Where is all the broccoli?

Broccoli is one of those staple vegies that’s available no matter what season it is, right? Well, kind of. I always thought it was, but this week, there was a major broccoli shortage in the Aravis valley. In fact, my local Carrefour was a bit short of everything. I needed to cook a dinner the other night: dips, followed by broccoli and cheese pie and stuffed mushrooms, then chocolate fondue with strawberries and bananas.

Supermarkets here often run out of stock before the end of the day, so I went down in the morning. I started with dips. One dip was out of stock, and for the guacamole, all the avocados were as hard as rocks. Onto the main course: No broccoli, and only button mushrooms. How do you stuff mushrooms the size of a badge? Dessert: there were no strawberries and the bananas were all too green. The chocolate went back on the shelf and I guessed the recipe of an alternative dessert.

Lidl and Shopi, two smaller supermarket chains in France, were also out of broccoli. Intermarché was on my way home so I popped in and found one last piece of broccoli and I’m sure the guy who watched my desperate search thought that I was playing Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter character in Alice in Wonderland when he sees Alice for the first time and says “Alice” with a big mad smile on his face, except replace her name with: “Broccoli”. He also watched as I caressed the broccoli after snatching it to prevent anyone else from taking it.

My half-hour shopping trip turned into three hours thanks to a lack of broccoli, fruit and dips. The latest lesson about living in France? Have a shopping list for the preferred meal, then another for the alternative. And plan ahead for broccoli. I’m now growing my own.