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Comment by bluedino | Hacker News Reader

When I was a kid, we'd go to the Amish stands at the farmers market and get fresh made loaves of bread (just white bread), dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, strawberry jam...it was dirt cheap and delicious, even if it wasn't a baguette (which I love).

Now that farmers markets are 'in', you can go there and get the same stuff. But it's so marked up it's not funny. 12 dinner rolls for $5.50? $8.00 for a jar of jam? A loaf of bread for $4.00!

My grandmother is long gone but I guess I could get some mason jars and research on the internet, make my own jam and can it. I can already make bread, but only bother to do it a few times a year.

I'm sure in another generation or so it will be a black art. Very few people do that sort of thing anymore, but if you went back 60 years, everyone did it.

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> Very few people do that sort of thing anymore

Bread and jam making and baking seems like probably the single most popular hobby for young women and many young men, next to something like running, from what I see from Facebook friends. Baking is also the subject of a major internationally popular TV competition for years. I can’t see why you’d think it was likely to become a black art.

You might have different social circles from the person you're replying to.

For what it's worth, a large number of my friends also seem to be obsessed with making bread.

Find a French Cafe run by a Frenchman. I used to go to one by my old job that sold loaves and half loaves. He had a sign that read “Life’s too short to eat bad bread”. The prices were reasonable for everything.

Funnily enough, one just opened a restaurant in my neighborhood, Miami. In a town bustling with so many tourists from France and Quebec you wouldn't think it would be this hard to find decent French food. But a lot of "french" bakeries are just passing reheated Costco pastries with an incredible markup. So it's been a treat to get French macarons that don't cost an arm; the nearest Laudurée charges ~$4 each.

To be fair:

Canning equipment isn't cheap. You need to have storage space, time to actually can things, and access to bulk fruit (or food). If you go beyond a narrow selection of canning, you need a pressure cooker. All this, and you might find your jars didn't seal properly. Botulism is a real issue with home canning.

Freezing, however, is generally safe and you can make "freezer jam". Freezing most vegetables generally only takes blanching and prep. I'd suggest this if you have some freezer space.

I'd pay those prices for something I knew was made with quality ingredients and when I knew the money was going directly to the producer of a good. Heck, I've paid $10-12 for a loaf of bread from some of the places around here and not regretted a single penny.

I'd rather have small business farmers, bakers, and jam makers around, and although it costs me more I know that less of the money is headed to big food conglomerates.

How long does it take you to make 12 dinner rolls? - More than 15 min of work? Then 5.50 sounds OK to me. - More than 30 min of work? Now 5.50 are a bargain!

Why do you think making a dinner roll should be billed at the same rate of your job?

The comment you replied to didn’t mention a specific rate, but in general, linking price to cost of production (including human time) makes a lot of sense. I don’t understand why the two comments before yours are getting downvoted.

It seems like nonsense because "How long would it take for you to acquire a dozen eggs? First, you have to buy chickens, wait for the eggs to hatch etc. Therefore, you should be okay with paying an amount at the rate you're getting paid for that amount of time."

Yeah, let's just throw basic economics principles out the window, shall we.

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