when teacher and student sat at the kitchen table going through the flyer from ladds market , gene could read that a ten ounce bag of fresh spinach was $ 1.89 , but what he didnt know and maryellen did and factored into her decision making was that while $ 1.89 wasnt a bad price for spinach in february , by early april there would be three or four weeks where the spring crop of spinach would push the price down to 99 cents .