Figs Again… (sigh)

I never thought I’d be writing a blog about the price of figs… I wrote one about the little wasp that lives inside the fruit and whose lifecycle miraculously matches that of the figs. I wrote also about the fig in my garden that is in full activity in spring and summer (September to March). But now I must write about the price of the first figs to appear in the stores. This is because lately I lost control of my shock at my gas bill, the car tyres and … many other things I haven’t written about in this blog. Things like food, houses, cars and make-up. Coffee, toll roads and tennis racquet stringing… Anyway, today I’m in awe, my vision is blurred (thus the shaky picture) and I’m speechless (luckily this post is written). One kilogram of figs in a regular (not fancy, not organic, not home-grown) fruit & vege store is $50. Fifty. Or $25/lb. Of course I haven’t bought any, although I was tempted to buy three figs, one for each member of the family and see how much would be the price of one. Cheaper or more expensive than the $3.20 I pay for an espresso? I don’t live in the fanciest area of Melbourne, my suburb is far from being the richest, and meat disappears faster than fruit and vege from the shelves of my local supermarket. I am tempted to visit this little fruit & vege store every day and ask if the figs are on sale. Is this because there is barely any consumer protection in Oz? Or because the store owner has to pay his own huge gas and electricity bills? Or is it because water sources are scarce here? This can’t be true. The figs in my garden are not dried up. I guess I need to buy a good tree cover, throw it over my fig tree so birds, bats and possums don’t eat the fruit before I get to it, and wait until I have my own figs, free and sweet! And I can donate to charity all the money I would have irrationally spent on figs this spring…