pérez @ Wortham Theater @ 8PM DACAMERA presents world-renowned Grammy winning artist Kurt Elling and pianist Danilo Pérez in a stand-out jazz concert.
Echo & The Bunnymen @ White Oak Music Hall @ 7PM
Waxahatchee @ The Heights Theater @ 8PM With Good Morning
Cosmic Gate @ Stereo Live @ 10PM
Bobby Nsenga @ Warehouse Live @ 7PM

SATURDAY - MAY 11th

Houston Art Bike Parade and Festival @ MacGregor Park @ 9AM Celebrate culture and community at this fun, family-friendly event featuring a bike parade, live music, art activities, food & drinks, and more!
Bring Your Own Beamer @ Menil @ 8:30PM This special event allows visitors to bring their own video, film, overhead projector, or slide imagery to be experienced on the museum’s vast facade.
Ongoing - Saturday Stargazing @ George Observatory in Needville
Ongoing - Farmers Market @ Market Square Park @ 9AM This spring, enjoy Houston’s best vendors in the very heart of downtown!
‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ Screening @ MFAH @ 9PM
Funny Marco & Bobbi Althoff Comedy Show @ Bayou Music Center @ 7:30PM
Empire State Jazz Festival @ Discovery Green @ 12PM Enjoy live smooth jazz performances by nationally recognized artists at this family-friendly festival perfect for Mother’s Day celebrations!
Beethoven & Bruckner in Concert @ The Hobby Center @ 7PM Texas Medical Center Orchestra invites listeners for a concert of timeless classical melodies from Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4.
Jacob Collier @ 713 Music Hall @ 7:30PM
Xavi @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Taylor Acorn @ House of Blues @ 7PM
Gavin DeGraw @ White Oak Music Hall @ 7PM With Kevin Garrett
Slowdive @ White Oak Music Hall @ 7PM With Drab Majesty
Shwayze @ Last Concert Cafe @ 8PM
Ian Moore Band @ The Heights Theater @ 8PM With Restos
Acraze @ Stereo Live @ 10PM
K-Pop Club Bight ft. Yuka K @ Warehouse Live @ 9PM

SUNDAY - MAY 12th

‘In The Fiddler’s House’ Concert @ Jones Hall @ 7:30PM In this special performance, Houston Symphony Artistic Partner Itzhak Perlman presents his collection of traditional klezmer music.
Dale Elliott Stand Up @ House of Blues @ 4PM / 7:30PM
Jazzy Sundays @ Discovery Green @ 5PM Featuring Doreen Ketchens
Tank @ Smart Financial Centre @ 8PM R&B Money Tour Featuring Keri Hilson and Carl Thomas
The Motet @ Last Concert Cafe @ 8PM
Alejandro Aranda @ White Oak Music Hall @ 8PM
Minutes to Midnight: Linkin Park Experience @ Warehouse Live @ 2PM

All Weekend

FRIDAY & SATURDAY - A Night of Celebration with Houston Ballet @ Miller Outdoor Theatre @ 8PM The internationally renowned Houston Ballet dancers will be showcasing incredible athleticism and artistry from some of the most famous and beloved ballets over the last 20 years.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY - ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ in Concert @ Jones Hall This concert features the film in high-definition, on a giant screen, while a live orchestra performs John Williams’ unforgettable score.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY - Mother’s Day Weekend @ MFAH Bayou Bend Celebrate Mother’s Day with free admission for mothers, complimentary drinks and snacks, live harpist, and art pieces that tell the stories of motherhood.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY - Sugar Land Jazz Festival @ Crown Festival Park Featuring Boney James, Robert Glasper, Tower of Power, & more!
SATURDAY & SUNDAY - Aventura @ Toyota Center @ 8PM
All weekend - Ralph Barbosa Stand Up @ Houston Improv
All weekend - ‘Someone Like You: The Music of Adele’ Concert @ Art Factory This powerful concert experience, delivered in an intimate candlelit setting, promises an unforgettable evening of Adele’s chart-topping hits.
All weekend - ‘The Sound of Music’ Opera @ Wortham Theater LAST CHANCE - Acclaimed director Francesca Zambello incorporates songs from both the theatrical version and its famous cinematic adaptation into her new opera production.
All weekend - ‘Othello: The Remix’ Musical @ Stages Repertory Theatre This production takes ‘The Tragedy of Othello’ to a whole new level in this lit Hip Hop remix as an onstage DJ spins Shakespeare’s legendary masterpiece of jealousy, revenge and passion.
All weekend - ‘The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical’ @ Crighton Theatre Adapted from the best-selling book by Rick Riordan and featuring a thrilling original rock score this new musical production is an action-packed mythical adventure for the whole family!
All weekend - ‘The Emporium’ Play @ Alley Theatre Thornton Wilder’s unfinished masterpiece comes to life for the first time, and the audience gets to be an active participant in the very fabric of the play!
All weekend - ‘On Midnight, Friday the Thirteenth’ Play @ Ensemble Theatre Help investigate a murder mystery in this intriguing and exciting dark comedy.
All weekend - ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ Play @ The George Theatre LAST CHANCE - This story about a unique and unlikely friendship between a Jewsih woman and a Black man in 1940s in Georgia reminds us of the common humanity and the value of life.
All weekend - ‘The Father’ Play @ 4th Wall Theatre LAST CHANCE - The play questions the nature of identity, memory, and the human experience, as it explores the profound impact that dementia can have on individuals and their loved ones.

Ongoing Special Events and Museum Exhibitions

Ongoing - ‘Jurassic World’ Exhibition @ Katy Mills The limited-time globally sold-out exhibition immerses audiences of all ages in scenes inspired by the beloved film. Discover the science of jurassic world and walk in the land of jurassic giants, closer than ever before!
Ongoing - Dinosaurs @ Houston Zoo Trek through a lush forest trail to see life-sized animatronic creatures, including the fan favorite T-rex, Brachiosaurus, Edmontonia, and more!
Ongoing - Sloomoo Exhibition @ Marq E Entertainment Center Immerse yourself in the joy of sensory play with Sloomoo Institute’s colorful world of never-ending, hand-crafted slime, yummy scents, and soothing ASMR delights.
Ongoing - ‘Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism’ Exhibition @ MFAH The exhibition presents, for the first time in the United States, the origins and legacy of fauvism through paintings, drawings, and watercolors by Henri Matisse and André Derain.
Ongoing - ‘Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence’ Exhibition @ MFAH Wiley’s monumental, large-scale paintings of Black and Brown individuals confront and challenge the silence surrounding systemic violence and injustice.
Ongoing - ‘Ruth Asawa Through Line’ Exhibition @ Menil The exhibition presents drawings, collages, watercolors, and sketchbooks showing the breadth of Ruth Asawa’s innovative and profound practice.
Ongoing - ‘Janet Sobel: All-Over’ Exhibition @ Menil See the pioneering work of Janet Sobel and her ‘All-Over’ abstract expressionist painting technique which inspired generations of artists, including Jackson Pollock.
Ongoing - ‘Hayv Kahraman: The Foreign Us’ Exhibition @ Moody Center for the Arts LAST CHANCE - Kahraman’s first solo exhibition features works informed by the artist’s Iraqi-Kurdish heritage and experience as a refugee while highlighting her research-driven practice.

(As always, flyers are out Wednesdays, most store sales for the new flyer start on Thursdays)
Adonis

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Fair price for chicken breast and a common price at Adonis. Lower is definitely possible, where $4.50/lb is a "best target".
• Chicken legs - $2.49 per lb -- Fair price for chicken legs and a common price at Adonis. The stock-up price target is about $1.50/lb.
• Fresh Sea Bass (free cleaning) - $6.88 per lb -- Nice! Fresh fish!
• Red Sea Bream (free cleaning) - $9.99 per lb -- Ohh, more bream this week! Nice to see!
• Shrimp skewers - $0.99 each -- Ad is a little unclear, but if these are 99c a skewer, that ain't bad!
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Excellent price for tomatoes!
• Flat cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Good price for cabbage.
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Great price for a cucumber, but watch out for other deals.
• Blueberries - $2.99 full pint -- Good price for a full pint.
• Boursin cheese - $4.99 150g pack -- Nice!
• Jarlsberg - $9.99 300g -- Decent. We've seen Jarlsberg go as low as $2/100g.
• Camembert (Le Rustique) - $9.99 250g -- Fair price if it's really good camembert. You can score deals on soft cheeses like this that can swing that price down to about $2.50/lb, but it's rarer and rarer these days.
• Brie, triple cream (l'Extra) - $9.99 300g -- Fair price for really good brie.
• Deli - Havarti (Casetelo) - $1.99 per 100g -- Great price for havarti. Tasty stuff in a nice sandwich!
• Deli - Beef bologna (Solmaz) - $1.49 per 100g -- Cheap deli!
• Deli - Chicken breast (Alzahraa) - $1.29 per 100g -- Cheap deli!
• Deli - Turkey breast (Schneiders) - $1.99 per 100g -- Great price for medium-brand deli.
• Deli - Prosciutto (San Daniele) - $2.79 per 100g -- Great price!
• Produce Price Rating: Medium, but always has well-priced chicken, the deli meat sale rotations are always fantastic, and just the overall variety of goods is refreshing. Personal favourite store.

Farm Boy

• Atlantic Snow Crab - $7.99 per lb -- Fun seafood option. Definitely a treat, but might make for a nice dinner!
• Bacon (Leadbetter) - $3.99 375g pack -- Not the cheapest option in bacon, but it's a step up from value-brand bacon.
• Vidalia onions - $1.88 per lb -- Ouufff, that hurts my feelings. Vidalias are my favourite onion, but at nearly $2/lb when regular ones shouldn't go over 80c/lb, it's a tough one to swallow...
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Great price for a cucumber, but watch out for other deals.
• Deli - Black Forest Ham (Brandt) - $1.99 per 100g -- Good deal on good ham!
• Deli - Chicken breast roast (Maple Lodge) - $2.49 per 100g -- Good deal on nice deli.
• Produce Price Rating: High

Farmers Pick (can be a little late on their flyer) (https://www.farmerspick.ca/flyer-specials)
Food Basics

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless, Maple Lodge) - $4.98 per lb -- Good price for chicken breast!
• Bacon (Leadbetter) - $3.88 375g pack -- Like the Leadbetter's at Farmboy, it's step-up bacon, and it's a good sale price.
• Atlantic salmon - $10.88 per lb -- Fair price for salmon.
• Carrots - $1.25 2lb bag -- Awesome!
• Onions - $1.25 2lb bag -- Awesome!
• Broccoli - $1.25 per crown -- Great price!
• Mini cucumbers - $1.99 6-pack -- Nice! Good price!
• Apples (various) - $2.98 3lb bag -- Fair price for apples, but mind the type you buy. Some varieties bruise up easily and you could easily lose a few soldiers if not careful.
• Lemons - $2.98 2lb bag -- Fair price for lemons.
• Oranges - $1.88 3lb bag -- Great price for oranges!! That's 60c/lb!!
• Blueberries - $1.88 half pint -- Good price for blueberries. About 1.50-175 for a half-pint is good.
• Mango - $0.67 each -- Wow! Haven't seen a 67c mango in months!
• Cantaloupe - $2.98 each -- Good ol' $3 melon.
• Mini watermelon - $3.98 each -- Great price for a small watermelon!
• Corned beef (Hereford) - $2.98 340g can -- Not the most exciting ingredient, but it's good to have one or two cans in the pantry.
• SPAM - $2.98 340g can -- Same as the corned beef.
• Smoked ham (Selection) - $8.00 675g toupie -- That works out to just about 1.18/100g, which is a good rate on ham for sandwiches, or frying up for a meal.
• Tofu (Fountaine santé) - $5.00 For 2x 400g packs -- Good price for tofu. $2.50 for 400g is "nice average". If you're paying $2, it's a good deal. $3+ and you're either outside of town, or you're paying for a special brand or dessert tofu.
• Silk plant bev - $2.88 1.74-1.89L -- Excellent deal on the Silk stuff. This is commonly $4-5 per jug, Under $3 is a good deal.
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low

FoodLand

• Pork chops (loin cut) - $2.99 per lb -- Fair price for decent cuts of pork. Given these are boneless, you're a meat gavel away from schnitzel.
• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $5.88 per lb -- Fair price for chicken breast. Lower is definitely possible, where $4.50/lb is the a "best target".
• Beef cross-rib roast (AAA) - $7.99 per lb -- Fair price for beef, but not my price-point. I prefer to see at least $6/lb before I start entertain these cuts and products. Though, I'm maybe a poor judge as I'm not really a fancy steak kinda guy. But, that's also how I save tons of cash. As the saying goes, the customer is always right in matters of taste!
• Atlantic salmon - $10.99 per lb -- Fair price for salmon.
• Brick cheese (Compliments) - $5.49 400g bar -- Not the best price for cheap brick cheese, but it's ok. It's at least 50c my standard go-to rate. But Foodland isn't an "in-town" brand, so the price scales higher as you move out of dense city areas.
• Luncheon meat (Holiday) - $1.99 340g can -- I think this is similar to SPAM, but I've never had it personally.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-high to high.

Freshco (price matcher)

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $10.00 4-pack -- Marge Simpson grunts, these products are deceiving. Throw these on the scale and make sure they're at least 2lb.
• Smoked sausages (Compliments) - $7.99 900g pack -- These come in a couple of different flavours, including "bacon cheddar". Works out to $4/lb, which ain't bad. I think these are pre-cooked as well. You can score good raw sausage for about the same price or just a bit more, but it'll be much tougher to find.
• Sweet peppers - $3.99 4-pack -- Fair price. Not the best, but not the worst either.
• Hothouse tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Excellent price for tomatoes!
• Corn - $2.00 for 5 ears -- Excellent! 40c an ear!!!
• Celery - $2.99 per head -- Ok price for celery. Lots of places charge $4 for nice big heads of celery...
• Bok choy, Napa, Flat Cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Amazing price for choy and napa, fair for cabbage. The other day, I made a choy salad with a little light dressing. Super tasty.
• Green onions - $0.99 per bunch -- $1/bunch is basically the new normal when it comes to green onions.
• Ginger - $1.99 per lb -- Good price. You'll often find it more in the $3/lb range.
• Garlic - $1.29 5-pack -- Nice!
• Asian pears - $1.88 per lb -- Nice! Not bad for a fancier fruit. In season, you can score these easily under 1.50/lb
• Apples (Gala) - $1.49 per lb -- Not bad for a good apple, though it's still a bit high. 1.25/lb would be the better rate. But, short of sending your kids off to school with a head of bok choy in their lunch, I don't know what we're supposed to do here...
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $4.44 400g bar -- Nice! Sub-$5 brick cheese!
• Silk plant bev - $3.49 1.74-1.89L -- Nice little sale price. Down from about $5 this week.
• Carole's Japanese Cheesecake - $8.88 500g cake -- All I can think of is Charlie from It's Always Sunny, in the mail room freaking out about Pepe Silvia, and how there's no Carole in HR.
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $4.49 whatever -- Dude, what happened to these?! They used to be, like, $2-2.50 in 2020.
• Produce Price Rating: medium low (more on the medium side)

Giant Tiger (*note the VIP prices; sales begin today) (price matcher)

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $6.97 500-818g -- Aaahhhh boyyyy! Freakin' lotteries again. Limit of 5. Assuming there's 650g in a pack, that'S 1.5lb for $7, which is about 4.66/lb, which is good. Find a scale and check the weights!
• Bacon (Olymel) - $3.88 375g pack -- Like the Leadbetter's at Farmboy, it's step-up bacon, and it's a good sale price.
• Breakfast sausage (Olymel) - $3.88 375g pack -- Not feeling bacon, you can swap out to sausages.
• Celery - $1.88 per head -- Great price, but careful, these are often smaller heads. Two of these is about the same as one big $4 head at Basics, for example.
• Iceberg lettuce - $1.88 per head -- Good price for lettuce!
• Green onions - $1.88 per bunch -- This may sound pricey, but I found the bunches have suffered some shrinkage. Last I went to GT, these were bigger bunches. Mind your step when it comes to green onions, I guess.
• Salad kit (Dole) - $1.97 340g bag -- Great price for a salad kit. These can range easily into the $4 range. In fact, Basics has them for $4 this week. So, consider these half-price salad kits.
• Mini cucumbers - $1.97 6-pack -- Nice, $2 is a good rate. We were seeing $4 6-packs some weeks (though, I doubt we've seen the end of those days...)
• Apples (Royal Gala) - $2.88 3lb bag -- Good rate on galas. On that $1/lb target.
• Lemons - $2.88 2lb bag -- Fair price for lemons.
• Clementines - $2.88 2lb bag -- GREAT price for clementines!
• Cream cheese (Lactantia) - $2.47 250g bar -- Great price! Can often range into $4 for the same bar.
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $4.97 whatever -- What the... How did it get worse from Freshco to GT....
• Produce Price Rating: Generally on the low side.

Green Fresh Supermarket (Vanier) (check https://greenfreshottawa20.wixsite.com/greenfreshottawa) * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
IGA (price matcher)

• Lobster - $8.77 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Bacon (Mere Michel) - $3.99 375g pack -- More $4 mid-range-ish bacon going around.
• Greenouse tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! Another great $1/lb tomato deal!
• Blackberries - $1.44 half pint -- Scene Member Price.
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $3.99 400g bar -- Awesome!
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $3.47 whatever -- Bon, criss! And even then it's still too pricey for show shitty these pizzas are. What's a walk-in special at a pizza place these days?
• Produce Price Rating: Medium

Independent

• Beef brisket - $4.99 per lb -- Awesome price for beef brisket.
• Chicken breast or thighs (boneless skinless) - $4.99 per lb -- Good price. Go for the chicken and get out.
• Pork tenderloin - $3.49 per lb -- Fair price for tenderloin.
• Avocado - $2.49 each -- You know, you wanna give them the benefit of the doubt, but at 2.50 for an avocado, it better be big enough to kill a man, whether eaten or via bludgeoning.
• Blueberries - $2.77 full pint -- Awesome price!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Sub-$5 cheese is always welcome.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Loblaws

• Pork tenderloin - $3.49 per lb -- Fair price for tenderloin.
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Not bad for asparagus. We've seen better, but it's also not $4/lb we can commonly see.
• Salad Kits (PC) - $11.00 for 2 300g-ish -- We had mentioned earlier that GT has Dole-branded kits, same size, for $2. At $2, Dole could spit in my salad, and I still wouldn't look at these PC kits.
• Bok choy - $2.99 per lb -- Freshco has theirs for 99c/lb.
• Strawberries - $1.99 454g shell -- Awesome price for strawberries! Let's hope the quality is there. Sometimes cheap is cheap for a reason.
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Sub-$5 cheese is always welcome.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Provigo

• Atlantic Lobster (live) - $7.99 per lb -- Good price on lobster.
• Beef striploin steak - $7.88 per lb -- Good price on steak, but no indication of the grade.
• Chicken legs - $2.49 per lb -- Faiaverage price for chicken legs. Same as Adonis.
• Strawberries - $2.44 454g shell -- Not as good as the 1.99 deal, but still quite good.
• Brick cheese (Ptit Quebec) - $4.88 400g bar -- Sub-$5 cheese is always welcome. Took some digging, but I found out that it's the same owners as those of Cracker Barrel, hence the easy-same-price swap between Provigo and Loblaws.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Maxi (price matcher)

• Whole chicken - $1.99 per lb -- Awesome price for chicken! Learn to carve up a chicken. There's real savings there!
• Pork chops - $2.88 per lb -- Fair price for pork chops.
• Atlantic Salmon - $8.99 per lb -- Good price for salmon, under that $10/lb target.
• Small potatoes (Yellow, Russet) - $0.94 3lb bag -- Wow! 31c/lb! That's really good!
• Celery - $2.49 per head -- Good price for celery. Let's hope the heads are big and nice, and not "size-scaled according to price".
• Beefsteak tomatoes - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for tomatoes, but we're seeing some $1/lb sales. But if the quality is there, don't hesitate.
• Sweet peppers (green and red) - $3.99 4-pack -- Fair going price for peppers.
• Blueberries - $1.87 full pint -- WOW! Insanely good price for blueberries.
• Apples (Imperfect) - $6.00 6lb bag -- But is it 6lb?! Weigh the bag on a scale and check. Too much funny business in the fixed-weight products lately.
• Brick cheese (Ptit Quebec) - $4.87 400g bar -- Sub-$5 cheese is always welcome. Took some digging, but I found out that it's the same owners as those of Cracker Barrel, hence the easy-same-price swap between Provigo and Loblaws.
• Flour (Five Roses, Robinhood) - $13.99 10kg bag -- Hmm, these bags have seen a small increase from $11-12...
• Dry pasta (Primo) - $1.33 750g packs -- Great price! Stock-up a little!
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium low pricing! This store can post some impressive deals at times.

Metro

• Beef prime rib roast and steaks (AA) - $8.99 per lb -- I want to like this sale. It's prime rib, which is a nice cut, but I wish it was AAA grade. Best go in with options in mind, and make your decision when you see the meat. Give it a poke, check the fat lines, make sure it's going to be nice and tender.
• Pork loin chops or roast - $2.99 per lb -- If the beef doesn't look good, you've got a pork parachute.
• Chicken breast and thighs (boneless skinless, Prime) - $5.99 per lb -- Not the best price, but definitely a little lower than regular.
• Strawberries - $1.99 454g shell -- Awesome price for strawberries! Again, always mind the quality at these prices.
• Burrata - $20.00 2x 250g balls -- This cheese is stupendous. It's a treat and priced accordingly, but worth trying. Think of super-fresh mozz balls or fior de latte, but with a mozz-cottage-cheese thing going on inside.
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $3.49 whatever -- How is it that we go from $5 for these, to $3.50... That's such a huge swing...
• Produce Price Rating: High. Kinda like Sobeys. You can see a 50% average mark-up compared to a lot of other stores. It's nice produce, but it costs you.

No Frills (price matcher)

• Chicken drumsticks - $1.87 per lb -- Good enough price for chicken drumsticks. I'd rather see legs at this price, but this is fair.
• Smoked sausages (No Name) - $6.99 900g pack -- Goodness these look a LOT like the Compliments bag at Freshco lol...
• Peameal bacon - $2.88 per lb -- Interesting. Sometimes it's hard to find peameal for less than $4. Meanwhile, I've never bought the stuff, and I don't think I've seen many put it in their cart. I don't get it lol.
• Atlantic Salmon - $9.77 per lb -- On that $10/lb target.
• Corn - $0.33 per ear -- Great price for ears of corn!!
• Potatoes (Red, Yellow, Russet) - $4.99 10lb bag -- Fair sale price for potatoes. Regular prices can float easily over $7 now...
• Blueberries - $1.99 full pint -- Another fantastic blueberry sale!
• Pears (Bartlett) - $0.88 per lb -- Awesome price for pears!!!
• Milk (Neilson) - $4.88 4L bagged -- Great sale price on milk considering it's about $6-7 at the very least.
• Canned tuna (Ocean's) - $0.99 170g -- There's some funny business in the flyer this week. There's, like, 3 different cans of tuna. This one for 99c, a Clover Leaf for 2.99, and another Ocean's for 2.99.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally quite low, selectively amazing for some items.

Produce Depot (usually a little late on the flyer) https://producedepot.ca/

• Ground beef (medium) - $4.99 per lb -- Not bad. Not a stock-up price, but this would be good burger material.
• Beef top sirloin steak - $7.99 per lb -- No grade mentioned, so mind your step. But if the quality looks good, it'd make a great treat!
• Cod fillet (fresh) - $11.99 per lb -- Fair price for fresh cod.
• Cucumber - $0.49 each -- WOW WOW! That's a DEAL! Meanwhile, Loblaws and affiliates can't sell us a cucumber for less than $1 on average, or 2.49 for a fancy organic one...
• Flat cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! Great to see cheap cabbage. I think we're going to see a resurgence of hardier, self-stable veg like this becoming popular.
• Sweet peppers - $1.99 per lb -- Great price for peppers. It's hard to find off-season peppers for less than $3/lb.
• Oranges - $1.29 per lb -- Not amazing, but still pretty good. $1/lb is really the better target. But, a couple of oranges won't risk the coop.
• Strawberries - $1.69 454g shell -- WOW! Produce Depot coming around to prove a point! These won't last, so plan your trip if you want these!
• Cheese counter - Fontina (Castello) - $2.79 per 100g -- Nice cheese for a good price. It's not cheap per se, but it's on point with prices for artisanal cheese.
• Deli - Pastrami - $2.39 per 100g -- Great price for nice deli meat!!!
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-low with very competitive specials on a shortened flyer. The small flyer is nice because it doesn't uselessly feature $6 heads of cauliflower and extremely high-price items that are either a confusion on the consumer, or an insult on the injury of not being able to afford supreme quality items.

Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)

• Beef sirloin tip roast or steaks - $4.99 per lb -- Great price! I wonder about the grade, and I think I'd sooner do the roast because I know could get a tender bite out of the cooking method, versus fighting a tough steak that'll never rest into anything tender.
• Chicken breast (bone-in, skinless) - $3.99 per lb -- Good price for chicken breast, and bone-in is not bad. Boneless chicken loses out on a lot of flavour and moisture from the bone. And, there's so little bone along the breast that you don't really face the issue of undercooking it like you would with a leg (which requires higher temps or longer cooks, which can dry out if left too long in the oven or on the grill).
• Smoked sausages (No Name) - $9.99 900g pack -- From No Frills to RCSS, it'll cost you $3 to be in the store to get the same sausages...
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Good price for asparagus. When the crop-outs come through, we can see this dip to $2/lb, but out of that you can see as high as $4/lb.
• Mini cucumbers - $4.00 11-pack -- Well, considering we're seeing so many 6-packs go for $2, you've lose a cucumber with this 11-pack.
• Sweet peppers - $3.50 4-pack -- Great deal on a 4-pack.
• Vidalia onions - $5.99 3lb bag -- Sigh... $2/lb onions... Good onions, but damn...
• Potatoes (Imperfect) - $6.00 15lb bag -- Excellent! Great potato deal here, don't skip these! Pro tip: prep/cook whole potatoes in advance. Steam or pressure cook them, and keep them in the fridge. They slice real easy, and they fry/sauté really easily. Great for breakfasts, and a great alternative to bread.
• Grape tomatoes - $6.00 907g shell -- Great price for grape tomatoes. Freeze the ones that you don't use, and use them for stocks or to throw into soup to stew a bit before serving.
• Strawberries - $3.98 2lb shell -- Great deal. $2/lb, basically. That aligns with other great sales we see on strawberries.
• Pineapple - $3.00 each -- Good price for pineapple. $2 is the better target.
• Cantaloupe - $3.00 each -- Easy to find cantaloupe for $3, $2 occurs here and there. For the amount of melon you get, I don't think it's worth chasing that $1.
• Honeydew and Mini Watermelon - $4.99 each -- Meh prices for these melons. Not terrible, but not the greatest.
• Brick cheese (No Name) - $4.99 400g bar -- $5 brick cheese!
• Deli - Ziggy's Beef deli - $2.50 per 100g -- A consistent returning item and price for decent deli meat.
• Canned tomatoes (PC Blue Menu) - $1.59 796ml can -- Good price for canned tomatoes. Sometimes you can score canned tomatoes for as low as 1.25, 1.50 is still a very good price. $2 is not that great. 1.25 is the real stock-up price.
• Flour (Robinhood, Five Roses) - $11.99 10kg bag -- More and more I stand by having a 10kg bag in the pantry along with a jar of quick rise yeast. Making your own bread is not difficult. It's a fantastic skill to have. And after a dozen loaves, you'll get the hang of it.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium-low pricing, selectively amazing for some items.

Sobeys

• Chicken breast or thighs (boneless skinless, Compliments) - $5.88 per lb -- Upper-end fair going-rate for chicken breast. It's regular Adonis pricing, and more expensive than some of the better sales we see floating around.
• Chicken breast or thighs (boneless skinless, no antibiotics, Compliments) - $6.99 per lb -- Interesting to see the no-antibiotics version be $1/lb more. I wonder how that scales across all stores and brands... Seems to me $1/lb extra isn't bad.
• Pork tenderloin - $2.99 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Pork back rib - $2.99 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Beef brisket - $5.99 per lb -- $6/lb for AA grade ain't bad. Independent has the better deal on brisket, but choices must be made.
• Beef eye of round - $6.99 per lb -- It's a big cut of beef, but if you know how to spot and cut around the grain, you could get beef cubes, strips and marinating steaks out of this very easily.
• Scallops - $21.99 per lb -- Now, I usually don't recommend scallops, but I saw some scallop prices range of $28-32/lb. Farm Boy is just charging $3 for 2 scallops. LOL. And then you can score 300g frozen for $10 at Super C. Or get Metro bay scallops for $10/lb. No wonder I always go cross-eyed with scallop pricing.
• Cucumbers - $0.99 each -- Great price. Not the 50c sales we're seeing come up, but certainly better than some historical pricing we've seen.
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome price for tomatoes!
• Brick cheese (Compliments) - $4.99 400g -- Good ol' $5 brick cheese!
• Cooked and frozen pork ribs (Compliments) - $13.99 680g pack -- I bring this up not because it's a valid suggestion. I bring this up because the same 1.5lbs of pork rib can cost you as low as $4.50 at the same store with the Scene pricing. You could get 4.5lb of rib. That's at least 2 big racks, which easily feeds 6 people with sides. Take that in. It is non-trivial! Manufactured/prepared products like this suck us dry.
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Giuseppe) - $4.94 whatever -- Here we go again...
• Produce Price Rating: Generally a high price store, especially for produce. Some items are 50% more than more value-oriented stores. Kinda like Metro, some of the deals can be quite good.

Super C

• Chicken legs - $1.29 per lb -- WOW! Stock up! Fire up the BBQ! Marinate those legs over morning in some lemon juice, a little wine, rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper. Makes a great dinner main!
• Ground pork (extra lean) - $2.49 per lb -- WOW! Excellent price for ground pork!
• Tomahawk beef steak - $13.75 per lb -- Now, I'm not one to often suggest steaks like, this, but this is actually a tremendous cut. It might make a nice main for a special dinner!
• Bacon (Mere Michel) - $3.77 375g pack -- Good price for decent bacon. Lots of these sales going around.
• Asparagus - $2.77 per lb -- Great price for asparagus!
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.84 per lb -- WOW! Cheapest in town!
• Cucumbers - $0.99 each -- Nice! Let's hope these cucumber sales keep lowering!!
• Sweet potatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Great price! We're often seeing loose sweet potatoes range into the $1.30+/lb range.
• Blueberries - $0.99 half-pint -- Great price for blueberries!
• Lemons and limes - $0.99 for 3 -- Wow! Awesome price for citrus!
• Cantaloupe - $1.84 each -- Awesome! There's that $2 cantaloupe I was hoping to see!
• Oka cheese (and others!) - $4.75 170g pack -- Fantastic sale!!! Includes Monsier Gustav St-Paulin, Agropur Grand Cheddar, Notre-Dame brie, l'Extra Camembert. That's a lot of nice cheese at a nice price!
• Cheese Sale - $18 for 3 - varies -- Super cheese deal! Lots of varieties avialable, and you can score a lot of different products for basically $6 each.
• Earth's Own plant bev - $7.00 for 2x 1.75-1.89 --
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $3.47 whatever -- I think we can agree that these should be about 3.50 these days. Not $5...
• Produce Price Rating: Generally low, but can creep into medium for some items. But, there's always something decent available!

T&T Supermarket https://www.tntsupermarket.com * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
Walmart

• Whole chicken - $1.94 per lb -- Nice! I love $2/lb chicken! It puts us more on par with those loss-leader cooked chickens.
• Bacon (Great Value) - $2.94 375g pack -- Another bacon sale!
• Dinner sausage (Your Fresh Market) - $4.97 500g 4-pack -- Good price for raw sausage, but it's also close to the fresh-made price you can find at some stores ($6/lb). Note: precooked sausages and wieners are not something we should eat too often. They're packed with extra salts and fats, especially nitrites, which are used as a preservative, and it keeps meat pink. It's found in basically any processed meat you find on the shelf. In small quantities, it's fine, but North America is big on consuming these sorts of products, and some reports suggest 1/2 a hotdog a day, along with the bun and condiments, is linked to a 20% hike in rates of intestinal cancers. Raw fresh-made sausage often do not have nitrites. Just some food for thought and a reminder to check the ingredients listed on the package.
• Vine tomatoes - $1.94 per lb -- Not that great considering the sub-$1/lb sales we've seen.
• Green peppers - $1.94 per lb -- Fair and good rate on green peppers.
• Zucchini - $1.94 per lb -- A little high, but on par with other stores this week.
• Eggplant - $1.94 per lb -- A little high, but on par with other stores this week.
• Green onion - $0.94 for 2 -- Ouuu that's good for green onion. I was just saying $1 was the going-rate. This is half that! Excellent deal!
• Cilantro bunch - $0.94 for 2 -- Oh wow, that's really good for fresh cilantro. Bunches can be 99c, 1.50, or even $2.
• Mango (Red or Ataulfo) - $0.94 for 2 -- Awesome price for mango! There's an opportunity here for a mango salsa!!!
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $4.94 400g bar -- Good ol' $5 brick!
• Frozen veg (Great Value) - $2.47 500-750g -- More of a reminder to look out for this sort of pricing on frozen veg. Bags of corn, peas, string beans, these can all be had for about this price. And, they're perfect nutritious, if not more than "fresh" on a shelf as it's frozen after being picked when ready, instead of picked early and thrown onto a truck for a thousand kms.
• Olive oil (Sapurito) - $11.94 1L bottle -- Wow! $3 off the average doesn't sound like a lot, but 20% is 20%. It's kind of like "buy 4 and get 1 free".
• Butter (Gay Lea) - $4.94 454g bar -- $5 butter. Still expensive as all heck, but it's not $7-8.
• Produce Price Rating: A little all over the place. Some really good prices between a lot of average pricing.

Costco (Note that these are the online/shipped prices - reduce each item by $3 for in-store pricing)

• NOTE: NEED TO REVISE - --
• Paper Towel (Kirkland) - $27.99 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 160 sheets
• Paper Towel (Bounty) - $27.49 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 86 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Kirkland) - $25.99 30-roll pack -- 2-ply; 380 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Cashmere) - $24.99 40-roll pack -- 2-ply; 250 sheets (on sale)
• Dish soap (Dawn Platinum) - $18.99 2.66L -- Food Basics often has this jug for $10!
• Laundry detergent (Purex) - $24.99 9.24L -- 250 loads
• Garbage bags (30 gallon; large) - $15.99 100-pack -- Amazon has Glad standard 74L bags, 100-packs for $23, sometimes less if on sale
• Countertop green bin liners - $21.99 125-pack -- Amazon has Glad Compostable green bin liners 100-packs for $18, sometimes less if on sale
• Produce Price Rating: I need to do a proper check to be sure, but I find it's pretty average. There's an illusion of getting a good deal because of the bulk. Just be careful.

Jean Coutu (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: I have to start checking these just in case...

Shoppers Drug Mart (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: Sometimes they have cheap butter, eggs, and milk on weekends.

Some additional references!

• Grocery Review Google Drive Location https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xhLvBP1smXb1eSnxAW5yyBjO2aYFLJHC?usp=sharing
• Cooking Tips and Recipes https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TCcHm9y0kWIa3x18hznKN2ix0BPcUv-m?usp=drive_link
• Google Maps list of the Grocery stores in Ottawa https://maps.app.goo.gl/YT7cZmv8vMQWU4J59

Okay hear me out... I love Sunny... I love these actors... but they're getting older and seem exhausted by the toll this show takes on them. I just saw a video of Rob and Charlie golfing and Charlie looks like he's just loving life on a golf course like a retired man--as he should! Glenn killed it in Blackberry and I would love to see him and Kaitlin in more roles... ANYWAY... what if they replaced themselves on the show as actors (stayed on as writers/showrunners) and never mentioned it. Picked 4 unknown actors in their 20s and just ran with them for another 16 seasons. Frank stays the same and makes subtle allusions to Denis having work done and Mac changing his body again and maybe his eyes are going cause Charlie's beard looks a little different (no need to mention Dee, he'll just keep referring to her as Bird anyway), but never addressed it. OR replace them one at a time and then run with it. IDK could be funny. They can do almost anything and be funny IMO.

The "bother" is in quotations because I typoed in my initial post and decided to keep it (got a lot of questions about it in the second post I made about the cake) for this next related posts.
These are the recipes for each of the tiers! As a refresher for flavors: top tier was pink champagne cake with a champagne whipped cream, middle tier was chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and a chocolate mousse, bottom tier was a strawberry dream swirl with whipped cream and strawberry filling. I used an adjusted American butter cream for the coating of the cake and for keeping the fillings inside the layers. The strawberry from the bottom tier did keep escaping from the buttercream, which was frustrating, but not the end of the world. I apologize that some of the 'measurements' were made based on how I felt about it (measure with your heart, a splash, a dash, etc). I'm afraid I didn't measure these things, so I don't have a measurement to give you. I do not use store bought eggs as I have chickens (Brahmas). I made sure to check with the bride beforehand that she was alright with that, as some people can be funny about their eggs. I'm based in the piedmont region of NC, USA, about 330' above sea level.
Pink champagne sponge: I used the mycakeschool recipe, though I did not use the Andre blush champagne, I used a sweet fruity rose champagne over a brut/dry champagne. I also did not use the buttercream recipe associated with that sponge recipe. I did use the Americolor Deep Pink coloring for the sponge, but I think I could have gotten away with natural coloring instead (if you have guests who are allergic to red food dye). I used Swan's Down cake flour and Heilala vanilla. It's a very light, airy sponge that would soak up any cake syrup very well (if you wanted to add a reduced champagne syrup to the sponge to up the moistness & champagne flavor, though it really doesn't need it), with a distinct, but not overpowering champagne taste. Using the sweet fruity champagne gave it a very late spring/early summer taste. Because I was making this tier in 6" pans, I cut the recipe in half and it gave me the perfect amount of batter.
Pink champagne whipped cream: heavy whipping cream 1 cup, granulated sugar 2 tbsp, vanilla measured with your heart, a tsp cream of tartar for stabilization, 2 drops of deep pink Americolor (again, I think natural colors could be used here effectively, if you're concerned about red dye allergies), and champagne added by tbsp until I liked the taste and whipped just past stiff peaks. I did not use the same champagne for the whipped cream as the sponge. I chose a dryer champagne with cherry and blackberry notes for the whipped cream. Having the contrast was very nice so that the cake didn't feel like one giant blob of the same champagne in cake form.
Chocolate sponge: This recipe was the same for my wedding cake and is the Add a Pinch Best Chocolate Cake recipe {ever}. It truly is the best chocolate cake recipe ever. It needs no modifications. I use almond milk for it because (allowed by the recipe, I just think it tastes best with the almond milk, but the recipe says buttermilk, regular milk, and coconut milk can all also be used). This recipe has never failed and is easily the most forgiving, fluffiest, most delicious chocolate cake recipe ever. I use a mixture of Anthony's Goods black cocoa powder and Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder (1:1 mixture) to give the cake a really deep chocolate flavor that *almost* borders on bitter, but once paired with sweet fillings makes the effect of it not being too heavy on the palate. It's very easy to make it a dairy free cake as it doesn't use butter, but do use caution when pouring the boiling water in - if you turn the mixer on too fast, too quickly, you will lose batter to sloshing and run the risk of being hit with hot, chocolatey water.
Chocolate ganache: 254g heavy cream, microwaved for 2 minutes to get it hot (you could heat it up on the stove top if you prefer, I was starting to get into a bit of a time crunch and needed it more quickly than that), add 250g Ghirardelli Intense Dark 86% Cacao chocolate finely chopped, a dash of salt, and a splash of vanilla. Let this sit for a couple minutes until the chocolate is melty. It may need some more heat, only heat it in 10 second increments in the microwave or you may break it. It is much easier on the stove top, I simply didn't have the time.
Chocolate mousse: so strictly speaking this is not mousse. It's a non-egg chocolate mousse, that I, quite frankly, think is more akin to a thick, chocolate whipped cream. I added 250g of chocolate ganache recipe (above) to 250g chilled heavy whipping cream and 2 tablespoons of sugar, stirred it just until incorporated and then put it in the refrigerator. After it had chilled, I whipped it just past stiff peaks and that was it.
Strawberry Dream Swirl sponge: I used the Savory Simple Strawberry Swirl Dream Cake as the basis for this recipe. I suspect, however, that the metric measurements didn't translate quite correctly as 58g of strawberry puree did not lend a strong strawberry taste. If I were to make this cake once more, I think I would double the strawberry puree and halve the orange juice. The way I made it, the ingredients were as follows: 75g strawberry puree (from frozen), 254g heavy whipping cream, vanilla measured with my heart, 30g freshly squeezed orange juice, 284g all purpose flour, 85g cornstarch, 14g baking powder, 4g kosher salt, zest of two large California oranges (about 4" in diameter, slight amount of give when squeezed lightly), 340g granulated sugar, 2 sticks (roughly 226g) of unsalted butter, 4 large eggs, natural red food coloring (I believe it's either beet based or berry based - it's nigh on tasteless either way). The instructions were followed as prescribed by the recipe. This sponge was a dense, sturdy sponge that was excellent as a base to the cake. I used one recipe to fill up the 12" pan and that was one tier. It needed minimal trimming to be flattened for frosting.
Whipped cream: heavy whipping cream 1 cup, granulated sugar 2 tbsp, vanilla measured with your heart, and a tsp cream of tartar for stabilization, then whipped just past stiff peaks.
Strawberry cake filling: I used the Front Range Fed Easy and Delicious Homemade Strawberry cake filling and did not make adjustments to the recipe. I do wish that I had simmered it for longer as it did not 'gelify' as much as I would have like and leaked through the butter cream as a result. This filling was the reason it took me so long to finish the cake when I got it to the venue Friday night.
Buttercream: 2 sticks butter, creamed at med speed in a stand mixer, 460g confectioners sugar, 55g heavy cream, vanilla measured by heart (should have used clear vanilla, but forgot to order it), dash of salt, 25g Americolor bright white, mix on low for 30 seconds until incorporated, then at high for a full minute
The support structure for weight were Boba straws trimmed to height, 6 in the bottom tier, 4 in the middle tier. They held up perfectly. The top two tiers were on clear plexiglass rounds with a hole in the center. I used those and plastic dowels to align the top tiers correctly

Hello Charlotte and friends, I have gathered you here today to recount a tale of drama. I am here to spill tea that is not mine to spill but it deserves to be spilled and I hope you all enjoy the twists.
Firstly, disclaimer that it has been well over a year since all this went down so my memory may not be the best. I am recounting to the best of my ability. Secondly, if you know the guild of which I speak... hi ! Sorry not sorry for spilling the tea. I don't know if all of this was ever disclosed to the guild members, since I haven't been in the guild for over a year; and I want to say that, for the most part, the guild is great. No hate here.
Let's start with a place. Elder Scrolls Online. I'm a gamer and had been playing ESO on and off for several years, but wanted to buckle down and really get into playing it so I decided to join a guild in the hopes it would help me find my focus and keep my playing. For the unacquainted, ESO is a multiplayer roleplay game in which you can join guilds of players, approximately 500 per guild. The guild I joined had 3 branches at the time, so about 1500 members, with a central guild leader and a team of "officers", which were essentially mods that helped the day-to-day running of the guild and its Discord server. Shortly after I joined the guild they announced that they were looking for new officers to join the team, and despite being inexperienced and anxious I decided to apply, thinking the worst they could say is no. Unexpectedly, I was selected! There were about... maybe 20 ? Prospective officers-in-training.
Before we continue let me breakdown the officer hierarchy. At the top were Raspberries (changing the name, obviously), this was the guild mistress (leader) and her second-in-commands, of which there were five or six. Next were the Blackberries, which were the senior officers. After them, the Salmonberries, which were the ordinary rank and file of the officers. Lastly, there were the Blueberries, which was what I was, just an officer-in-training. In total I think there were... 30-40 officers? Us new Blueberries included.
The Discord server had a secret section from which the officers operated. We were welcomed into it after being ranked up, given the rundown of our expectations and when training would begin. The officer in charge of our training was awesome, very kind, however the guild leader was revealed to be kind of a manipulative asshole. Mistakes, by both new and seasoned officers, were called out publicly by the leader in the officer area of the server. This happened frequently over the course of the several months I was in-training. When we were deemed not to be operating to the guild leader's (let's call them Germ) high standards we were ordered to rank our fellow officers by how we felt they pulled their weight. If we didn't do this in a timely manner we were criticized and called out, and once everyone had submitted their rankings (public to the rest of the officers) Germ would call out those that ranked lowest, who often ended up demoted to regular member status or removed from the guild entirely for their failings. Senior officers (the Blackberries) who spoke out against the tyrannical rulings and expectations of Germ were equally at risk of this, being demoted to Salmonberries until they could prove themselves again. Then, after berating and belittling the officers, Germ would go on long-winded lectures about her standards for the guild, how she just wanted us to be our best and succeed, how she only pushed us to create the best environment for effective leadership. Sometimes she would even ask us how we felt she was as a leader, if she was meeting our expectations as a leader... and anything but a glowing or sympathetic response would result in her blowing up on the officer who criticized her. Then, within a few days ? All of those messages would simply disappear from the officer channels.
In short, we officers were held to impossible standards and criticized for not meeting them amongst our fellow officers. However, to the general membership? Germ was a great and kind and generous leader. But that's not where our story ends. Something quickly to note, every week we have a meeting in an officer voice chat, which Germ would always oversee, however while we were expected to have a mic and be able to speak Germ never spoke through voice chat. Even when she attended guild events in voice chat she was silent. Tuck that away for later, it's important. ;)
Now, lets introduce another key player in this story. Jess was Germs golden child, a Raspberry officer that she doted on endlessly and could never do wrong. We lowly Blueberries and Salmonberries just assumed she was a favorite of the guild leader and kind of hated her for it; she never interacted with anyone much, so we just assumed she thought she was better than us due to the favoritism.
In time I was promoted from Blueberry to Salmonberry, then Salmonberry to Blackberry. In that time we saw the removal and leaving of many officers, whether due to pressure, real life responsibilities, or Germs officer rankings. With the rank of Blackberry I was provided access to the Dark Room, which was essentially a channel for Blackberries and Raspberries to discuss higher profile stuff without the input of Salmonberries.
Now, this is where my timeline gets a little messy, so I apologize. At some point Germ stepped away from leadership, naming Jess as the new guild leader, despite remaining within leadership. There was a rocky transition, with Germ frequently stepping in to comment on things in the Dark Room. Then, came the day I was asked to speak with Jess and another Raspberry privately. At the time I had been told I would be responsible for a weekly member spotlight, so I was expecting this to be the training / rundown of that. Oh how wrong I was. Instead, I sat in voice chat with Jess and the other officer for over two hours as Jess recounted to me the recent happenings of the Raspberries and Germ. Until now (as far as I know) this information has only been shared with the officer team, so if you think you know the guild of which I speak... I'm sorry.
Germ was a creep, lets just say that. Again, chronology of this might be a bit off, its been awhile since I heard this and I no longer have access to the proof that was provided. Essentially, Germ had been creeping on Jess since she joined the officers. This is the part I'm not at liberty to share, because I respect Jess's privacy, but lets just say Germ was a real creep and basically terrorized her. After revealing all this to some of the other Raspberries they helped Jess in an effort to remove Germ from the guild and end their abusive leadership. What came next was a series of deals that basically summed up to Germ would surrender leadership to Jess but maintain access to the officers and guild (this was when Germ stepped away), so long as Jess never blocked them and continue to talk to Germ. Now, though, Jess was doing the rounds to the Blackberry officers in an effort to close ranks in a final push to negotiate the removal of Germ from the guild for good. This is where it gets wild.
At some point, after Germ had dropped off the radar for awhile, Jess was contacted by someone claiming to be Germs friend. The friend said that Germ was sick / in a coma and had directed this friend, lets call them David, to check in with the guild and ensure everything was okay. David, of course, knew a lot about the guild and Jess specifically, including specific things about her and conversations she had had with Germ. Jess, of course, was suspicious of this, and after some sleuthing with the help of the other Raspberries... discovered that Germ was not, in fact, in a coma, and that David was very likely Germ. Meaning, Germ was a grown ass man, and had been lying to everyone and the guild.
After this the Dark Room was preparing for war, essentially. They were gonna wrest the guild from Germ / David no matter what it took. We all had our part to play, it was a very tense time. Thankfully, this all was resolved fairly peacefully. Some stuff happened, I just don't recall specifics. In time, Germ was removed from the guild and server. At some point the Salmonberries and Blueberries had been clued in, and we celebrated their removal, vowing to start a new chapter for the guild. As a note, none of this was ever shared with the general membership of the guild throughout the whole process, and in the aftermath we were encouraged to lie or direct any questions about Germ to the Raspberries.
Now, I wish that was the end of the story. There is more.
I was made a training officer, and in an effort to remove the gap between Salmonberries and the rest of the team myself and the other training officer essentially became HR, hearing their complaints and issues and ensuring their concerns were addressed and questions were answered. More than that, I prided myself on being the "deep diver", meaning whenever we needed information on a member for meditation or punishment I was the one that looked through the server as well as our guild site to create a timeline and gather information, which I then reported to the Dark Room. I genuinely loved what I was doing, and I loved helping our new officers. I was always quick to defend them in the Dark Room, and had a good relationship with them whereas most of the other officers did not. I also frequently played devils advocate, and gave voice to the perspectives I felt deserved representation. I wanted honesty, and I performed all my duties without bias; I prided myself on that. This was, however, something of a pain for the Raspberries I guess.
Some time after the end of the Germ issues I was called aside by Jess and another Raspberry, and basically dressed down. I don't remember much of the interaction because I was honestly in shock; I had never been spoken to about the issues they presented, this was the first time I heard of them. I felt betrayed, I was upset. I cared too much, apparently, and made people uncomfortable. That's what I remember of it. And I was told to step down, or be removed. So I stepped down. In the aftermath I noticed another officer, who had also been something of a free speaker amongst the officers, was removed at the same time I was.
Since I had dedicated myself to the guild for over a year at that point I suffered. I tried to remain involved but I also distanced myself. When I returned to the Raspberry that had spoken to my alongside Jess in an effort for answers, as I genuinely wanted to know what I had done wrong so I could work on myself (this was suggested by my therapist, since I beat myself up a lot afterwards), I was told she didn't know and couldn't tell me. This was the same officer who had dressed me down, and she could not tell me what the issues she had raised against me were. I smelled bullsh*t, and distanced myself even more. However, one day some time later I ventured back to the server to see what was going on... and noticed that an officer I had trained right before I had been demoted was no longer in the guild. I reached out to her, asked if she was okay, and she said that after some drama had come out she hadn't been comfortable staying. I asked her what the drama had been about, and she clued me in to a group of officers, Salmonberries and Blackberries, who had stepped down and left the guild awhile after I had been forced to resign.
The simple version is, the Raspberries elected to ban a couple regular members who were frequently discussed in the Dark Room. They were a nuisance to many Blackberries, but they had never done anything wrong or worthy of removal, as found in the many reports I had prepared on them. Yet, they were removed on the down low, but when some of the Salmonberries that were familiar with them asked about it Jess said it was a mistake. This caused a rift, and disgruntled by the lack of answers a majority of the Salmonberries stepped down or left the guild entirely, as well as a few Blackberries who felt uncomfortable about how the incident was handled by Jess and the Raspberries. This also caused an exodus of regular guild members who were close with the two members that been banned, as well as those close to the officers.
It was at this point, once again surrounded by my peers, that I finally felt safe to discuss my own removal from the guild. I honestly felt partially responsible, and after looking at the evidence that we had we decided as a group that it seemed the Dark Room had an agenda, wanting to make changes, and they removed the officers that they knew would speak out against those changes. Those changes were what caused the drama with the exodus of officers and members. For awhile we considered putting the leadership on blast, but after awhile we decided it wasn't worth it and moved on. The leadership apparently found out about our gathering, though, and warned the guild against "disgruntled ex-members and officers". It was kind of funny, honestly.
Oh, and at the time I met with this group I was still a member of the guild, and when I approached some of the Raspberries about what had happened to get answers... I was shadowbanned from the guild without a word.
That pretty much concludes the Shadow Saga. No resolution, I have no idea what has happened in the 1+ year since I was removed. But I thought I would share the cliffnotes. Feel free to ask questions, I will do my best to answer. And, if any of you know of the guild or are still a member / officer... hi ! Wishing you all the best, honestly. I loved the guild, it was a great place, and generally I hold no ill will towards the officers.
Also, an additional note I forgot to add: before I had joined the guild there had apparently been a "purge", in which some officers staged an insurrection of sorts against Germ and they ended up purging the officer team to "restart" the guild. So, as much as the Raspberries tried to lead the guild out of Germs shadow... they failed, and history repeats itself. I genuinely hope they have since been able to find a balance.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the tea. I know this isn't the usual kind of drama / tea you have in your videos Charlotte, but I hope you enjoy this cup even if it isn't featured. <3

My harvest hymn — with added Chinese chemicals
By Jeremy Clarkson (The Sunday Times, April 28)
Many of us will remember that Mungo Jerry song featuring the line, “Have a drink, have a drive. Go out and see what you can find.” And of course we all realise you can’t even think that any more. And nor, really, is it considered acceptable to follow up with: “If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal. If her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel.” Times have moved on.
Of course lots of lyrics now feel as if they’re from another aeon. "Clair" by Gilbert O’Sullivan especially. But you might think it’s impossible for the lyrics in a harvest festival hymn to become out of date. “We plough the fields and scatter. The good seed on the land. But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand.” Absolute timelessness. It was true ten thousand years ago and it’s true now.
No, it isn’t. God doesn’t water the land any more. The coal-fired Chinese power stations do that. And he doesn’t feed it either. That’s handled by CF Industries, which makes all the chemical fertiliser that farmers use on their fields.
We don’t even scatter seeds any more, because that’s wasteful onanism. We drill them into the ground, at precise intervals and at a precise depth using a computer-controlled, £40,000 seed drill. That’s towed behind a £250,000 Case tractor, which was built in the factory where they used to make Tiger tanks. Not much Goddishness going on in any of that.
There isn’t even any ploughing any more. In the olden days farmers would turn the top layer of soil over using a plough so that the weeds were buried. And because they were deprived of sunlight they died. It was a lovely, natural, rosy-cheeked way of creating the perfect seedbed for the following year’s crop.
But then along came Little Miss Thunberg and her merry band of Packhamites, who decided that 1,500 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in the planet’s soil. And that if you turn this soil over with a plough, all of it will be released into the upper atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. Which is bad. So the lovely, natural method of killing weeds had to stop. And instead farmers had to use chemical sorcery from Monsanto, BASF and the Zhejiang Xinan Chemical Industrial Group.
Farmers didn’t mind, if I’m honest, because ploughing is extremely expensive. You simply would not believe how much diesel is needed to drag a two-tonne land anchor through a muddy field. Using weedkiller instead is much cheaper.
Or rather it was. But weedkiller prices have gone up dramatically in recent years. And from where I’m sitting it doesn’t really seem to work any more. Every year Kaleb goes into the fields like a rural Terminator, hosing down the weeds with his ungodly chemical sorcery and then, a few weeks later, Cheerful Charlie walks me through the same fields, pointing out the brome and the black-grass, which is easy to spot because it’s purple and green and completely immune to anything the world’s chemists can throw at it.
So this year Charlie said we should become medieval and plough the fields instead. Selfish? Well, yes, this will shoot a tonne of CO2 into the troposphere and that’s obviously bad. And I’ll use four times more diesel than I would if I used weedkiller. So that’s not good for the environment either. But here’s the kicker: I wouldn’t be pumping any chemicals into the soil.
So that’s the choice — soil or sky? You have to hurt one of them if you want to eat. I went for the sky and rented a plough.
I settled on an eight-furrow monster for two good reasons. Number one: the bigger the plough, the faster you get the job done. And number two: none of Kaleb’s tractors would be powerful enough to pull it, so we’d have to use my 270bhp Lamborghini. Which would annoy him. Even admitting that it’s better than his tractors gives him a hot flush. Sometimes he vibrates with fury when he goes near it.
The only drawback to this cleverly wrought large plough plan was that, because Kaleb refuses to drive my tractor, I’d have to do the ploughing.
This is something I’ve done before. It was on Top Gear about 200 years ago and I did very well. Partly this was because my competitors in the ploughing competition were James May and Richard Hammond. And partly because one of the two judges was a really good friend of my mum.
In real life, though, things were different. I couldn’t hitch the plough to the tractor without help. I couldn’t do a three-point turn when it was attached. And I couldn’t make the tractor move when the furrows were in the sodden soil. All four wheels just sort of spun. So I had to lift the plough slightly, which meant I wasn’t ploughing. Or wiggle the steering wheel, which made big holes and, when it worked, caused me to set off in a new direction. It began to look as if a drunk, blind man with no arms was doing the ploughing.
All the time I was watching the fuel gauge plummet like the depth gauge in a holed submarine, and wondering if it might be cheaper, easier and kinder to the environment to use chemical weedkiller instead.
This is farming. Only last week I discovered that approximately 18 billion slugs have come to live in the fields where I’ve planted spring barley. If I adopt a live-and-let-live rewilding attitude and do nothing they will eat the lot and, next year, there will be no Hawkstone lager. As that makes no sense, I therefore have to pepper the field with slug pellets, which will kill them. Great. But these pellets will also kill all the worms. So what’s the answer? There isn’t one.
Similarly, I have signed up to the government’s eco-friendly grant scheme and will be planting things that aren’t food in three fields. They’re good for the soil and they’re good for my bank balance. But it means I’m not growing stuff people can eat. I know one chap who has taken 60 per cent of his farm out of food production and he’s not alone. So yippee. All that stored carbon and all of that fixed-in nitrogen.
But what if you want some bread? You’ll have to get a loaf made from wheat that was grown abroad. And how’s that good for global warming? And will it have been grown under the same stringent rules that we have here? Or will it have been fertilised with human faeces? You face a choice then. Do you want net zero in the UK? Or do you want to eat a Mexican’s turd?
Do you want lager or worms? Do you want healthy soil or a healthy sky? Do you want bees or orangutans? These are the questions I’m facing every single day. It’s a multiple-choice world of no right answers.
Which brings us back to another harvest festival hymn.
All things bright and beautiful. All birds that must be plucked. No matter what we choose to do, we’re well and truly.
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Kaleb Cooper: ‘I’ve taught someone triple my age to do a better job’
The Diddly Squat farmers Jeremy Clarkson and Kaleb Cooper are back for a third series. We put our wellies on to meet the odd couple of the Cotswolds
By Ben Dowell (The Times, April 29)
During filming for the forthcoming third series of Clarkson’s Farm, Kaleb Cooper drove into work and saw Jeremy Clarkson vacuuming a blackberry bush. While the spectacle was “something I am never going to forget”, the sandy-haired, cherub-faced youngster was so unimpressed that he didn’t even get out of his car to ask what was happening.
These two have grown into one of television’s best double acts. For the show’s executive producer, Peter Fincham, there is an “element of Jeeves and Wooster” about them, a delicious odd couple relationship that is all the more gratifying because the team didn’t need to cast Cooper. He was already working on Diddly Squat Farm when the show started.
Cooper is a farmer to the tips of his muddy wellies and has taught Clarkson most of the practical business of farming his 1,000-acre establishment near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, as well as how hard the job is and the risks farmers take for little financial reward. Cooper may have just completed a sell-out national stage tour building on his popularity and more than two million Instagram followers. He may have been invited to No 10 to meet Rishi Sunak (more on that later), but everyone on the show — the producers, one of Cooper’s “Chippy” friends I spoke to and Clarkson himself — are clear: the 25-year-old hasn’t changed one iota since the show started airing in 2021.
“I think it’s very easy to be grounded if you don’t leave Chipping Norton,” Clarkson says. His girlfriend, Lisa Hogan, who has become another star of the show, agrees. “How Kaleb comes across is exactly how he is. He is very thoughtful and kind and very bright. His use of language is also very easy on the ear. We could have had a monosyllabic tractor driver and that wouldn’t have worked but we were lucky we had Kaleb.”
He has written two books as well: The World According to Kaleb and Britain According to Kaleb, with a third (Life According to Kaleb) on the way. These ruminations are often spoken into a Dictaphone (supplied by his publishers) during the 18 hours he spends each day alone in his happy place, his tractor cab. The books now sit on the shelves that a ten-year-old Cooper and his carpenter father put up in the local bookshop. Though, of course, one of the running jokes in the show is that he has only read one other book in his life apart from his own, and that was one of Clarkson’s.
There is another moment in the new series when Clarkson and Cooper (who are in competition with each other across the eight episodes) are working a field when they spy someone in the distance on another tractor drilling “his” field. He is Andy Cato of the electronic pop duo Groove Armada, and Cooper seems totally nonplussed, not least because he doesn’t know who or what Groove Armada is. The same probably goes for many of his near-neighbours, who include Joe Wicks, Simon Cowell, Natalie Imbruglia, David Beckham and Amanda Holden. When Cooper bumped into David Cameron (now Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton) in a local eaterie, he wasn’t quite sure who he was either. Strangely Cooper is now as famous as at least a few of these people. His appeal extends across the globe — Andy Wilman, Clarkson’s old Top Gear producer who edits the show, tells me that he rarely hears an English accent in the farm shop as tourists flock to see their agricultural idols.
Since Clarkson’s Farm aired, Cooper told his theatre audiences, he has been offered snazzy haircuts from top-level salons, perhaps to stop the constant mickey-taking from Clarkson. But he still goes to the same local hairdresser.
Brilliant moments are not always captured by the cameras and while the team may wake up with plans, farmers and the show’s fans will know that the weather often has other ideas. “Cheerful” Charlie Ireland, the farm’s land agent and adviser, does pop by a couple of times a day, as he does in the series, often to pour cold water on Clarkson’s latest schemes. But many of these moments are not filmed. Is that annoying?
“Sometimes you think, ‘Oh, that would be really good, that’d be funny on TV,’ but actually [the cameras] are not there,” Cooper says. “But you don’t say these things, to make it up for the TV. I may have taken drama in school, but I got a U in it, so actually I’m not an actor.”
Clarkson agrees: “It is [effortless] because I don’t have to pretend to be someone else. With The Grand Tour, Richard Hammond isn’t as stupid as he’s made out. I’m not as bombastic as is made out and James May isn’t quite as boring as he’s made out. And so you’re playing a caricature, you’re playing a role, you’re there to provoke and be stupid. Here, we haven’t got any of that. So we’re just ourselves. You get up and you just have to be yourself, which is incredibly relaxing. And in that regard it is effortless. Farming is not effortless. Make no mistake, the television side of it is a piece of cake because I don’t have to think, ‘Oh I’d better say something idiotic now.’”
“You do that anyway,” Cooper says.
The two bicker in exactly the same way off camera as they do on. At the press conference for the new series they quarrelled with good humour about their dogs. Cooper says Clarkson’s pair of fox-red labradors (named Sansa and Arya after Game of Thrones characters) are “posh man’s dogs” who “never do a thing he says”. Clarkson maintains that Cooper just locks his dog in his tractor cab. They also bicker about the goats Clarkson keeps. Clarkson likes their eyes and thinks they do a good job mowing his grass. Cooper thinks he should breed and slaughter them in the conventional way and sell goat meat in the farm shop.
There is a similar clash of approaches over the pigs. Cooper doesn’t get as emotional as Clarkson and Hogan when things go wrong (and they do go wrong with the pigs this series). When Clarkson holds aloft a newborn piglet, Cooper calls him a “proud parent”, which feels part mickey-take, part genuinely warm compliment — a common theme in their complex relationship.
Clarkson is learning to be more steely and is, Cooper says, actually now a “good pig farmer”. Is the younger man pleased that Clarkson has come on? Or is there a bit of him who would still enjoy showing him the ropes?
“I think there’s a bit of a proudness of teaching someone maybe triple my age … to go out and do a better job … Hopefully I’ve taught him a lot about it. But he’s taught me so much equally about the television industry.” In fact, Cooper says, he has learnt so much that he cannot watch TV now because he knows how it all works behind the scenes.
He is a voice for farmers, showing us how hard the job of people who put food on our table is, and demanding that we respect it. Cooper has arranged two bursaries of £3,000 plus a work placement for young farmers and is keen that more enter a profession where the average age is 59. When he met Sunak last May he was more interested in the PM’s hair than anything, principally because he didn’t expect much from him.
“Let’s put it this way. If someone invited me tomorrow to go to a farm … if I go to that farm and that farmer says to me, ‘Kaleb, you know what, this week I’m gonna plough that field,’ I know for a damn fact that that farmer is going to go out there and plough that field because he said he’s going do it. If the prime minister or anyone from politics goes to me, ‘Kaleb, I’m going to do this next week,’ they’re not going to do it, are they?”
While he doesn’t have much faith in our legislators making life easier for hard-pressed farmers or for supermarkets to pay them more, he must be pleased that people, especially city folk, now know about farming thanks to him, I say.
“Yeah, everyone knows what a tramline is now, right? And let’s face it, I always say this: it doesn’t matter what phone you’ve got, what car you’ve got, what house you’re living in, what matters the very most is what’s coming across your plate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And therefore that is the most important thing to me.”
Cooper is open to offers of shows such as I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! but thinks he probably won’t have the time with all the work he has to do. Clarkson called him “easily the most entrepreneurial person I have ever met” and he is laser-focused on his ultimate goal of having a farm one day, which will have to be local, despite the “extortionate” price of land in the area.
“I want to farm here,” he says. “I don’t want to move away from my family and everything I know. This is where I was brought up and this is where I’m going to stay.”
But the show will be with us for a while. It is hugely popular — series four is being filmed and while viewing figures aren’t available, it is believed to be Prime’s most popular programme in the UK by, well, a country mile.
Cooper is engaged to his partner, Taya (mother to their three-year-old son and ten-month-old daughter), but doesn’t know when he will have time to walk down the aisle. He knows he will “have a great party”, and isn’t yet sure if Clarkson will be his best man. But one thing’s for sure, Clarkson has already found his.
The new series of Clarkson’s Farm is on Prime Video from May 3.
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No Sun column this week, but the Guardian (!) has published a long interview with Clarkson: "'Dismissing global warming? That was a joke': Jeremy Clarkson on fury, farming and why he’s a changed man". Let me know if you have problems viewing it.
Clarkson's columns are regularly collected as books. You can buy them from his boss or your local bookshop.

''Welcome, my guest, to the palace of Jericho!''
The prince said, waving his hands around, as we made it past the massive doors. Inside, a view very few peasants ever saw in their lives. Of absurdly tall ceilings, of intricate pillars, of statues commemorating past monarchs and high-standing officials. I Dieudonné couldn't believe my eyes, and followed the prince, savoring every sight and every second.
''Tell me, where would you like to have tea? We can go to the royal terrace, the balcony, the inner gardens...'' The prince asked me, as we made our way up the stairs of the atrium. I scratched my head and wondered, what would be the smartest answer?
''Well you see, I've always wanted to see what a prince's chamber would look like... If that's not asking too much of you, my liege.''
The prince turned around, with an annoying look on his face. ''Listen, you don't have to be so formal. Let's just be friends and enjoy ourselves.''
I jumped on the opportunity and raced to him, slapping him on his back, telling him how glad I was. ''But I don't want to be your friend just because you're the prince, don't get me wrong. I just like clever people is all'' I told him, and I saw him smile, through his nose and eyebrow gold chain, scintillating in the light of the hundreds of candles and torches around us.
Alone in the private chamber of the prince, I sat on the pillow on the ground, next to a low wooden table. My new friend the prince poured water in a kettle and put it over the fire. I wondered, why in the world would he make his own tea?
''Tell me, why not ask a servant?'' I finally asked him.
''Well I wouldn't really be treating you for tea, then, would I?'' He replied, walking toward me with a wooden box.
I made sure not to show any greed on my face, yet I couldn't stop wondering if that box was a present for me, considering the sheer luck I had of meeting the prince by chance, and becoming his friend as well. The prince put the box down in front of me, and opened it, revealing dozens of compartments, each holding fine quality ingredients, such as colorful powders, seeds like anis and cardamom, cinnamon bark and so many others I had never seen before.
''Tell me, what's your favourite tea? Do you like sweet, or bitter, hot or cold? Spiced or not?''
I Dieudonné was outmatched for once. I admitted I had no knowledge in tea whatsoever. ''I only know the dry, black one, that you break appart..''
The prince had a surprised look on his face; ''You mean tea bricks? I didn't think you'd be one of those types...''
I asked him what he meant by that, and he explained that people's taste in tea reveals a lot about themselves, who they are truly. I thought it incredibly funny how he needed tea preferences to tell the nature of people, when all I needed was to look at their face. But I rather enjoyed his little trick, this prince wasn't as stupid as people are usually...
''If I could have any tea, I'd have orange tea. I just don't think it's appropriate to ask for that, since you've already been so generous to me.''
For once I was being honest with him. I wouldn't dream of telling him the whole story about my father and the orange, the incense, but it felt good for once to tell the truth. The prince smiled and closed the wooden box, its overwhelming aroma taken away. He rushed out and left me all alone, in his room. For once in my life, I heard it. Complete silence. If not for the occasional crackling of the fire.
I Dieudonné closed my eyes and relaxed. I couldn't wait to sip on orange tea! Insidiously Greed got a hold on me once more, and I got up on my feet, remembering my plan, my princely plan...
I stepped around the room, looking at everything. The comically large bed, the white silken bedsheets, the pillows filled with feathers. The bookshelves full of not only books and scrolls but also of trinkets like a globe of the earth, a telescope and most intriguing of all a tiny chest, half-opened. I could see, if I got close enough, coins perhaps?
I kept listening to any coming footsteps, so as not to be caught in the act, but the kettle started boiling and whistling. I had to get back to my seat but my body was moving on its own! Only one of these gold coins would give me the life of a prince, if only for a single day... And the door opened. I shifted my gaze to the telescope, pretending not to hear the prince coming in, to be fascinated by the instrument.
''Tell me, do you look at the stars sometimes?'' The prince asked me, in his hands, a bowl, filled with orange powder.
''I don't think I've spent a single night not looking at the stars'' I lied, looking at him smiling.
He placed the bowl on the table, brought over the kettle, as I took my seat once more, just before stealing a last look at the tiny chest in the bookshelf. From under the table he took out a tea making kit, with a few cups, a tray and two peculiar statuettes, representing a dragon and a sheep.
I sat there and looked at my new friend, the prince of Jericho, brew orange tea. He gave me a tiny hourglass, instructing me to flip it over once he pours the boiling water on the tea. Instantly the aroma filled the chamber, and I noticed we both started smiling. I brought my cup closer yet to my surprise he poured the tea over the statuettes, wasting the tea.
''Why waste it?'' I couldn't help asking. He laughed and explained how the first steep is merely to wash the tea, and is offered to the tea pets. I sat there, nodding, arms crossed. Ah yes. It seems the prince is a tea connoisseur! I couldn't help but think he just wanted to show off to me, his new friend.
The prince poured the water once more, I flipped the hourglass once more, and he offered me the first cup. I brought it to my nose and Heavens did it smell good. I dipped my lips into it but at that instant I thought about Daysha, how happy she would've been to be here right now, and what she was doing instead, for my sake..
The tea was surprisingly bitter, yet so aromatic! The prince laughed and laughed, and poured himself a cup. His laugh was surprisingly familiar, much akin to the ones of my neighboors back in my hometown. He gulped down his tea and got up, clapping his hands. I did the same and saw him run to the telescope. He brought it over to the window, and gestured me to come over. Stargazing now, are we?
He took a few minutes to set everything up, while I waited outside on the balcony. The view was already incredible, overlooking the inner palace and most of Jericho as well. From here I could see the plaza, but not beyond the tall walls. The prince finally said it's ready, and I got closer, curious as to what that tool could show me that I couldn't see with my eyes. Stars are stars after all.
But what I saw, in that strange little tube was not a star but an orange, stripy ball, with some bright dots around it... What in the world?
''That, my friend, is Al-Mushtari, as the arabs call it. We call it Jupiter, the greatest god of them all!''
To gaze at gods themselves! I fell on my butt, suddenly dizzy. The prince laughed and looked through the telescope as well, smiling ever more. At that moment I really wanted to leave, but also to make sure I'd see the prince again, for my plan hinged on that.
''My prince I must thank you for your hospitality. What pleasure to share tea and spy on the gods with his majesty-'' I started, but he turned toward me with a puzzled look on his face.
''Don't tell me, you're off already?''
I explained to him how I just got to Jericho today, and that I had to get back to my sister and uncle, and he stopped me once more;
''Well remember, then. I'll meet you tomorrow morning at the plaza. I truly wish to meet this family of yours, and offer my blessings. Take care now, my friend.''
And for the first time in my life, the man I was talking to had the face of a friend, and I didn't know what to think for a while. He walked me out in silence, and shook my hand, leaving in it a tiny bag. I smiled and walked out, escorted by the palace guards, inspecting in my hand yet another present from the prince; more of that orange tea powder.
Standing there in front of the metal gate of the palace, that closed behind me, I felt somewhat alone, if only for an instant. I am, after all, Dieudonné, a man that is truly free. Yet I couldn't help but look forward to meeting my new friend again, the prince. And gifting the orange tea to my foolish sister, as an apology. Yet beyond that, the dark clouds that were my princely plans loomed over all.
Making my way back to the fruit shop, I couldn't help but think back on Daysha and that tall man Lemarcus. As much of a fool as she is, my sister truly saved me there, and made it possible to meet the prince as well. This present may not be much, but I hope it'll show her how grateful I am of her help. Though she did owe me one...
The streets of Jericho were unusually quiet and empty. Some loners were here and there, smoking and drinking. Others were hurrying their steps, as if late to some important meeting. How miserable. At that moment I Dieudonné realized I was one of them! One more of these rats, scurrying about in the dead of night, hurrying toward the void that is their lives!
No matter what face I have truly, that of a prince or of a peasant, what matters are my actions. No more of this! I know what to do, to become prince at last, and fate itself landed me a hand! Yes, I will go forth with my plan, no matter what. For the life of a prince is the only life worthy for me.
I passed under a low banner and in this dark alleyway I thought back on Daquan, that guard I had poisonned so cleverly. I couldn't help smiling, and I didn't really like what that meant about me. Is killing a man that simple? Behind me, a fool, coughing and stumbling, his breathing raspy and annoying. I hurried my steps, as I was close to the fruit shop, but it seemed like the sick fool behind me hurried as well. I turned around briefly, and in the feeble moonlight I saw his bearded, scarred face, no longer that of a gambler, but that of a vengeful killer. We crossed eyes and he yelled ''Dieudonné you peasant!''
I didn't like that. I faced him, separated by a few dozen meters, surrounded by boxes and garbage bins and low hanging banners. We were completely alone here in the alleyway, and the only thing I could hear was his struggling breathing, and his coughing, as he was hurrying toward me, holding something in his hand, what, a knife?
I Dieudonné had enough of that man. No matter how grateful I was of the hand of fate, bringing me closer to my goal using that despicable man, I decided to finish what I had started.
''What, you want to kill me, good guard?'' I taunted him, looking at his curved dagger in his shaky hand. Daquan coughed once more and leaped toward me, screaming, murder in his eyes, but he was so slow from the rat poison. I punched his arm and his dagger fell on the ground loudly. ''What did you do to me?'' he shouted, his face so close to me I could smell his incoming death. I remember just how ugly and pityful he seemed to me. He had the face of an angry child, throwing a tantrum for having his favourite toy taken away.
''You deserve this, you failure of a man..'' I whispered, as I grabbed him by the neck. His bloodshot eyes then filled with fear, with dread, and at that moment I let go of him, frightened. What was I trying to do?
But Daquan reached for his dagger once more and I remembered my vow. To do whatever it takes. ''I can't die, for I become prince tomorrow.'' And so I kicked his face and his belly, I turned him on his back and pummeled his face, his gambler face, and ignored whatever he was trying to say to me, until his weak arms couldn't stay up anymore.
I didn't notice rain had started, and I got up from down there, my fists bloodied in red, my head aching. I looked down at the dagger and laughed, what a ridiculous tool. I pushed Daquan to the side of the alley, under a few boxes and a fallen banner, and I spat on him, as he extended his hand to me, begging for help. ''Die as the rat you are..''
I ran away from there, back to the fruit shop. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh at the top of my lungs or collapse and cry. All I wanted was to be alone. I made it to a crossway, and looking around I- well I was lost. Where the hell am I? What am I doing here?
Tall dark buildings. Banners whirling in the wind, wires flailing about, crows cawing, flying around high above me, under the feeble rain. I looked to one side, and the other, I couldn't tell the difference! Where is Daysha, where is the black lake, and my hometown? Why am I here, in this hellish city, alone, my hands stained with murder?
I noticed I was shaking, and couldn't breathe properly, and my mind was spiraling, how dizzy I felt. I sat down, there in a dark corner of an alley, and I placed boxes over me, and covered my feet with a fallen banner, and tried to sleep, just to escape. I tried to sleep just to see if all that really happened. I tried to sleep and realized once more, I was nothing different from Daquan! Here I was, same as him, except I'm to keep living in this shithole of a life I have been so proud of living.
I, Dieudonné, thought of suicide for the first time that night.
The crows woke me up once more, not their cawing but their beaks! I jumped awake and chased the black birds away. Did they think I had died? As if I would die such a meaningless death... My head was aching all the more, and I got up, trying to piece out where I was exactly. I was just a few buildings away from the flower shop actually. All around me, the bustling life of Jericho had started anew, in the early hours of the morning. The sun had just started to rise, and a soft breeze washed away my worries, if only for an instant.
I Dieudonné entered the fruit shop, nonchalantly, my hands in my pocket, for they were still bruised. But no one was there. I was expecting Daysha, ready to jump in my arms, and the tall Lemarcus to be standing in his doorframe in the back, reeking of tobacco. Only the parrot greeted me, with his usual ''Thief, thief, thief I say!''
But I had had enough of that, and as I made my way to the back of the shop I shooed the bird with my hands. Upon seeing my bloodied, bruised knuckles the parrot flew away screeching ''Murderer! Thief! Murderer!'' and I froze. Did I really kill that man? And not by poison, with my own two hands? I walked in the bathroom there, and I noticed a big tall mirror. I made sure not to see my reflection. I jumped in the shower and washed away the dreadful night, to be ready for the dreadful day I become prince at last.
All ready I walked to Lemarcus's door, and knocked quietly. ''Daysha?''
I heard some rustlings, a few steps, and my sister whispered as well from beyond the closed door. ''Go away Dieudonné. I don't want to see you ever again. What a brother you are.''
Her words hit me like a brick. I kneeled down and slid under the door the little bag of orange tea, the prince had given me. ''All I want to say is, I'm sorry.'' I told her. And I meant it.
I heard her pick it up, and scuffle back to the bed. I heard Lemarcus's voice, and Daysha's voice, such loving words, and I was taken aback. I thought she would hate him!
I stole some lotion in the bathroom for my knuckles, thank you Lemarcus. I made haste for the plaza, for the prince himself was waiting for me. On the way there, I could hear faint music, festivities, growing louder and louder. I hurried my steps, much like a child would do, and low and behold a full on festival was taking place, with dozens of musicians playing drums, flutes, lutes and others singing. Dragons and sheeps were dancing to the music, their big colorful bodies going up and down, moved by the many feets beneath them. Kids were running around, petals were falling from Jericho's sky and a new, bold banner was erected, its calligraphy impeccable : Tea Festival.
And there, standing alone at the entrance of the plaza, the prince. Approaching him I noticed his smile, and how relaxed he looked. I took the time to really look at him, at the gold chains on his face, at his crown, at his clothes so elegant. On his face I saw the face of a happy man, and I didn't like that.
He saw me at last and ran toward me, smiling, his eyes full of life. I noticed around him, the people, recognizing their prince, and smiling, and bowing, and I could see how respected he was. I thought, back then, about just how badly I needed that, just how badly I needed everyone to look up to me, to worship me. My vow strenghtened once more, and hugging my new friend smiling I could only think of murder, of deceit.
We entered the fruit shop, and it was still empty, the closed door of Lemarcus in the back there made me wonder if they were still in or out. No matter. All I needed was a few minutes. ''I'd like to treat you to tea, as well, as we wait for my family.'' I told the prince, and he sat down. How glad I was of the parrot not being there, that irritating creature. To my surprise the prince said ''I always wanted to taste that tea brick of yours!'' and I couldn't help laughing.
The kettle whistling, just like it did the day before at the palace, I poured into it the harsh bits of black tea. A far cry from the expensive ingredients of the prince. I told him to bring over a few blackberries, how nicely would they go with our black tea. In the meantime I poured myself a cup, and quickly threw in the rest of the rat poison I had bought the day before in the kettle. I exhaled and closed my eyes for a second. The prince came back and pretended to throw a berry in my mouth, laughing. And he did, a perfect throw! How oblivious can the prince be?
''So, my prince, what are you planning to do today?'' I asked him, pouring down his death sentence in his tiny cup.
The bitter, almost poor aroma of the leaves surrounded us, and as he lifted his cup he told me how he didn't have much planned today, and that they could perhaps spend time at the tea festival. I looked deeply in his eyes, waiting for him to drink his tea at last.
Right then the backdoor opened, and tobacco filled the air, to my annoyance. The prince put down his cup and got up, bowing to the tall man and the curly woman looking at us. Right there I cursed the heavens, and slammed my cup on the table.
''My sister Daysha, uncle Lemarcus, please meet my new friend, the prince of Jericho!'' I proclaimed, a bit too loudly.
I remember the look on lemarcus's face, his squinty eyes, pinning me down, I could tell he didn't like me. Once again Daysha proved to be a useful fool and grabbed his arm, dragging him toward us.
The prince sat back down, and offered them to share tea with us. I got up and took the kettle, saying how I'll just make a new batch, but the prince insisted. ''As you told me yesterday, why waste it?''
Of course I wanted the prince to drink it and die, so that I could take his place. And I didn't mind if that man lemarcus dies, for I despised him. But I didn't want Daysha my sister to die such a meaningless death!
''Very well, but Daysha, you won't like it. Why don't you bring us some refreshments instead?'' I proposed, trying to get her to look me in the eyes, and notice what was going on. But the fool was clutching at lemarcus's arm, smiling, and told me she'll just add my present to the tea, that she took out.
The orange tea I gifted her! And so the prince took it upon himself to pour two more cups to Daysha and Lemarcus. She added the bright orange powder to her cup, and also to everyone's cups, smiling.
Daysha asked a few questions to the prince, as they ate berries, holding their lethal cups, warming their hands. I Dieudonné sat there, and debated if I should just flip the table and maybe punch lemarcus, as a pretext to stop everyone from drinking the tea. After all, I'd get another chance sooner or later.
I looked down at my cup, and catched a glimpse of my reflection, amidst the scintillating of the orange powder, much akin to the prince's golden chains on his face, and at once the fountain of greed within me sprang anew. Damn it all!
She's a fool, he's a lustful man, and he's the prince I'm meant to be!
''Now, let's drink to our new friendship!''
And I burned my throat, gulping down the tea, not even tasting it. I slammed the cup on the table, and to my horror, to my bliss, they all did the same.
With how much rat poison I had put in the tea, the effects would start rather soon. My sister, with rosy cheeks, asked me ''Dieudonné, you told us your friend is the prince, yes, but you never told us his name?''
And at that I couldn't hold my laughters, it was too much for me.
''Yes, you never did ask for my name, even after you told me you didn't care about me being prince...''
We all grew silent. The prince added, smiling, ''Tell me, are we really friends?''
This is when they started dying.
Coughing, and retching, and all that. I dragged Daysha and Lemarcus to their room, making my best impression of someone worried for his friends, for his sister. She held my arm, and in her eyes, the same fear in saw in Daquan the day before. She whispered, in my ear, how she wanted to give me a present, as thanks for bringing her with me here to Jericho. She placed in my hand, orange incense. We both got teary eyes. I told her, once again, for the last time, ''I'm sorry.''
I closed the backdoor. Alone once again with the prince, I towered over him. He was asking for a glass of water, and to go fetch a guard, to bring him back to the palace.
I lied to him once again ''Now, my friend. I have an antidote, but first you have to tell me everything I need to know about you, about the prince of Jericho.''
He was shocked, and couldn't breathe for a few seconds. I fell to my knees and slapped him. I told him ''You see, my friend, I'll take your place as prince, and become the man I was always meant to be.''
At that the prince struggled to laugh, holding my arms; ''I was never the prince! I did just like you, Dieudonné my friend. I took the jewels and the clothes and the knowledge of the last prince, and I made myself prince.''
I got up, and stared him down. He added ''And the prince before that! All pretending, all greedy, all imposters!''
He struggled to get up, fell to his knees, and whispered to me, holding my legs ''I have only ever showed you kindness, generosity, friendship... And you would kill me, and take my place?''
I saw, at that moment, the prince had the face of despair. I pushed him down on the ground, and I couldn't help but cry as I removed his clothes, his crown, and painstakingly removed his golden chains, the true symbol of his majesty.
All the while the prince was laying there on the ground, staring at the ceiling. He tells me, his voice raspy and his breathing short; ''So you'll get my haircut, get some new piercings, wear my clothes and my jewels... So you'll be the new prince of Jericho... Will that satisfy you?''
I froze. I looked down to him. he added, pleading;
''Will you at least spare me, your friend? I'll tell you everything you need to know, the name of the servants, how you should act, secrets, all of it. Just give me the antidote, and give Daysha and Lemarcus the antidote. And go, I'll forget about you, Dieudonné, the man I thought was my friend.''
He told me everything, and I lied to him once more, about how the antidote will save his life. I made him drink some of my tea, and he smiled. I asked him his name, and he told me, crying.
But I forgot.
As I walked out, the parrot rushed in, yelling ''Murderer! Murderer! Thief!'' Once more.
The next day, I was walking down the main road, on my way to the palace of Jericho. On my face, the gold chains, on my head, the crown. And adorning me, clothes beffiting of a prince. And on everyone's faces, admiration, love, respect.
I held my head high, and smiled broadly, for at last I was a prince, with the face of a prince. What bliss.
I entered the palace, and made haste to my chamber, where a few days ago I drank tea and laughed with the previous prince. I jumped on the bed, took a nap. Never slept better in my whole life. I awoke and filled my pockets with gold coins, emeralds and ivory. I demanded a servant to make me some orange tea, but I didn't drink it, I wasted it.
I pushed open the bathroom door, avoiding the mirror once more. And there, the bathtub of a prince, with lotions and soaps and warm water on tap. I poured myself a bath, filled with all the luxury products I could find. I reached for my pocket and took out the orange incense Daysha had given me, before dying of my hand.
I placed it down on the counter, in front of the mirror, and lit it, its fragrance, taking me all the way back to my hometown, to little Daysha and my family.
I glimpsed at the mirror at last, looking at my perfect reflection. Never before had I seen my face so clearly, if not from the still surface of the cursed lake. In the flickering of the candles, I saw the face of a murderer. I saw the face of a thief. I saw the face of a spiteful man.
I couldn't take it anymore, I punched the mirror, reopening my wounds on my knuckles. The mirror cracked, and my reflection was mutliplied. I looked at my bloodshot eyes, at my golden chains, at my stupid haircut, and I grabbed the golden chains and screamed as I tore them with all my force. Blood gushing out, pieces of my nose, my ear and my eyebrow, at the tip of the golden chains. I threw away the crown and tore down my clothes, drops of red staining the royal floor, as I ran away toward the exit, toward the roads of Jericho.
Outside, I walked around, aimlessly, my mind, numb. I was just so tired of it all. So what if I was prince at last?
There, walking toward me, peeling away his orange, the tall man in the white hat, the blind man, the man with the wise face. He puts a hand on my shoulder, and says, as if to himself :
''Ah! There is the man with the cursed face. Welcome to Jericho!''
Thank you so much for reading, please leave a comment! I would love to read your thoughts-

It’s just 4 weeks away. I confidently wrote it in pen on New Year’s Day - expecting you to still be here then. I just started thinking about what to get you a couple of days ago. Then out of the blue you just drop dead in your kitchen with absolutely no prior warning. Poof! And your nine decades of work, wisdom, wit and worldliness just went out like a blown bulb.
Sure you were ninety - but that just means I got to love you for longer. Had more of your wisdom intertwined in how I do things. More of your sayings and more things that make me think of you.
I’m sure you’re finding this all very funny. It’s so typically you. Living well into old age without any significant ailments and then just out like a light one day when you went to get a drink.
You had the fullest life too. You saw every part of the world that you wanted to, you checked things off your bucket list sometimes twice. Hell we got to a point where nobody knew what to buy you for Christmas because there was nothing you hadn’t already done.
And talk about best of both worlds - you had a grandchild without even having children. You chose to adopt me as your own granddaughter before I was even born. And you loved me exactly as a Nan should for all of my 30 years on this earth. Every life event of mine - you were there. You’d proudly show me off to your friends after you’d taken me foraging and taught me how to make an apple and blackberry pie. You taught me how to skim stones, knit and make Christmas cards into next year’s gift tags too. Along with so much else I can’t possibly begin to list.
You carried the torch for all four of my biological grandparents who passed too soon to love me. And you kept it lit for three decades until the light went out with you this week.
We had the most special bond. I always admired your fierce independence, numerous quality friendships and your surprisingly liberal outlook on life. I’ll look forward to carrying your energy with me, and if I turn out half as accomplished has you when it’s my turn, well heck - I’ll be one happy woman.
Love you Nan, and thank you for everything.

I know this has been a topic of discussion the past month or so on this sub, but there was another instance in the season finale of the different ways Tori and Zach treat and talk to Jackson versus Lilah.
When they were out picking blackberries, Lilah mentions wanting more blackberries in her bowl. Tori says something along the lines of "You have to pick them yourself, you ding-dong."
A bit later, Jackson says something along the lines of "Tori Roloff, I'll just replace you"...which imo is an odd thing for a 6 year-old to say to their Mom. Tori's response: "Oh Jackson, you're so funny"
Do I think Tori meant ill-will by calling Lilah a ding-dong? No. She was probably just joking and laughing at Lilah, which is fine if it happens once in a while. But from what we see on the show, they're frequently referring to Lilah in non-flattering ways. Clumsy. Whiny. Challenging. High maintenance. Ding-dong.
Whereas Jackson is just the best, can do no wrong. Which, I have no problem with them putting Jackson on a pedestal like that, but do the same for your other kids as well. It's obvious to a lot of us that the way they talk to and about them are completely different.
If you watch the early seasons, the same exact thing happened with Zach growing up. Matt clearly favored Jeremy as the golden child. He was "farmer", he helped on all the projects, he always was involved with Matt in brainstroming/dreaming up new ideas on the farm, he was his dads right hand man.
Whereas Matt would frequently refer to Zach as too shy, introverted, not big enough to help, be more like Jeremy, etc.
History is repeating itself.

(As always, flyers are out Wednesdays, most store sales for the new flyer start on Thursdays)
Adonis

• Eggs (Burnbrae) - $7.99 30-pack -- Awesome price for these big flats of eggs! 26.6c/egg.
• Beef eye of round (AA+) - $7.49 per lb -- We've seen cheaper, but this is a good fair price for eye of round.
• Beef short rib - $10.99 per lb -- A little bit of a pricier cut, but a good price for it.
• Ground chicken (lean) - $3.49 per lb -- Great price for ground chicken!
• Royal sea bream (free cleaning) - $5.88 per lb -- Good price for whole fish. I should try some sea bream! Widely considered by chefs to be the tastiest of all fish!
• Alaskan pollock (fillets) - $4.99 per lb -- Great price for pollock fillets!
• Red vine tomatoes - $1.49 per lb -- Ok price for tomatoes. Basically average.
• Lemons - $2.99 for 10 -- 30c a lemon! Awesome!
• Blueberries - $2.99 340g shell -- Great price for blueberries!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Nice! Sub-$5 cheese is always a win!
• Akawi (Cedar, Phoenicia) - $2.29 per 100g -- Bulgarian feta, Baladi, and Kashkaval on for the same price! I'd like to try those last two!
• Feta and bocconcini (Tre Stelle) - $3.99 200g tub -- Good price for these two cheeses!
• Ricotta (Saputo) - $3.99 400g tub -- Nice! I like to see ricotta at this price. Hard to find it for less so regularly.
• Deli - MTL-smoked meat (Solmaz) - $1.99 per 100g -- Nice! I'm gonna get some of this!
• Deli - Beef bologna (Alzahraa) - $1.29 per 100g -- And I should get some of this while I'm at it, just to give it a whirl!
• Deli - Genoa salami (Mastro) - $2.29 per 100g -- Sounds pricey for deli, but the chubs are usually $6 for 200g. And, because it's a dryer deli meat, even 100g goes a very long way.
• Deli - Turkey breast (Olymel) - $2.79 per 100g -- Not the best deli meat to buy if you're getting a lot, but it could be a tasty treat!
• Tomato paste (Unico) - $0.99 156ml can -- Not bad. I like to score them for 88c if I can, but 99c isn't bad.
• Sourdough bread (Rudolph) - $2.99 500g loaf -- Last I tried to snag these loaves, I couldn't find any in-store. Ask a rep for help!
• BBQ hardwood (Basques) - $17.99 8kg bag -- Actually, not a terrible price for such a big bag of decent charcoal.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium, but always has well-priced chicken, the deli meat sale rotations are always fantastic, and just the overall variety of goods is refreshing. Personal favourite store.

Farm Boy

• Chicken breast (boneless, skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Average sale price, but decent enough. Not a stock-up price, but fair enough…
• Atlantic salmon steaks (fresh) - $8.99 per lb -- Very nice! $1-2/lb under the average sale price, and it's a fun cut!
• Green beans - $1.99 per lb -- Awesome price for green beans!
• Green onions, radishes - $0.99 per bunch -- Nice!
• Mini cucumbers - $5.00 for 2x 6-packs -- Very nice!! I like to see cheap cuce on the shelf! Good salad material that's a little hardier in the fridge than leafy greens.
• Deli - Oven-roasted chicken breast (Brandt) - $2.99 per 100g -- Meh price as deli goes. I'd need to price-check their whole deli section to size this up. There may be better that's not advertised.
• St-Albert Cheese curb - $2.99 per 100g -- Nice! This is actually on par or better than what you'd pay for the bags.
• Canned Skipjack tuna - $5.00 for 3x 170g cans -- Not amazing, but fair for the brand and tuna quality.
• Dumplings (pork or chicken, Farm Boy) - $4.99 500g box -- Nice! I usually don't mention items like this, but this is actually good value.
• Bread (Dempsters) - $2.99 600g loaf -- Nothing new about bread pricing. Just nice to see $3 loaves of decent bread are still around.
• Produce Price Rating: High

Farmers Pick (can be a little late on their flyer) (https://www.farmerspick.ca/flyer-specials)
Food Basics

• Ground beef - $3.88 per lb -- Nice! Great price for ground!
• Ground chicken (lean) - $3.88 per lb -- Good price for ground chicken. Adonis has the better deal, but this is still fair.
• Atlantic salmon fillet (fresh) - $9.88 per lb -- Nice! $10/lb pink fish!
• Argentine shrimp (Ocean Prime) - $9.88 454g bag -- These look like the big ones! Nice on skewers!
• Eggs - $5.48 18-pack -- Not ground-breaking, it's still 30c an egg, but it's about 30-40c off the carton.
• Chicken wings - $3.99 per lb -- Worthy mention. Made some soy sauce chicken wings the other day. Freakin' chef's kiss! God they were good… (chicken wing post)
• Corn - $1.88 5-pack of cobs -- Awesome! Bring on the cob! Less than 40c is better than 80c to $1!
• Avocado - $0.88 each -- A 5-pack of these runs us $4.40 total, which is basically on par with average cado pricing.
• "Honey Sweet" onions (Vidalia style?) - $2.99 3lb bag -- NICE! I love these onions - cooked, freshly cut, doesn't matter. They're so good! ! Usually about $4-5 for the bag, worth trying!
• Sweet eppers - $2.99 4-pack -- Good price for peppers!!
• Mini cucumbers - $5.00 for 2x 6-packs -- Nice! Same deal as Farm Boy.
• Fresh jalapenos - $5.00 2x 250g packs -- Price is also for 2x 400g packs of tomatillos!
• Blackberries - $1.88 170g shell -- Fair sale!
• Navel oranges - $0.88 per lb -- Very nice! Great sale!
• Limes - $3.98 1lb bag -- Faigoing-rate for limes.
• Yogurt multipack (Astro) - $4.49 12x100ml pack -- Hmm, we were seeing these for $4 before. Noticed a little upward pressure in yogurt pricing in these last weeks.
• Chipotle in adobo (La Costena) - $2.79 319ml can -- Oh man… I have been hunting cans of this stuff. The shelves are always bare!
• Frozen veg (Green Giant) - $6.88 for 2x 750g bags -- Good deal for brand-name frozen veg.
• Frozen veg (Selection) - $5.99 1.5-2kg bags -- Amazing value!
• Italian hard cheese (Casa Azzurra) - $10.49 per lb -- Good price for a decent hard cheese. It doesn't have the same depth as parm or padano. But, it's way better than pre-grated shake cheese. And I find it aged nicely in the fridge (just keep it well-wrapped in a ziplock)
• Milk (Lactantia) - $4.88 4L bagged -- Very nice!
• Butter (Selection) - $4.88 454g bar -- Ohh, sub-$5 butter… Pray we see $4…
• Cooking oil (Saporito) - $7.88 3L jug -- Very good price! Includes vegetable, canola, and sunflower!
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low

FoodLand

• Pork back rib - $3.99 per lb -- Fair price. We've seen $3/lb, even $2/lb. But FoodLand is a little up there for pricing, so this is on-par and on-brand.
• Top sirloin steak (AAA) - $9.99 per lb -- Fair price for decent cuts of steak. Not a value proposition, but ok once in a while.
• Russet potatoes (Compliments) - $5.99 10lb bag -- Fair price for potatoes.
• Brick cheese (Compliments) - $9.00 for 2x 400g bars -- Nice! Funny, they have also a 700g bar for $10. Like… why advertise that 700g bar…
• Deli - Blackforest or Honey ham (Compliments) - $2.99 per 100g -- Going-rate for deli ham.
• Earth's Own Oat bev - $6.00 for 2x 946ml jugs -- Oat milk goes for a little more on average. But these jugs are half-size compared to Silk products. It's a toss-up… Be mindful.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-high to high.

Freshco (price matcher)

• Chicken breast (boneless, skinless) - $4.99 per lb -- Nice! Great price!!
• Eggs (Compliments) - $7.99 30-pack -- Ah, another good deal on eggs!
• Cucumber - $0.79 each -- AWESOME!
• Fennel - $1.99 each -- Not a usual ingredient for most, but I love this stuff. Lasts long in the fridge, awesome for salads, soups, and stocks.
• Plums - $1.88 each -- Great price for plums!
• Sourdough bread (Rudolph) - $2.79 500g loaf -- Very nice! 20c cheaper than average sale pricing.
• Jasmine rice (Ox Head) - $15.88 7kg bag -- Haha, Flipp's ad was for a 70kg bag hahaha, that's a whoopsie typo.
• Dishwasher tabs (Finish) - $13.99 55 tabs -- Good deal on those tabs.
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low (more on the medium side)

Giant Tiger (*note the VIP prices; sales begin today) (price matcher)

• Bacon (Carver's choice) - $2.77 375g pack -- Great price for bacon! Mind the fat lines, but for this is a good deal for standard bacon.
• Cauliflower - $2.88 each -- Nice! Average is about $4 these days.
• Oranges - $3.88 3lb bag -- Fair price for oranges. Deal includes lemons (2lb) and kiwis (600g).
• Blueberries - $1.88 170g shell -- Fair price for a nice little treat!
• Dry pasta (Primo) - $0.77 454g packs -- These are "half-packs", but the full 2lb packs are often $2 or more. So, this is still a stock-up price.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally on the low side.

Green Fresh Supermarket (Vanier) (check https://greenfreshottawa20.wixsite.com/greenfreshottawa) * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
IGA (price matcher)

• Chicken legs - $1.29 per lb -- WOW! Way below average! Stock-up! Legs make a fantastic chicken cacciatore! Probably limited. Catch it while you can.
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.88 per lb -- AWESOME! That's fantastic price for tomatoes!
• Cucumber - $0.88 each -- AWESOME!
• Strawberries - $1.99 454g shell -- Scene Member Price. Regular 2.99.
• Deli - Cooked ham (Lafleur) - $1.99 per 100g -- Kinda like prosciutto cotto. Ok price for a cheaper deli meat.
• Deli - Cooked or Smoked turkey - $2.69 per 100g -- Ok price for turkey deli meat.
• Butter (Lactantia) - $4.99 454g bar -- Nice! $5 butter is always welcome!
• Produce Price Rating: Medium

Independent

• Beef sirloin tip roast (AAA) - $5.99 per lb -- Great price for AAA beef!
• Pork sirloin chops or roast - $2.99 per lb -- Fair sale price for pork.
• Russet potatoes - $5.99 10lb bag -- Fair price for potatoes.
• Strawberries - $2.99 454g shell -- Average sale.
• Tofu (Rooster) - $4.00 for 2x 454g bars -- A fair but average discount. Available at Loblaws, as well.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Loblaws

• Beef brisket (AA) - $4.99 per lb -- Great price for brisket! I need to pull out my smoker!
• Whole chicken - $1.88 per lb -- Awesome price for whole chicken!
• Grapes - $1.99 per lb -- Great price for grapes!
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Provigo

• Chicken legs or drumsticks - $1.99 per lb -- Good price as chicken goes. It's on the edge of stock-up pricing. The IGA deal smokes this price, however…
• Pork sirloin chops or roast - $2.49 per lb -- Good price for pork!
• Russet potatoes - $3.99 10lb bag -- Funny. $6 at Independent, $4 at Provigo. Weird lol…
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Maxi (price matcher)

• Pork loin - $2.00 per lb -- Awesome! This is a stock-up price!
• Steelhead trout and Atlantic salmon - $7.99 per lb -- WOW! Awesome price for pink fish!
• Pork rib - $2.77 per lb -- Nice! Under $3/lb for pork rib is a good deal.
• Eggs (No Name) - $2.38 12-pack -- Wow! 20c/egg! That's a deal!
• Cucumber - $3.50 3-pack -- Nice! Not under $1, but still ok!
• Strawberries - $1.77 454g shell -- Very nice! That's a great price!
• Plums - $2.00 per lb -- Good price for prunes! Often more in the 2.50-3.00/lb+.
• Pineapple - $2.99 each -- Decent price for pineapple. This is my cut-off price.
• Mandarins - $5.99 4lb bag -- Fair sale price! Under $2/lb is good for nice citrus.
• Mozzarela (Saputo) - $4.55 500g bar -- Nice! Sub $5 cheese that's great for pizza and lasagna!
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium low pricing! This store can post some impressive deals at times.

Metro

• Chicken drumsticks or thighs - $2.44 per lb -- Good sale price! Not the IGA price, granted, but still decent. Average non-sale can easily be over $3/lb, so this is ok. It's just not a stock-up price.
• Lamb leg - $5.99 per lb -- Not the best deal for lamb. $4/lb is the real price to look for. But, this is still always better than beef pricing.
• Fresh sausage (store-made) - $3.99 per lb -- Good price for good sausage. It's very rare to find it freshly-made for under $4/lb.
• Rainbow trout fillets - $9.99 per lb -- Fair sale on pink fish.
• Vadalia sweet onions - $3.44 3lb bag -- Ohh, those Vidalias… As mentioned, try some. They're only in season for so long.
• Sweet potatoes - $0.77 per lb -- AWESOME! Wow! That's an amazing price!
• Deli - Blackforest ham (Irresistibles) - $1.99 per 100g -- Very nice! Great to see the Metro show some relaxed deli pricing.
• Produce Price Rating: High. Kinda like Sobeys. You can see a 50% average mark-up compared to a lot of other stores. It's nice produce, but it costs you.

No Frills (price matcher)

• Chicken breast (boneless, skinless) - $4.66 per lb -- Awesome price! I'd stock-up a little at this price. Not too much, because you can sometimes score a $4/lb deal. But this is still very good.
• Cucumber - $0.88 each -- Awesome! Great to see more cheap cuce going around!
• Mini cucumbers - $3.99 11-pack -- Nice! This is good value!
• Corn - $2.99 4-pack -- Not the Basics deal, but still ok-ish compared to paying $1/ear.
• Green beans - $1.99 per lb -- Awesome price for green beans!
• Potatoes (Red, Yellow, Russet) - $4.99 10lb bag -- Nice variety of spuds at a welcome average sale price.
• Mini carrots - $3.99 2lb bag -- 2lb… that's 900g-ish… Usually the bags are 340g for $2… So, there's savings to be had here.
• Grapes - $1.99 per lb -- Nice! Lots of $2/lb grape sales going around.
• Cantaloupe - $1.84 each -- When $3 is a fair sale, under $2 is awesome!
• Watermelon - $6.99 each -- Well, certainly better than the $8-15 I've seen for sliced quarters. When convenience costs you abusive premiums, look to options like this.
• Silk plant bev - $3.79 1.74-1.89L jug -- Fair sale!
• Earth's Own Oat bev - $2.49 946ml jug -- Better than FoodLand for oat milk, but still not as good as the Silk value. Anyone have experience with both products?
• Produce Price Rating: Generally quite low, selectively amazing for some items.

Produce Depot (usually a little late on the flyer) https://producedepot.ca/

• Whole chicken - $2.69 per lb -- Decent and fair sale price for chicken, but there's better this week.
• Ground beef (lean) - $5.49 per lb -- Ok/Going-rate on ground beef. Not a stock-up price, but still ok compared to some regular pricing we can see these days.
• Asparagus - $1.99 per lb -- Nice! Great deal! And that's per lb, not 340g bunches.
• Cucumbers - $0.99 each -- Nice! Good to see $1 cucumbers.
• Eggplant - $1.79 per lb -- Good price. I hadn't realized how eggplant can swing so wildly. Like, up to $4/lb! Basics had it at 99c/lb a couple of weeks back, which was killer. Anything around $1.50/lb is a fair sale price. Over 2.50/lb is meh.
• Pink Lady apples - $1.29 per lb -- Nice! Fair price for a nice apple variety.
• Bosc pears - $1.49 per lb -- Nice price for bosc types. It's not often you'll see them for that $1/lb mark.
• Deli - All-beef salami (Lester's) - $1.89 per 100g -- Nice! Good price for deli meat.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-low with very competitive specials on a shortened flyer. The small flyer is nice because it doesn't uselessly feature $6 heads of cauliflower and extremely high-price items that are either a confusion on the consumer, or an insult on the injury of not being able to afford supreme quality items.

Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)

• Whole chicken - $1.99 per lb -- Great price for whole chicken.
• Ground beef (medium) - $4.99 per lb -- Meh average sale price for ground beef. Stock-up price level is about $4/lb.
• Ground beef (frozen, lean) - $10.00 1.1kg tubes -- Slightly better value than the medium ground. I'd buy this any day of the week at this rate. Still not a stock-up price, however.
• Duck (grade A) - $3.99 per lb -- Nice! Duck is pretty pricey, so don't rush the gates for it. But, it makes for a nice treat!
• Basa fillet (frozen) - $10.00 908g bag -- Not a terrible idea to keep a supply of these for easy, healthier-minded meals.
• Sausage (frozen, Marcangelo) - $11.00 1.4kg pack -- Nice price for decent sausage.
• Sausage (fresh, Marcangelo) - $12.99 1kg pack -- Interesting to see the contrast between the frozen and fresh. About 3.60/lb versus 5.90/lb.
• Mini cucumbers - $5.00 11-pack -- We saw some $4 packs, but this ain't bad.
• Grape tomatoes - $5.00 907g shell -- Pretty good! Especially considering some tomato varieties can easily climb into the same $2-2.50/lb range.
• Potatoes (Red, Yellow) - $5.00 10lb bag -- Decent price for spuds!
• Raspberries - $4.00 340g shell -- Good price for a full pint of berries.
• Apples (Imperfect) - $4.99 6lb bag -- Good price for apples, but I'd like to see these at $4. 83c/lb is a bit high for imperfect fruit…
• Cantaloupe - $2.99 each -- Decent price for a cantaloupe.
• Pineapple - $2.99 each -- Good and fair price.
• Watermelon - $7.99 each -- Good and fair price. Apparently they're 11lb on average.
• Paneer (Happy Dairy) - $4.00 300g block -- Great price! Usually $1-2 more for the same block.
• Deli - varieties of ham (Ziggy's) - $2.50 per 100g -- Nice to see deli ham at a fair price. Not amazing, but ok. I still prefer slicing my own from sale-price toupies that you can get for $1/100g some weeks.
• Chipotle in adobo (La Costena) - $2.49 319ml can -- A worthy mention again. I love this stuff… Makes a great easy chili. Smokey with a nice kick!
• Canned tomatoes (Unico) - $1.59 796ml can -- Nice! Great price for good tomatoes. Might be worth snagging a few cans for your pantry,
• Olive oil (Gallo) - $11.99 1L bottle -- Wow! Not the $8 of yesteryear, but I've seen the same bottles go for $15…
• Earth's Own almond bev - $2.99 1.74-1.89L jug -- Great price!
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium-low pricing, selectively amazing for some items.

Sobeys

• Ground beef (extra lean) - $4.49 per lb -- Scene Member Price. Regular 5.50/lb. It's only fair at the member price. Otherwise, it's really too average… Hit a Basics for ground beef this week.
• Napa - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! I love seeing napa at this price!
• Bok choy - $0.99 per lb -- And the bok choy! Out of all things for Sobeys to price really well…
• Brick cheese - $4.99 400g -- Always good to see a familiar $5 brick of standard cheese.
• Earth's Own oat bev - $2.99 1.75L jug -- Ok, I don't get it. Sometimes the oat is more expensive. Now this one is the same price as the almond. So confused! Lol
• Produce Price Rating: Generally a high price store, especially for produce. Some items are 50% more than more value-oriented stores. Kinda like Metro, some of the deals can be quite good.

Super C

• Beef top sirloin steak or roast - $6.99 per lb -- Good rate for beef, but no grade mentioned in the flyer. Mind the cut. If it's good, get some. But if it looks tough and meh, I might pass…
• Chicken breast (boneless, skinless) - $4.44 per lb -- Nice! That's the cheapest this week!
• Chicken legs - $2.49 per lb -- Fair rate, but no IGA sale, that's for sure.
• Iceberg lettuce - $1.49 each -- Very nice! Think of the 3-pack of romaine for $3-4, this is about 2 hearts of lettuce. Great value here!
• Grape tomatoes - $0.99 227g shell -- Beats the RCSS deal. 4 of these is $4 for the same 2lb.
• Green peppers - $1.49 per lb -- Nice! Not bad for peppers. Still waiting on peppers to be properly in season, but there few pepper sales this week are a good sign of things to come!
• Corn - $0.99 for 2 -- AWESOME! 50c a cob! WOOT!
• Cauliflower - $2.99 each -- Scene Member Price.
• Potatoes (Red, Yellow, Russet) - $4.99 10lb bag -- $5 10lb bags are always welcome!
• Apples(lots of varieties!) - $0.99 per lb -- WOW! Amazing! Great price for a wicked variety: Granny Smith, Red and Yellow Delicious, Honey Crisp, and Fuji!
• Red grapes - $1.88 per lb -- Good deal on grapes, but only red grapes. Green variety is excluded,
• Pineapple - $2.99 each -- Glad to see so many of these $3 deals around different chains.
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond, Ptit Quebec) - $4.87 400g bar -- Good ol' $5 cheese.
• Oka cheese - $6.99 190g wheel -- Oka is often 3.49/100g, This falls on par with that.
• Artisan dried sausage (Irresistibles) - $7.99 300g chub -- Nice. These are good products. I really enjoy the parm one, the chorizo is also really nice.
• Maple syrup (Irresistibles) - $5.77 540ml can -- Nice! These can float up to $7-8 a can.
• White sugar (Redpath) - $1.99 2kg bag -- Nice! Usually about $3 or more.
• Canned tomatoes (Primo) - $5.00 for 3x 796ml cans -- At 1.66 a can, it's a good stock-up price. Basics' Selection-brand cans go for 1.77 regular, but I find them a bit watery. Primo and Unico are better, I find.
• Dry pasta - $5.00 3x 500-900g packs -- Depending on the pasta variety you get, this is a slapping deal. The only thing that competes is the GT deal for pasta.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally low, but can creep into medium for some items. But, there's always something decent available!

T&T Supermarket https://www.tntsupermarket.com * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
Walmart

• Ground beef (medium) - $3.27 per lb -- WOW! Great price for ground beef!
• White mushrooms - $0.94 227g shell -- Awesome price for mushrooms
• Vine tomatoes - $0.84 per lb -- Awesome price for tomatoes!
• Corn - $0.67 per cob -- Great price for corn! Doesn't beat that Super C sale, but this is close enough!
• Potatoes (all-purpose) - $4.97 10lb bag -- Nice! More welcome $5 bags of spuds.
• Honey crisp apples - $0.84 per lb -- Awesome! Nice apples at a great price!
• Pineapple - $2.97 each -- More $3 pineapple. Anyone remember that 94c sale Walmart had that one time… I still think about it! LOL
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.87 400g bar -- Good ol' $5 brick cheese.
• Pizza dough - $1.97 650g ball -- They also have easy canned pizza sauce for 97c (213ml). I'm a huge stickler for making your own pizza, and this dough makes it really easy!
• Earth's Own oat or almond bev - $3.47 1.75-1.89L jug -- I guess almond and oat can be the same price. I don't get it anymore hahaha. Why is oat special in some places, but not others hahaha
• Produce Price Rating: A little all over the place. Some really good prices between a lot of average pricing.

Costco (Note that these are the online/shipped prices - reduce each item by $3 for in-store pricing)

• NOTE: NEED TO REVISE - --
• Paper Towel (Kirkland) - $27.99 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 160 sheets
• Paper Towel (Bounty) - $27.49 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 86 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Kirkland) - $25.99 30-roll pack -- 2-ply; 380 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Cashmere) - $24.99 40-roll pack -- 2-ply; 250 sheets (on sale)
• Dish soap (Dawn Platinum) - $18.99 2.66L -- Food Basics often has this jug for $10!
• Laundry detergent (Purex) - $24.99 9.24L -- 250 loads
• Garbage bags (30 gallon; large) - $15.99 100-pack -- Amazon has Glad standard 74L bags, 100-packs for $23, sometimes less if on sale
• Countertop green bin liners - $21.99 125-pack -- Amazon has Glad Compostable green bin liners 100-packs for $18, sometimes less if on sale
• Produce Price Rating: I need to do a proper check to be sure, but I find it's pretty average. There's an illusion of getting a good deal because of the bulk. Just be careful.

Jean Coutu (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: I have to start checking these just in case...

Shoppers Drug Mart (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: Sometimes they have cheap butter, eggs, and milk on weekends.

Some additional references!

• Grocery Review Google Drive Location https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xhLvBP1smXb1eSnxAW5yyBjO2aYFLJHC?usp=sharing
• Cooking Tips and Recipes https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TCcHm9y0kWIa3x18hznKN2ix0BPcUv-m?usp=drive_link
• Google Maps list of the Grocery stores in Ottawa https://maps.app.goo.gl/YT7cZmv8vMQWU4J59

I've always been a girl who loves animals, and now that I have two pet rabbits, both adoped within the last year, I am extra excited about the return of Nui Cobalt's Critters collection! This collection isn't entirely sweet cuddly woodland creatures, but it does have a lot of those, including three of my all-time favorite Nui Cobalts: Little Brown Rabbit, Little White Rabbit, and Lilac Rabbit. When Forest posted in the Facebook group asking which Critters we'd like to see return, or which animals we'd love to see emerge as new Critters, I waxed rhapsodic about the Rabbits and suggested a bunch of other colorings of rabbits that could become amazing perfumes... so I'm hopeful that we might even get a new Rabbit this year. I would just about die of happiness if she really did make a Blue Otter Rabbit after my sweet bun Hazel. She also teased a Ladybug scent for this year, which would be SO CUTE!
Anyway, the Critters are due back this Friday, with the newsletter announcing them on Thursday, and I am excited. As usual, I thought I'd post my thoughts on all the past Critters I've tried in case that might help you formulate your wishlist. And if you've tried any of these, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Was your experience similar to mine?
My preferences: I especially love snuggly scents, incense, golden amber, cardamom, black tea, beeswax, non-gourmand vanillas, and white florals (particularly tiare, honeysuckle and tuberose; sadly I am allergic to lilies and jasmine doesn’t work on me). I don't like hay, overly sweet gourmands, excessive musk, dragon’s blood, leather, patchouli, labdanum, or any really dark scents in general. To my great devastation, Nui Cobalt’s apricot and pear notes don’t tend to work on me, though I haven’t given up hope and I continue to try new blends with those notes occasionally.
Most of these perfumes were provided as press samples by Nui Cobalt in exchange for an honest review.
​

Rabbits

Little Brown Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against fluffy marshmallow, cottonflower, pink pepper, and a trace of carrot seed] (this perfume is so popular that it is also in the Continuous Collection and available all year 'round!) - This is one of my absolute top perfume oils. It comforts me on hard days, it cozies me on laid-back evenings, it cheers me on rainy days. My husband recognizes it immediately and honestly I think he finds it cuddly too when I'm wearing it, and it's also his primary frame of reference when he sniffs a new sample I'm trying - "that smells a bit like Little Brown Rabbit" is high praise from him. Wet, it's very strongly nutmeg and caramel, almost mapley, but also with just a bit of pepperish bite from the carrot seed - this is as gourmand as I'm willing to get. Once it dries, the caramel dissipates and it becomes the most marvelously snuggly scent. Having a bad day? Little Brown Rabbit can cheer you up. Having a cozy day? Little Brown Rabbit will make it that much better. Wanting to unwind in the evening? Little Brown Rabbit is my go-to snuggly evening scent. And I think it's the absolute must-try from Nui Cobalt.
Little White Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against cottonflower, white peppercorn, clove, vanilla marshmallow creme, pale blue cashmere, carrot seed, and honeyed almond] - When the news broke that NCD was releasing a new little rabbit variant two years ago, I was SO excited (little did I know that it would seemingly become an annual thing!), and I blind-bought a full-size (something I never do). Especially because Little White Rabbit adds that wonderful cashmere note to Little Brown Rabbit, this one was a no-brainer for me, and my trust was easily rewarded. Nui Cobalt has outdone themselves with this, their most snuggly of perfumes. I expected this to be a lot like LBR only less mapley and perhaps more cashmere-y (and yes, it is both of these things), but truly, LWR feels even more like it's built on a base of Spidersilk vanilla (Starlight and Spidersilk: [Slender strands of cotton flower hung with trembling dewdrops, cold crystalline musk, and tiny black vanilla beans]), with some of the LBR spices (the peppercorn and carrot seed, but I don't sense any cloves) plus the comforting warmth of the cashmere and almond of Silver Fox (see below), another favorite of mine. And then finally, the marshmallow ties it all together into a pillowy cloud of coziness. It's frankly astonishing. Love at first sniff even just from the vial, and on my skin it blossoms into the most comforting scent. Do I love it even more than LBR? I still can't tell, even years later. I love them both. One final note that may be helpful to some of you: the cottonflower is pretty strong with this one, which is part of why it reminds me so much of the Spidersilk vanilla, but if you're not so much a fan of "clean" laundry-like scents, this one might not be quite your cup of tea - go for LBR instead.
Lilac Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against toasted marshmallow, carrot seed, summerweight cotton, allspice, and pale lilac in a smooth fur accord] - Oh friends, I hoped and pleaded for another new Rabbit last year, and the universe (and Nui Cobalt) answered! I'm not actually all that fond of lilac and I think I have ended up destashing all of my perfumes with lilac notes, but I was willing to risk it for the chance of a floral Rabbit. Lilac Rabbit is gorgeous - but really, did you expect it to be anything else? I get primarily marshmallow, allspice, and cotton. It sits exactly halfway between the other two Rabbits, with the allspice and peppery carrot seed spices of Little Brown Rabbit (but without the maple quality), and also with the silky, slightly soapy fabric aspect of Little White Rabbit. There is perhaps just a touch of musky lilac, but it doesn't really read to me like a floral perfume. Lilac Rabbit is comfortable. The closest metaphor I can think of is a day when you're wearing a new outfit, one that fits perfectly and really suits you, but it's also completely comfy, with no itchy spots or seams that dig in, and it moves with you. It's like a day where you feel perfectly yourself, fully at ease, and completely put-together. This new Rabbit is everything I could have possibly dreamed of, and it immediately became one of my favorite spring & summer scents.

Squirrels

In past years, they've offered a complete set of all the Squirrels, which was how I tried them all a few years ago. (They've since been discontinued, but sometimes discontinued things return again, or perhaps you might run into one in the swaps, so I'll include all my Squirrel reviews here.) All of the Squirrels are built on the same base of almond + apricot + benzoin, and then each one has different additional notes. Like the Spidersilk variants (all built on the same Spidersilk vanilla base but with different additional notes - my reviews HERE), the Squirrels each have an entirely different vibe. Interestingly, the actual proportion of almond to apricot also seems to vary by Squirrel, perhaps because of the interactions with the different added notes, or perhaps because they actually use different proportions in the Squirrel base for each one. It means that they don't feel anything like near-exact copies of each other, but each have a really distinct identity.
Black Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, deepened by black oak, black currant, vanilla bean, and myrrh] - When I first put it on, it's very strongly and exclusively almond - a warm almond that reminds me of baking almond cookies, and it must be the vanilla that helps to make that association. The almond veers slightly towards cherry. As the oil warms on my skin, the apricot emerges and then overtakes the almond. It's apricot skin, soft and velvety, rather than the fleshy fruit of the apricot. These two notes, paired with the woodiness of the balsam and (presumably) black oak, makes this a very bookish scent, perfect for the dark academia aesthetic of my wardrobe in autumn. It's not really an incense-heavy perfume; the myrrh just grounds it and gives it a beautiful dark richness. On me it's not terribly fruity (though I know some folks get mostly dark stone fruits; isn't skin chemistry fascinating!) It's the longest-lasting of the Squirrels, too - the second time I wore it, its throw was a bit too high at bedtime so I washed my wrists, and even so, I could still smell Black Squirrel the next morning!
Flying Squirrel [Raw almond, spiced apricot, and rich benzoin borne aloft by lavender, cotton flower, and tart kumquat] - This one reminds me a lot of Napping in a Flower [Tender ripe apricot, Bulgarian lavender, spiced summer honey, plum blossom, daylily, honeysuckle, and ylang], which makes perfect sense since they share a lot of the same notes, but without the honey and honeysuckle that made Napping too candle-y on me. Husband said this reminds him strongly of Little White Rabbit - he said it's the spices that make that association for him, and I suspect he was also picking up on the shared cotton flower and almond notes. I'm finding it easier to compare Flying Squirrel to other NCD scents than to describe it on its own; its combination of notes feels quite erratic and the concept doesn't feel terribly unified. I couldn't classify this as a "cozy" perfume even though it does have a strong cotton flower note, nor is it citrusy enough for me to think of it as a fruity perfume (even though it has the strongest apricot of all the Squirrels), or herbal enough for it to go in my lavender section (in fact, I'm hoping that some aging brings out the lavender more). If you like Napping in a Flower or Little White Rabbit - two perfumes that are really nothing alike! - you'd probably enjoy this one too.
Grey Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, softened with cotton flower, cashmere, and teakwood] - This one gives the effect of eating an almond cookie while snuggled in a wool blanket. This one is super cozy - the autumn cousin of my beloved wintertime snuggly scents (Silver Fox, Snow Cat, Chionophilia, all of which also feature almond and fabric notes - see their full notes lists and my comparative reviews HERE). Grey Squirrel stays pretty static, not morphing like Black Squirrel, and the apricot is only barely present.
Red Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, warmed with red musk, red sandalwood, and smoldering amber] - This one is pretty heavy on the red musk, and was in fact partly responsible for me finally figuring out that I don't personally enjoy red musk. The almond, apricot, and sandalwood combination does give this a rather gourmand-adjacent feel to it, more so than the other Squirrels. It's a very rich and warm perfume. It's funny how actually "red" this scent feels - it feels like the experience of watching a bonfire die down, even though there's no smoke note at all. "Smoldering" indeed.
White Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, cooled with aloe, white musk, and smooth white amber] - Even without looking at the notes, it was easy to identify the white amber in this one, even though Nui Cobalt only infrequently uses white amber as a note. White Squirrel is very like Grey Squirrel, equally cozy but lighter and airier, with that white amber instead of cashmere. White Squirrel is cooler, more standoffish than Grey Squirrel - that "cool" effect must be the aloe - more a wintertime snuggly scent rather than an autumnal cozy scent. Even the now-familiar almond + apricot base feels daintier and even less foody here in White Squirrel.
Overall--

• Grey Squirrel and White Squirrel are the snuggly ones. Wear Grey Squirrel for cozy blanket vibes, and White Squirrel to be even daintier.
• Wear Red Squirrel for sexy outdoorsy gourmandy vibes (is that a thing? I think Red Squirrel makes it a thing)
• Black Squirrel is the dark academia sibling, and Flying Squirrel is the playful cousin

All the other Critters

Akhal-Teke [Fine ecru suede, raw silk, pearl musk, white amber, precious Hawaiian sandalwood, and creamy pistachio] - As someone put it, "super shiny horse". Silky yet fuzzy and soft, sophisticated yet snuggly. I recognize that pearl musk + sandalwood combination from Cancer [Cotton flower, steamed rice, soft sandalwood, vanilla orchid, coconut milk, and pearl musk] and I love it here too. All of these notes, suede + silk + pearl musk + white amber + sandalwood together, are gentle and just the epitome of softness, yet with just enough body and presence to be soft-on-purpose, assertively soft if that makes sense. This is not a wallflower scent. On to more specifics about the literal smell. At first, the nutty pistachio is pretty present, but it melds beautifully with the gentle suede. The silk and white amber give an elegance. I also definitely get the pearl musk and sandalwood, which take more prominence in the drydown when the pistachio dissipates a bit. This is my favorite stage - just soft, gentle, creamy, and absolutely lovely. Akhal-Teke has low throw but high longevity. I should note that after a year of aging, the pistachio amped quite a lot, overpowering that gorgeous pearl musk/sandalwood base that I loved so much. I'm hoping someday Forest might make one that's basically just pearl musk and sandalwood, without any gourmand elements!
Black-Capped Chickadee [Dogwood saplings, cedar resin, the tang of young stone fruits: still tiny and green, sugar maple, pine nuts, and barely-thawed soil] - I'm not one for dirt notes, so I completely passed this one up for several years, but enough really glowing reviews finally convinced me to try it. In the vial, it smells of wood, honeyed fruits, and hay. On my skin, it's soil, slightly nutty and incensey, with plush fruit and some very cedar-forward wood notes - and yet it's surprisingly dainty, and a perfect encapsulation of a black-capped chickadee. There's something about this scent that reminds me of snow-covered pebbles, and also of Shakespeare's poem "The cloud-capp'd towers" from The Tempest. After much sniffing and pondering, I finally figured out why I made that snowy association - the fruits read to me like cranberry, making this feel like a wintery scent. As for "The cloud-capp'd towers," I think I'm getting that Shakespearean reference from the combination of daintiness and dirt.
Blossom Bat [Humid rainforest blossoms laden with nectar, dense moss, passionfruit, black fig, and bamboo] - This was an order freebie that I wouldn't have picked out for myself, but it's so fun, and it went straight into my "Aloe and dewy" section of my summer perfumes, next to Waimea Mist and Aloha from the Big Island summer collection. Blossom Bat is velvety flower petals against a lush background of aquatic notes. I don't often enjoy moss notes (they often turn into honeydew melon on my skin), but here the moss contributes to the especially verdant feeling.
Blue Jay [Sturdy blue spruce and young oak support the bold elegance of white peony, angelica, blackberry bramble, and rhubarb] - In the vial, it's extremely fruity with a hint of trees. On my skin, it matches the description much more closely: evergreens and forest floor, brightened by fruity sweetness and a hint of floral. If you loved None of Your Beeswax [Thorny brambles of blackberry, elderflower, violet, fennel seed, sacred benzoin, and unfiltered honey] from the Bees collection, do give this one a try - Blue Jay is like None of Your Beeswax's summer cousin. I once wore this to a community theater production of Into the Woods and it was perfect.
Copper Fox [Warm chai with steamed almond milk nestled in sumptuous cashmere, crimson musk, sarsaparilla, and budding birch] - I once went on a quest to find the perfect chai perfume, and of course I had to try Copper Fox! Immediately on application, Copper Fox is root beer, spicy root beer - there's that sarsaparilla in a big way. As it quickly dries, the overwhelmingly root beer-ness of it backs off somewhat, and it becomes much more chai spices + the woody birch (and still with an undercurrent of root beer). Chai latte this is not - it's all the spices of chai (cinnamon and black pepper especially, and probably a bit of ginger as well) without any sweetness or milky creaminess. I should note that at this point my skin has a slight reaction to this perfume; this perfume ended up being part of my discovery that like many others, I too have a slight skin reaction to cinnamon. It didn't hurt a bit and the redness went away fairly quickly, but be forewarned, if you're a person that has a reaction to cinnamon, this might be a blend worth steering away from, or at least planning to wear in a scent locket or in your hair instead of on your skin. Finally, several hours later, Copper Fox has a third stage, and to me the most lovely: chai spices backed by gentle almond and cozy cashmere (and at this stage it's clearly a "Fox" like Silver Fox).
Elf Owl [A bright concoction of liatrix, yellow sandalwood, beach-tumbled teak, solar musk, crushed coriander, and a scant pinch of pale cinnamon] - With the teak and cinnamon, and of course the obvious cue of the "solar musk", I was expecting this to be in the same family as Nui Cobalt's Sun, Heliophilia (Love of Sun), and Sunrise on Spidersilk (comparative review HERE!). Those sun-themed perfumes can be a bit too sharp and masculine on me (I tend to prefer snuggly scents or white florals), but as a great lover of owls (and a huge fan of Nui Cobalt's Snowy Owl [Dried coconut flakes, pale woods, frozen tuberose, vanilla orchid, and fluffy feather musk], with which it admittedly shares not a single note), I absolutely could not pass up Elf Owl. I'm so glad I didn't. This actually isn't in the sun-themed family, nor, of course, does it match the highly white-floral Snowy Owl. Instead, Elf Owl turns out to be much closer to Squash Blossom [Cocobolo wood, orris root, carrot seed, sunflower petals, mandarin zest, and acorn squash baked with brown sugar] from the Autumn 1 collection, though much less vegetal. It's a very well-blended perfume and nothing in particular stands out. The overall effect is gentle: gently floral and slightly vegetal, with vanilla and baking spices but without any sugary sweetness. (Liatrix, for anyone who doesn't know what that note is--I had to look it up myself!--is a "sweet, coumarinic, herbal, tobacco-like floral and offers a pleasant vanilla-like scent".)
Fennec Fox [Blush sandalwood, amber resin, antique Egyptian cotton touched with saffron, spiced peach preserves, and sweet cedar resin] - It's gentle, warm, and spiced, with that snuggly feeling that you get with anything that has NCD's cotton note. If you really look, you can distinguish the wood, saffron, and peach, but they meld together extremely well. Surprisingly, I actually get quite a lot of the same sand note as in Flying South [Pink lemonade, warm sand, tiare blossoms, and a flowy cotton sundress] even though sand is not listed. I wear Fennec Fox in autumn on days when I don't feel like a pumpkin.
Glasswing Butterfly [A diaphanous veil of coconut water, elderflower, moonlit gardenia, silver musk, green lavender, and a slender twist of lime] - Nelophilia (Love of Glass) [Elderflower, silver musk, coconut water, cardamom, silk tree, lime blossom, and smooth hinoki wood] is one of my favorites from the Valentine's collection, but it's been discontinued for some time. So I was delighted to see this one because its notes read like a combination of Nelophilia and Queen Bee [Creamy white gardenia and fluffy whipped honey], both among my favorite NCD perfumes. It's not quite - it's not the same almost-spicy gardenia as in Queen Bee - but it is absolutely divine. Glasswing Butterfly is basically Nelophilia with all its smooth, cool, rainy, white floral nature, but here the cardamom is more present (YES! I love cardamom), and with a bit more floral. After a year of aging, it became quite a LOT more white floral; the heady gardenia came out with a KICK, and it's nearly but not quite indolic.
Honey Badger [Black amber, raw honey, smoked maple wood, and cardamom-infused cream] - I mean, duh, I had to try this one just for the cardamom cream. This is somehow so recognizably a NCD scent. Honey straight from the comb, dripping and golden, rich and sweet, backed by maple wood (but not really maple syrup) and a whiff of cardamom spice. Not nearly enough cardamom for my taste - but then, we all know what I'm like! I'm so glad I tried this one. Since its notes list starts with "black amber," I expected this to be quite a dark scent, but while it's quite rich, it's not ominously dark. Husband really likes this one, which is always a special success.
Hummingbird [Darting from oleander to orange blossom with ripe nectarine, hibiscus tea, and traces of tuberose] - White florals with orange and nectarine fruit notes, chirpy and cheerful. It's a juicy but not sugary scent. I love it for warm spring days - it's an absolute staple of my springtime perfumes - though I find it a little cloying in very hot weather.
Opossum [A bold nocturnal potion of Hatian amyris, soft black suede, red patchouli, freshly-turned earth, copal resin, and Peru balsam] - I get suede, red musk, and brown patchouli; meanwhile Husband, sniffing my wrist, gets pine and petrichor. Yet the combination of all these things is surprisingly gentle, not a shouty, in-your-face kind of scent. Absolutely none of the notes we're picking up on are my thing, but just about all of them very much are Husband's thing, so guess what - he immediately snaffled this one.
Orchid Mantis [Ripe Philippine mango, dragon fruit, tamarind, Indonesian teak, clove bud, sandalwood, tuberose, and a touch of ylang] - This one is bit too sweet for me on application - at first it's all sugary mango - but as it warms on my skin, the other notes creep in: more fruit (but less sugar), a bit of sharp clove for balance, and hints of woodiness and florals. As it dries, those hints of clove and woodiness amp further (and at this point, all my husband smells is cinnamony clove). For some reason, this is one of the very strongest of my NCD scents, with high longevity and even higher throw.
Raccoon [Sepia cashmere, guaiac wood, Egyptian amber, Copaiba balsam, golden musk, a twinkle of coriander, blonde oudh, resinous Himalayan cedar, and myrrh] - It's so well-blended that I can't pick out a single note individually, but something about this feels so quintessentially NCD. Right on application, it makes me think of Cheat Code [Windswept teakwood, cedar, coriander and tea are grounded in black tonka with a hint of fine leather], another one I had trouble describing, and it has a similar level of elegance and polish. Meanwhile, Husband smelled a bit of cola or sarsparilla, and noted an almost chocolatey undertone. As it dries, the cashmere and musk come forward, quite woolly and plush and just a touch animalistic. It seems a similar cashmere musk as in Arctic Fox [Soft amber nestled in sumptuous cashmere, steamed rice milk, winter white musk, and snow-covered fir trees]. If Arctic Fox worked for you, you absolutely must try Raccoon. Since Arctic Fox doesn't work on me (my skin amps that cashmere to unpleasant levels), Raccoon ultimately won't win a place in my collection either - which is a bummer because that opening is so pretty. I'll have to stick with Cheat Code for my polished, sophisticated vibes.
Robin's Egg [Dainty forget-me-nots and lily of the valley, a dollop of whipped blueberry creme, and a cozy birch nest tucked into a flowering dogwood tree] - This one has the same amazing blueberry as Grey Cat [Dry smoked vanilla, fluffy marshmallow creme, fresh blueberries, the gentlest touch of lavender and a warm cup of Earl Grey], House of Transcendence [Top notes of wild blueberry and morning fog, a heart of pale lilac and cashmere, with a base of orris and white amber], and Choreophilia [Wild violets, warm Earl Grey, Dominican blue amber, orris root, a handful of blueberries, and a touch of lime marmalade]. This iteration of the blueberry note is juicy and floral. After a few years of aging, Robin's Egg has become even more gorgeous and creamy, with that stunning blueberry and a vision of dainty blue flowers. This one is discontinued and I'm really sad about that (but you could maybe find some in the swaps if you ask around).
Silver Fox [White tea with honey and rice milk, almond macaron, soft grey cashmere and cool woodland musk] (this perfume is so popular that it is also in the Continuous Collection and available all year 'round) - Stunning. Sophisticated yet snuggly. The cashmere is the most prominent, followed by fir, the sweetness of white amber, and NCD's gentle whipped honey note. I also wouldn't have been surprised to read that copal was a note - there's just that little bit of resinous almost-smoke. When it dries, the sweetness goes away and the fir comes forward. This was a freebie with one of my orders - I hadn't actually bought a sample of this for myself, worried that I wouldn't like the rice milk (which, as it turns out, I don't actually smell), but it has since become one of my favorite wintertime scents.
Sugar Glider [Raw cotton, sugar cane, flannel flower, macadamia nut, pearblossom, palest musk, and dandelion puff] - So here's the thing, I'm wary of gourmands (in fact I always sit out most of the April Fool's gourmand collection). Sugar is listed in the notes description in the very second place, but I am a sucker for cute woodland animals, so that's how I ended up with this sample. After a first sniff in the vial, I got a little nervous about it, because it smelled very sugary, but I figured I'd wear it once, review it for you all, and then in a worst-case scenario, destash it to someone who does love sugary dessert scents. But wait! There's something strangely intoxicating about this one, and it's not really a gourmand. Immediately when I put it on, it reminded me a bit of the Sweettart-ness of my beloved Somniphilia (Love of Sleep) [Lamb's wool accord, orange blossom, barely-budding lavender, melissa, green fig, clary, cloud musk, and weightless vanilla marshmallow meringue]. I was pleasantly surprised that Sugar Glider is not at all dessert, instead more sugar + wood, and really rather cuddly. And then when it dries down, it reminds me so strongly of the blue raspberry note in Dewdrops on Spidersilk [Cerulean strands of cotton flower bejeweled with dewdrops, cold crystalline musk, tiny black vanilla beans, frozen blue raspberry, and gentle incense], except it's not "blue" (nor is it raspberry, but neither is "blue raspberry"). How did they achieve this effect? I have no idea, but it's so addictive: such a delicate, cheerful, springtime scent. It really does remind me of the experience of picking a perfect white fluffy dandelion and making a wish as you blow it. Definitely a springtime favorite.
White-Tailed Deer [Soft brown suede, golden musk, wild forest berries, and roasted chestnuts dusted with maple sugar] - I am always hesitant about suede, but was very happy when this was included as a free sample because I'd heard lovely things about it but wouldn't have purchased it for myself. It's an interesting one because my experience is of it is very different depending on distance. When I'm just smelling it as it wafts around me, it's such a warm, cozy scent, the suede mingling with chestnut and brown sugar. When I bring my wrist directly up to my nose to sniff, the suede does get a bit overwhelmingly leathery, and overtakes the other notes. Once it dries, though, that unpleasantly smoky leatheriness dissipates (even right up under my nose), leaving only the highly autumnal coziness behind. It is indeed very "golden" - or maybe a really rich, warm brown. I don't get any berries at all. It reminds me of the very stylized acorns and hedgehogs that fellow autumn-lovers love to idolize. (And for some reason, Husband gets saffron!)

Personally...

Robin's Egg, Sugar Glider, and Elf Owl are some of my TOP favorite perfumes for spring; Fennec Fox for fall; and Silver Fox for winter. Black Squirrel is my favorite of the Squirrels (in fact I ended up destashing all the others since I continue to have some issues with NCD's apricot note) - it's so beautifully dark-academia. And in my opinion, the three Rabbits are absolute must-tries (and I hold so much hope for a new Rabbit this year!). If you try nothing else from this collection, try whichever of the three Rabbits most calls your name - they're all different but all absolutely stunning.
What are you hoping for this year? Any particular animals you're keeping fingers crossed for? Do we think it'll be mostly woodland creatures this year, or perhaps we'll get some oceanic or other Critters too?

(As always, flyers are out Wednesdays, most store sales for the new flyer start on Thursdays)
Adonis

• Chicken breast (skinless boneless) - $5.99 per lb -- Standard Adonis pricing, but still lower than average non-sale prices you see elsewhere.
• Chicken drumsticks - $2.49 per lb -- More fair-rate chicken.
• Chicken legs - $2.99 per lb -- Again, fair rate.
• Rainbow trout - $7.99 per lb -- Nice! That's a good price for trout! $2/lb less than average sale price.
• Beef osso bucco - $6.49 per lb -- Good price for osso bucco.
• Lebanese cucumbers - $1.97 per lb -- Nice! 6 units should run you about 1lb and $2.
• Romaine lettuce - $2.97 3-pack -- Nice! About $1-2 less than averages non-sale pricing.
• Potatoes - $6.00 2 5lb bags -- Fair price for potatoes.
• Strawberries - $5.00 fro 2 454g shells -- Great price for strawberries! I'll have to check these out…
• Navel oranges - $2.97 3lb bag -- Good rate for standard fruit, hitting that $1/lb mark I like to see.
• Lemons - $2.97 2lb bag -- Fair for lemons.
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $4.99 400g bar -- Good to see $5 brick cheese.
• Halloum (Cedar, Pheonicia) - $1.97 per 100g -- Nice rate for nice grilling cheese.
• Feta (Makler) - $1.99 per 100g -- Average sale for feta. Sometimes can be cheaper. But I wouldn't pass it if I needed feta for a meal.
• Deli - Beef bologna (Solmaz) - $1.49 per 100g -- Oh wow, $1.49/100g sales all around this week.
• Deli - Turkey breast (Alzahraa) - $1.49 per 100g -- Love the Adonis deli.
• Deli - Mortadella (San Daniele) - $1.49 per 100g -- Live by the Adonis deli.
• Deli - Smoked or Black Forest ham - $1.49 per 100g -- Die by the Adonis deli.
• Honey (Cedar) - $7.99 1kg jar -- Great rate for honey!
• Canned tomatoes (Unico) - $4.00 for 2 796ml cans -- Decent price for Unico tomatoes. Not a stock-up price, however.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium, but always has well-priced chicken, the deli meat sale rotations are always fantastic, and just the overall variety of goods is refreshing. Personal favourite store.

Farm Boy

• Whole chicken (grade A) - $2.99 per lb -- Decent price for whole chicken.
• Ground turkey (extra lean) - $3.99 450g pack -- Decent sale price for ground poultry.
• Beef (boneless blade roast, AAA) - $9.99 per lb -- A little pricey, but sometimes the cut merits a premium and if you're only option is Farm Boy this week.
• Hothouse tomatoes - $1.78 per lb -- Nice! Reasonable price for tomatoes (but not the best, as we'll see later in the flyer).
• Zucchini - $1.49 per lb -- Decent!
• Cucumbers - $5.00 for 4 -- Good price for cucumber! Better than $2…
• Sweet peppers - $3.99 4-pack -- Worth checking out. Weigh the pack on a scale. If it's over 2lbs, it's a good deal as peppers often go for over $2/lb.
• Cosmic Crisp apples - $1.88 per lb -- Not the best price for apples, but it's a nice variety.
• Deli - Roasted turkey (all varieties) - $2.99 per 100g -- Not the greatest deli rate, but the variety is worth checking out.
• Produce Price Rating: High

Farmers Pick (can be a little late on their flyer) (https://www.farmerspick.ca/flyer-specials)
Food Basics

• Turkey (frozen) - $0.98 per lb -- WOW! Amazing price for turkey! What a weird surprise, but I'll take it!
• Sausage (Marc Angelo) - $4.88 500-675g 4-pack -- Great price for sausag! I'd get a pack or two for a BBQ this weekend!
• Eggs (Selection) - $5.48 18-pack -- Not a door-crasher, but it makes it worth it getting the 18-pack over the 12-pack.
• Sweet Potatoes (and purple variety) - $1.28 per lb -- Good rate for some good ol' roots. I'd like to see 99c or even 1.18/lb, but this still ok.
• Cauliflower - $3.98 per head -- Fair price for a cauli. The best price you'll find is about $2. But, if they're nice big heads, get one.
• Cucumbers - $3.00 for 2 -- Meh price for cucumber.
• Fresh greens (Attitude) - $2.88 142g bin -- Nice!
• Green beans - $2.88 340g bag -- Nice!
• Bartlett pears - $0.88 per lb -- Very nice!! Get some pears!
• Cosmic Crisp apples - $0.88 per lb -- Wait a tick, Farm Boy has these for twice the price! These can't be much different. Snag some!
• Strawberries - $1.88 454g shell -- Awesome price! I'd get a pack or two, especially if they're fragrant and look juicy!
• Lemons - $1.88 2lb bag -- Awesome price for lemons!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Includes Galbani Mozzarella
• Maple syrup - $5.88 500ml can --
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low

FoodLand

• Beef (boneless crossrib roast, AAA) - $8.99 per lb -- Decent rate for AAA beef.
• Celery - $2.69 per head -- Nice!
• Apples (Gala. Red Delicious) - $1.29 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Bread and Tortilla (Dempsters) - $6.00 for 2 -- Includes whole grain loaves and 6-8 packs of tortilla.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-high to high.

Freshco (price matcher)

• Bacon (Schneiders) - $3.99 375g pack -- Scene Member Price.
• Mini cucumbers - $1.88 6-pack -- Awesome price for minis!
• Grape tomatoes - $1.88 pint -- Weight is hard to peg. A pint usually refers to 340g, but can't be certain.
• Celery - $2.49 per head -- Very nice price for celery!
• Yellow potatoes - $2.49 5lb bag -- Great price for potatoes! It's hard to find bags like this for less.
• Bok choy - $0.99 per lb -- Nice!
• Nappa - $0.99 per lb -- Nice!
• Flat Cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Nice!
• Snap and snow peas - $1.88 200g pack -- Fair rate for snap and snow peas.
• Garlic - $1.29 5-pack -- Great price! I like getting these bigger packs and roasting, and using the paste for various dishes, especially homemade hummus.
• Clementines - $5.49 3lb bag -- Fair sale price for clementines.
• Blueberries - $1.88 170g shell -- Nice sale price for berries!
• Sesame oil (Kadoya) - $4.49 163ml bottle -- This is a good price for sesame oil, I believe. Bottles usually go for at least a $2+ more.
• Dawn dishsoap - $10.49 2.64L jug -- Good rate on dish soap! These big bottles are where it's at for value.
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low (more on the medium side)

Giant Tiger (*note the VIP prices; sales begin today) (price matcher)

• Broccoli - $1.88 per crown -- Decent price for broc. We've seen them for much less, like 88c a crown, but this isn't bad given we've also seen $3 crowns.
• Mushrooms (sliced) - $1.88 227g shell -- Nice! Careful with sliced as they can bruise easily. Walmart has the better deal on mushrooms this week.
• Asparagus - $2.49 1lb bunch -- Nice price! Average is more in the $3-4 range except when there's a big crop that comes into town.
• Tomatoes - $2.49 4-pack -- Worth weighing in-store. If it's less than $2/lb, then you're ok, $1-1.50/lb is where the real savings exist.
• Pineapple - $2.88 each -- Nice! Snag one!
• Apples (Ambrosia, Red Delicious) - $2.88 3lb bag -- Great price for fruit!
• Cara Cara oranges - $3.88 3lb bag -- Ohhh these are my favourites. Soooo tasty!
• Clementines - $3.88 2lb bag -- Fair price for clementines.
• Margarine (Parkay) - $1.88 427g tub -- Awesome price for a tub of margarine.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally on the low side.

Green Fresh Supermarket (Vanier) (check https://greenfreshottawa20.wixsite.com/greenfreshottawa) * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
IGA (price matcher)

• Ground beef (medium) - $3.49 per lb -- Awesome price for ground beef!
• Steelhead trout - $9.77 per lb -- Faigood sale for fish.
• Pork back rib - $3.49 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Hotdog weiners (Lesters) - $13.00 3kg 80 units -- Scene Member Price for Friday Saturday. $16 regular price.
• Pork shoulder (Nagano) - $3.49 per lb -- Fair sale for shoulder, but it could be better….
• Mini cucumbers - $1.23 6-pack -- Fantastic price for minis!
• Vine tomato (Savoura) - $1.49 per lb -- Good bulk pricing for vine tomatoes (but you'll see there's better elsewhere).
• Butter lettuce - $1.49 per head -- Hmm, interesting. I wonder about the real weigh of these heads.
• Raspberries and Blackberries - $1.93 170g shell -- Scene Member Price.
• Brick cheese (P'tit Quebec) - $4.87 400g bar -- Good ol' sub-$5 cheese!
• Brie (Brise du Matin) - $3.99 300g wheel -- Nice! These are big wheels for really cheap!
• Feta (Saputo) - $3.99 200g tub -- Fair rate on feta.
• Ricotta (Fiorella) - $3.99 300g tub -- Good deal!
• Deli - Smoked ham (Gaspésien) - $2.69 per 100g -- Average pricing for deli ham. But it ain't Adonis deli pricing….
• Pâté (Compliments) - $3.49 150g pack --
• Produce Price Rating: Medium

Independent

• Ground beef (medium) - $3.99 per lb -- Good price for ground. There's better. So long as you stick under $4/lb, you're getting a good deal.
• Chicken breast or thighs (skinless boneless) - $4.99 per lb -- Fair price. I wouldn't pass this if Independent was my only stop of the day. But, for savings, I might also look at different cuts, like drumsticks or legs, and just remove the skin. But keep that skin for roasting and boiling into stock!
• Chicken legs - $2.99 per lb -- Fair price for legs. It's hard to find weeks where it's cheaper, and it if it is, it's usually a drive out to a specific store. Not a stock-up price.
• Pork back rib - $2.99 per lb -- Fair rate on ribs.
• Steelhead trout - $9.99 per lb -- Fair price for trout.
• Corn - $0.59 each -- Nice! Decent price for corn!
• Grapes (red and green, seedless) - $2.49 per lb -- Great price for grapes!
• Brick cheese (No Name) - $4.49 400g bar -- Good ol' sub-$5 cheese!
• Deli - Ziggy's ham (selected varieties) - $1.99 per 100g -- Nice! This is a great rate on deli! Check out what this includes in-store.
• Frozen fruit - $1.99 300-400g bags -- Optimum Member Price. Regular 3.49.
• Toilet paper - $14.99 30 rolls -- Optimum Member Price. Regular 21.99.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Loblaws

• Chicken wings (PC) - $4.99 per lb -- Fair price for wings, but kinda lackluster, too. Make sure to check other flyers, especially the T&T and Greenfresh. They often have wings for half this price.
• Pork tenderloin - $2.00 per lb -- WOW! Fantastic price for tenderloin! Hopefully it isn't like the ribs fiasco of last week, where it was limited quantities only…
• Ground beef (lean) - $3.99 per lb -- Good price for ground. There's better. So long as you stick under $4/lb, you're getting a good deal.
• Steelhead trout - $9.99 per lb -- Fair price as any pink fish goes.
• Corn - $0.59 each -- Nice! Decent price for corn!
• Potatoes - $2.99 5lb bag -- Nice! Good price for potatoes.
• Strawberries - $1.99 per 454g shell -- Great price for strawberries!
• Brick cheese (No Name) - $4.49 400g bar -- Good ol' sub-$5 cheese!
• Deli - Ziggy's ham (selected varieties) - $1.99 per 100g -- Nice! This is a great rate on deli! Check out what this includes in-store.
• Frozen fruit - $1.99 300-400g bags -- Interesting… Not an Optimum Member price… Just $2…
• Toilet paper - $14.99 30 rolls -- Interesting… Not an Optimum Member price… Just $15…
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Provigo

• Ground beef (medium) - $3.77 per lb -- Ahh, a little better than their sister stores. This a great rate on ground. It juuuuust cracks the stock-up price.
• Pork tenderloin - $2.99 per lb -- Fair price for tenderloin.
• Steelhead trout - $9.99 per lb -- Fair price as any pink fish goes.
• Chicken breast (skinless bone-in) - $3.99 per lb -- Funny ehough, Loblaws has splt, bone-in breasts with skin for $4.99/lb. Provigo deal is better, in my opinion.
• Chicken wings - $3.99 per lb -- Ah, slightly better than Loblaws, but it's QC-side only.
• Eggs (No Name) - $2.49 12-pack -- Optimum Member Price. Regular 4.19.
• Corn - $0.59 each -- Nice! Decent price for corn!
• Potatoes - $2.99 5lb bag -- Nice! Good price for potatoes.
• Strawberries - $1.99 per 454g shell -- Great price for strawberries!
• Brick cheese (No Name) - $4.49 400g bar -- Good ol' sub-$5 cheese!
• Deli - Ziggy's ham (selected varieties) - $1.99 per 100g -- Nice! This is a great rate on deli! Check out what this includes in-store.
• Giuseppe frozen pizza (Dr. Oetker( - $4.99 each -- Optimum Member Price. Regular 8.99. Just more of a reference. I was literally talking about these pizzas last week being ridiculous at $8-9.
• Toilet paper - $14.99 30 rolls -- Optimum Member Price. Regular 21.99.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Maxi (price matcher)

• Chicken legs (with back) - $3.00 per lb -- Fair price for chicken legs with the back. Not a door crasher or stock-up price, but it'll make a fair budget meal nonetheless.
• Cucumber - $0.75 each -- Awesome! I like cheap cucumber!
• Vine tomatoes - $0.84 per lb -- Awesome! Hard to find cheap tomatoes like this!
• Salad and coleslaw kits - $2.00 340-397g bags -- Very nice!!! Half-price compared to the average.
• Green beans - $4.00 380g pack -- Good rate on green beans!
• Eggplant - $2.00 per lb -- Not bad. Basics had theirs last week (ending today) for 99c/lb. I actually made eggplant parm with that sale. Turned out amazing!
• Fresh greens (Attitude) - $3.00 142g tub -- Fair sale price for fresh salad greens.
• Potatoes (Imperfect) - $5.00 15lb bag -- YES!!! I love these bags of potatoes. I wish they were more common across other chains.
• Cantaloupe - $1.84 each -- Awesome price! Usuually along the $3-4 line.
• Navel oranges - $4.00 3lb bag -- Fair rate for oranges. A little above that $1/lb for standard fruit, but it's fair.
• Mangoes - $5.00 for 4 -- Great price, especially considering I just saw Sobey's have mangoes for $2 each…
• Cortland apples - $5.00 4lb bag -- Nice! Cortlands are nice apples, especially for cooking into pies.
• Margarine (Lactantia) - $2.00 427g tub -- Great price for a butter alternative.
• Sugar (Lantic) - $5.00 2 2kg bags -- Good price for sugar.
• Flour (No Name) - $11.00 10kg bag -- Nice! If you bake a lot, never pass up these 10kg bag deals.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium low pricing! This store can post some impressive deals at times.

Metro

• Chicken breast or thighs (skinless boneless) - $4.88 per lb -- Awesome price for chicken breast! I personally don't often stock up on chicken breast, but if it's a preference of yours, I might get a pack or two to freeze.
• Pork tenderloin - $2.99 per lb -- Fair sale price for tenderloin.
• Pork back rib - $2.99 per lb -- Fair sale price for pork rib.
• Beef outside round roast and value-pack steaks (AAA) - $7.99 per lb -- Hmm, this might actually be worth snagging if you're in the mood for a nice AAA cut.
• Beef inside blade roast (AAA) - $7.99 per lb -- Inside blade and outside round are the same price this week!
• Veal shank osso bucco - $5.99 per lb -- Ouu, this is nice to see. Beef shank is one thing, veal shank ends up much more tender.
• Bacon (Selection) - $3.99 375g pack -- Good price for bacon, but the brand is a little low-end. I wouldn't stock-up on this unless it's $3 a pack.
• Milk (Lactantia) - $4.99 4L bagged -- Good small sale on milk.
• Green beans - $0.88 per lb -- WOW! AMAZING deal on green beans! Like, 75% off. Go wild and get a bunch! You'll only get a better deal with frozen veg.
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.99 400g bar -- Nice! $5 cheese!
• Olive oil (O-live) - $11.88 1L bottle -- WOW! Given olive oil prices and how inelastic they are, it's wild to see olive oil cheaper than $14/L.
• Canned tomatoes (Unico) - $4.00 for 2 796ml cans -- Like the Adonis deal. It's a fair price, but not a stock-up price.
• Tomato paste (Unico) - $0.89 156ml can -- Fair sale price. I like stocking up at the 75c-ish mark.
• Cube stock (Aurora) - $5.00 for 4x 6-cube packs -- Nice! It sounds like a lot of stock cubes, but it keeps forever. Get some chicken, beef, and maybe mushroom, and herb. You'll have enough variety for lots of different meal ideas.
• Produce Price Rating: High. Kinda like Sobeys. You can see a 50% average mark-up compared to a lot of other stores. It's nice produce, but it costs you.

No Frills (price matcher)

• Pork back rib - $2.99 per lb -- More fair priced pork rib.
• Pork chops (bone-in) - $2.99 per lb -- Nice price for chops. More value than the ribs, but it's a different cut. Slow-cooked chops don't hit like slow-cooked ribs.
• Sausages and meatballs (Marcangelo) - $10.90 1kg pack -- Nice price for good quality sausages and meatballs.
• Vine tomatoes - $0.88 per lb -- AWESOME! I love seeing sub-$1/lb tomatoes. It's about time! /cry
• Green onions - $0.88 per bunch -- Nice! These have more often been ranging over $1.
• Avocados - $3.99 5-6 pack -- Fair price for cado.
• Cauliflower - $3.99 per head -- Fair price for cauli.
• Mini cucumbers - $3.99 11-pack -- Nice! Considering a 6-pack can range up to $4, this is a good deal.
• Snap peas - $4.99 425g bag -- Nice! Kinda matches the Freshco deal.
• Mandarines - $3.88 4lb bag -- Very nice! Mandarins often float more into the 1.25/lb range, so under $1/lb is quite good.
• Apples (Imperfect) - $3.99 6lb bag -- Nice price for apples! They may be ugly, but who cares. Our obsession with fancy-grade fruit borders on the ridiculous.
• Navel oranges - $3.99 3lb bag -- Fair price for oranges. A little over that $1/lb mark for standard fruit, but this is ok.
• Ricotta (Saputo) - $7.00 300g tub -- Good price for ricotta. Lasagna Tip: prep your ricotta with some ground nutmeg, ground pepper, and chili flakes along with well-drained spinach to get a nice flavour and bang out of that lasagna layer.
• Gouda cheese curd - $6.00 200g bag -- Gouda curd? Hmm… I've never seen this… And as prices go, it ain't bad. I wonder how it stacks against St-Albert.
• Coconut milk and water (Grace) - $1.25 400-500ml can -- Nice. These are often closer to 1.50+.
• Flour (No Name) - $10.99 10kg bag -- Nice! More cheap flour!
• Jasmin rice (Ox Head) - $17.88 7kg bag -- Optimum Member Price. Regular 22.88.
• Plastic wrap (Glad) - $0.88 30m roll -- Wow! Normally, these rolls are about $3-4 depending on the store. Get some!
• Foil and wax paper (Titan) - $0.88 25ft roll -- Wow! Normally, these rolls are about $3-4 depending on the store. Get some!
• Dishwasher tabs (Finish) - $9.99 30-pack -- Decent deal on washer tabs.
• Toilet paper (Royale) - $7.99 15 roll -- Good price for a smaller, carryable, student-friendly format pack. Though as always, bulk is better. If you can, buy and split a bigger pack with some friends.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally quite low, selectively amazing for some items.

Produce Depot (usually a little late on the flyer) https://producedepot.ca/

• Pepper steak - $6.99 per lb -- Nice! I wonder about the exact cut they used for this, but the price is right!
• Chiken breast (back removed, skin on) - $3.99 per lb -- Nice! Good price for chicken breast. And having the skin on is actually nice. It lends to a moister end result. Fry these skin down to start, and then bake them skin up.
• Marlin loin steaks - $13.99 per lb -- COOL! Freakin' MARLIN! Rare fish to see on our shelves. Makes for a nice treat!
• Cauliflower - $2.99 per head -- Very nice sale on cauliflower!
• Green beans - $1.69 per lb -- Great price for green beans. It doesn't beat that 88c Metro sale, but still 50% less than average.
• Sweet potatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! I like seeing sweet potatoes at this rate.
• Grape tomatoes - $1.69 pint -- Good price!
• Clementines - $1.49 per lb -- Decent deal on bulk clementines.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-low with very competitive specials on a shortened flyer. The small flyer is nice because it doesn't uselessly feature $6 heads of cauliflower and extremely high-price items that are either a confusion on the consumer, or an insult on the injury of not being able to afford supreme quality items.

Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)

• Ground beef (lean, Halal) - $10.00 1.1kg pack -- Or, 5/lb.
• Rainbow trout - $10.99 per lb -- Fair price for pink fish. There's better elsewhere, however…
• Cucumber - $3.50 3-pack -- Good price for cucumber!
• Vine tomatoes - $0.88 per lb -- Awesome price for tomatoes!
• Corn - $3.00 4-pack -- 75c an ear ain't bad, but we saw some 59c ears across Loblaws stores.
• Celery - $2.99 per head -- Fair price for celery. The upper average is about $4 a head, low end sale price is about $2. So, this is right in the middle.
• Potatoes (Imperfect) - $5.00 15lb bag -- Niiiice! I love this deal…
• Mini carrots - $3.99 2lb bag -- 2lb is about 900g, and the smaller bags are usually 340g for $2. So, it's a fair savings.
• Feta (Ziggy's) - $8.00 400g tub -- Fair rate for sale feta.
• Deli - Turkey or Chicken breast (PC Natural) - $2.90 per 100g -- I wish these deli prices were lower, but this is kind of the going rate for poultry deli. Adonis is the only store where you might find a better deal week-to-week.
• Canned tomatoes (Unico) - $1.25 796ml cans -- WOW! STOCK-UP PRICE!!!
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium-low pricing, selectively amazing for some items.

Sobeys

• Beef brisket - $4.99 per lb -- Scene member price. 99c regular, which is really no deal at all.
• Rainbow trout - $10.99 per lb -- Fair price for pink fish.
• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $5.88 per lb -- Ok price for chicken breast. I'd sooner hit the Metro for chicken breast, hands down.
• Pork shoulder - $3.49 per lb -- Fair price for pork shoulder. $3 would be a nice price to see.
• Ground beef (regular) - $4.99 per lb -- Average sale price for ground beef, especially this week given you can find it for 3.49/lb.
• Corn - $0.77 each -- Scene member price. $5.99/lb regular, which is still very reasonable. But later in the flyer, they advertise another brisket for 7.99/lb. Tread carefully.
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $4.47 400g bar -- Good ol' $5 cheese.
• Sesame oil (Eight Treasures) - $3.99 185ml bottle -- Hmm! Frescho's sesame oil deal doesn't seem as good now given this bottle has more for less.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally a high price store, especially for produce. Some items are 50% more than more value-oriented stores. Kinda like Metro, some of the deals can be quite good.

Super C

• Ground veal (lean) - $3.99 per lb -- Nice! Ground veal for $4/lb. That's cheap!
• Chicken drumsticks and thighs - $1.99 per lb -- Nice! Very good price for drumsticks and thighs. It's not often you'll find them for less, and it's usually a hunt across town to get them. If you're in the area, get some, and stock up a little.
• Beef cross rib roast - $4.99 per lb -- WOW! Great price for beef! No grade indicated, so probably sourced from Mexico. So, mileage may vary on the quality of the cut. But it's still a great price. I wouldn't pass it up.
• Beef stewing cubes - $4.99 per lb -- WOW! Great price again for beef, just cubed this time!
• Pork shoulder - $2.99 per lb -- Aha! There's my $3/lb shoulder!
• Cod fillets (fresh) - $9.99 per lb -- Nice! Cod is usually a little pricier, so to find it at $10/lb is noteable.
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Nice! $1 cuces!
• Vine tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Great price for tomatoes!
• Eggplant - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome price for eggplant! Usually closer to $2/lb or more.,
• Zucchini - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome price for zucchini!
• Radishes - $0.99 per bunch -- Great price for radishes! Hard to find them for less this time of year.
• Green onions - $0.99 per bunch -- Nice!
• Green cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! Not as many good cabbage deals going around, so this is fair!
• Rutabaga - $0.99 per lb -- Nice!
• Pears (Bartlett, Bosc) - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! $1/lb fruit is a great rate!
• Red Delicious apples - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! $1/lb fruit is a great rate!
• Blueberries - $1.88 170g shell -- Good price for blueberries!
• Pineapple - $1.99 each -- Awesome! Snap-up a couple of these! Next time they're on sale at Basics, I'm getting a few and I'm going to try my hand at making a pineapple cider.
• Cretons (Norel) - $5.99 300g tub -- Cretons can range quite a bit in price. Some places sell half the weigh for only a $1 or so less.
• Canned tuna (Clover Leaf) - $0.99 170g can -- Great price for canned tuna!
• Tofu (soft or dessert, Sunrise) - $0.99 300g pack -- While it's on the soft and dessert kind, this is half the price at last compared to most weeks
• Produce Price Rating: Generally low, but can creep into medium for some items. But, there's always something decent available!

T&T Supermarket https://www.tntsupermarket.com * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
Walmart

• Bacon (Deli Express) - $3.27 375g pack -- Fair price for bacon. I'm not sure of the brand and quality, however. It should be decent, but tread carefully and make sure the fat lines aren't too thick,
• Mushrooms - $0.94 227g shell -- AWESOME! This is a great rate on mushrooms given the average going rate is about $4/lb.
• Romaine lettuce - $1.94 3-pack -- Nice price for lettuce!! Haven't seen a $2 3-pack in a while.
• Brick cheese (Armstong) - $4.87 400g -- More cheap brick cheese. Always have a bar in your fridge.
• Canned tuna (Clover Leaf) - $0.97 170g can -- Nice! More cheap tuna! Makes for easy weekend lunch sandwiches.
• Tooth paste and toothbrushes (Colgate, Crest) - $0.84 95-100ml -- This is a good deal! Toothpaste often floats between $1-2 a tube.
• Earth's Own plant bev - $3.47 1.75-1.89L -- Nice! A little bit of a discount. Not "Earth shattering" but it "holds its Own" lol… Bad punnery…
• Produce Price Rating: A little all over the place. Some really good prices between a lot of average pricing.

Costco (Note that these are the online/shipped prices - reduce each item by $3 for in-store pricing)

• Paper Towel (Kirkland) - $27.99 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 160 sheets
• Paper Towel (Bounty) - $27.49 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 86 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Kirkland) - $25.99 30-roll pack -- 2-ply; 380 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Cashmere) - $24.99 40-roll pack -- 2-ply; 250 sheets (on sale)
• Dish soap (Dawn Platinum) - $18.99 2.66L -- Food Basics often has this jug for $10!
• Laundry detergent (Purex) - $24.99 9.24L -- 250 loads
• Garbage bags (30 gallon; large) - $15.99 100-pack -- Amazon has Glad standard 74L bags, 100-packs for $23, sometimes less if on sale
• Countertop green bin liners - $21.99 125-pack -- Amazon has Glad Compostable green bin liners 100-packs for $18, sometimes less if on sale
• Produce Price Rating: I need to do a proper check to be sure, but I find it's pretty average. There's an illusion of getting a good deal because of the bulk. Just be careful.

Jean Coutu (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: I have to start checking these just in case...

Shoppers Drug Mart (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: Sometimes they have cheap butter, eggs, and milk on weekends.

Some additional references!

• Grocery Review Google Drive Location https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xhLvBP1smXb1eSnxAW5yyBjO2aYFLJHC?usp=sharing
• Cooking Tips and Recipes https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TCcHm9y0kWIa3x18hznKN2ix0BPcUv-m?usp=drive_link
• Google Maps list of the Grocery stores in Ottawa https://maps.app.goo.gl/YT7cZmv8vMQWU4J59