A couple of months ago, my cousin John regaled me with tales of trips to the supermarket near his New Jersey home. Tears of laughter streamed down my face as he described a near stampede in the dairy aisle as people scrambled for cups of a freshly opened case of Chobani Greek-style yogurt.

While he succeeded in snagging a few, the experience was not without its disappointments for my 29-year old kin. They were raspberry, you see, and he was hoping for vanilla.

In retrospect, I should have been more sympathetic to his plight. But instead, I rubbed in how readily available Chobani is in our area, and bragged about it being produced right here in Chenango County.

I laughed at his obvious envy as I regaled him with a few stories of my own, namely about the tours I’ve taken of Agro Farma’s facility in Columbus and how I’d gotten to taste all three of their newest flavors before they were formally unveiled in January.

But I’m not completely heartless. I did offer to send him a case of the flavor of his choice. (Not exactly a hardship, since I don’t really like vanilla.)

All that braggadocio came back to bite me in the you-know-what a few weeks ago. That’s when we experienced what I refer to as The Great Chobani Shortage.