pandemic calcium
I've written before about strange shortages resulting from the pandemic, and now with the omicron we're into shortage time again. Or supply chain disruption, at least. Over the last week our family's been disrupted out of salad greens and pasta, but what's been the hardest to cope with—and lasted the longest—has been the lack of regular orange juice at Market Basket. We prefer the kind with pulp, and it's been completely absent for at least three weeks now. Initially we were able to sub in the regular pulp-free kind, but before long even that was gone and all that was left was pulp-free with added calcium. So that's what we've been drinking the last two weeks. (I guess the calcium from the orange juice can fill in for what we're missing in not having salad greens? There's certainly no shortage of milk in our house, ever.)
What I wonder most about the whole situation is, why is there so much calcium-added juice available? What strange twists of the supply chains allowed it to be supplied when other, more palatable orange juices couldn't be? Or is it that the people who like calcium in their juice are also the people who are afraid to shop during pandemic peaks, and other regular orange juice drinkers are pickier than we are about substitutions (or less desperate)? I have no idea. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!