Despite "Food At Home" prices continuing to rise at a double-digit clip:
US CPI inflation: 6.4%
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) February 14, 2023
Food at home inflation: 11.3%
Electricity inflation: 11.9%
Natural gas inflation: 26.7% pic.twitter.com/RExpMv86SU
The price of oats is down year-to-date and over most other timeframes out to five years:
Takeaway - the urchins can still buy their own damn gruel and won't be knocking on the portcullis for a while yet.
However, should oat prices turn higher again, you may want to cook some up to leave on the other side of the moat. Here's the Royal Society of Chemistry with their re-creation of your basic Oliver Twist workhouse gruel along with some signage you may wish to use:
Although somewhat filling the workhouse gruel leaves much to be desired as this article from the British Medical Journal explains in some detail. Still, beggars really can't be choosers and should the urchin class breach your outer defenses, you can always drop the boiling slop through the machicolations and murder holes of your fortifications to hold them at bay.
For what it's worth the workhouse that inspired Dickens (though not the one his father was in) is now an area of luxury condominiums, thus explaining some of London's affordable housing crisis.
