On Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:24:40 +0100, Pamela >
wrote:

>On 11:08 24 Jun 2019, Bruce > wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:32:47 -0700, "Julie Bove"
>> > wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>"Bruce" > wrote in message
...
>>>> On Sun, 23 Jun 2019 22:31:16 -0700, "Julie Bove"
>>>> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>I know we had this discussion before. When I was a kid and young
>>>>>adult, food
>>>>>did not have an expiration date so there was no way to tell how old
>>>>>those dried beans were. I can remember cooking beans for 2-3 hours or
>>>>>more!
>>>>>
>>>>>But now? The cooking time keeps getting less and less. The last time I
>>>>>cooked black or kidney beans, I cooked checked them earlier than the
>>>>>suggested cook time on the package and they were overcooked.
>>>>>
>>>>>I just cooked small red beans. After an hour soak, they were done in
>>>>>40 minutes. I could smell that they were done so ran to check them.
>>>>>Maybe my beans are just super fresh!
>>>>
>>>> I guess smaller types cook faster? I'm going to try adzuki beans soon.
>>>
>>>Those are hard to find here. I finally found some canned. They were
>>>super expensive compared to other beans and they tasted just like some
>>>other bean. Black? Can't remember.
>>
>> I can get dried adzuki beans for roughly $3.50 a pound (converted to
>> USD). Or $5 for organic. Australia being expensive
>
>Why is food in Oz expensive? I would have thought with the large farming
>sector, food would be cheaper than it is.
>
>I found this comparison revealing:
>
><https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...es_result.jsp?
>country1=United+Kingdom&country2=Australia>

I don't know why. In the Netherlands, the UK always had the reputation
of being expensive ("Do you know how much a glass of wine costs in
England?"). But you're cheaper than Australia. For some things there
may not be enough competition, but that's hardly the case for
vegetables.

Meat seems cheap. Maybe because there are cows everywhere. Beer's very
expensive. Liquor too. Wine's not so bad.