Tuesday, April 22, 2008

butter

Today is Earth Day. The sun is out, perfect for baking...only thing is that there is a butter shortage.

While I was in Hawaii, I read about a butter shortage in Japan on Amy's blog. In her post, she said that she was later able to buy some butter.

Unfortunately, the store that I went to had no unsalted butter. They did have salted butter but that had a limit per person and was selling it for 335 yen (about US$3.35) for 200 grams...I decided to wait.

While shopping, I realized I needed sugar. I know that that price has risen since the last time I bought sugar--which was sometime last year. 1 kilogram is now 258 yen (about US$2.58 for 2.2 pounds).

I still have 3 (50 gram) sticks of unsalted butter left, but I guess I'll wait before I get into baking again...

14 comments:

jasmine said...

Is the butter shortage part of the worldwide agflation? I know that we'll have a temporary milk shortage in spring and autumn, which coincides with the natural order of things...

j

KirkK said...

Hi Kat - Speaking of shortages....is there a shortage of rice in Japan. Apparently, there has been a limit on the amount of rice you can purchase in Northern California......

nordwolke said...

Prices for food are rising everywhere. Scary. Thanks for letting me know that it is earth day today. I knew it was sometime now, but I did not know exactly when!

Rowena said...

A shortage of butter! We seem to be exempt from that shortage and sugar too. A half kilo of sugar costs around...80 euro cents. Flour, I've noticed is slowly creeping up in prices.

Anonymous said...

Interesting, do you know why there is a butter shortage? In the mean time, maybe you can try out some baking recipes that use things like oil or yogurt instead. :)

K and S said...

hmm, we have no milk restrictions here, Jasmine, so I'm not too sure why there is a butter shortage here.

no rice restriction here Kirkk, though, they were saying that if we run out, we may have to import our rice from Thailand, which is what Japan had to do about 20 years ago or so.

It is scary, Beadexplorer!

I know the flour prices were creeping up in Hawaii, Rowena, but so far (knock on wood), the prices for flour at our supermarket have been the same.

Thanks for the tip. After posting about this shortage, Lori, I baked a batch of banana nib muffins using only oil. Will see if it tastes okay.

My host-mom thinks that someone has hoarded the whole supply of butter and will charge atrocious prices for it after the price goes sky high...

Take care everyone and slather some toast for me :)
Kat

bourgogne said...

happy earth day and i hope the butter shortage will end sooooon!

K and S said...

I hope so too, Bourgogne!

Take care.
Kat

Parisbreakfasts said...

Butter and sugar shortages in Japan. You don't expect it...
Course there were exactly those same shortages during the war in Britain and everyone's teeth vastly improved.
Go figure...

K and S said...

weird isn't it, PB? maybe my waistline will improve with this shortage too...

Take care.
Kat

ilingc said...

Happy Earth day Kat.

Just wondering if your supermarket imports butter? or are they produced locally? I was thinking that if it was produced locally then you'd probably be having milk and cream shortages too? But then I just read in the comments that you're not having milk purchase restrictions. I guess the theory that someone hoarded the butter could be quite true eh?

How rude, don't they realise that all bloggers have a real need for butter? :D

ps. I tagged you for a short meme Kat. =)

K and S said...

Most of the butter is made locally, so I think the hoarding theory is correct, Ilingc :(

I am working on the meme :)

Take care.
Kat

Anonymous said...

Wow, a butter shortage? That sounds like it would be extremely difficult, but then I'm a butter lover from the Dairy State in the US; guess I'm spoiled by its abundance.

I did hear something about a wheat shortage here and that baffled me. Been listening for more on that but just when we learn to incorporate more whole wheat!! Arg!

K and S said...

Enjoy the butter that you have, JJ :)

Take care.
Kat