Food For Thought

There are an abundance of things that make this life an adventure; one of these things is food. No, I am not eating any exotic new foods, instead I am learning so much about the food I have been consuming for years. I can’t tell you how fun it is to grow your own food and live by the season. For things I can’t find in the garden I go to town for produce shopping at least once a week and it seems like every month the choices are changing. Cabbage and pumpkin (butternut squash) this month for vegetables, while I continue to enjoy green apples and welcome oranges as my variety of fruit. It’s entertaining because you never know what you are going to get, of course, next year I will have it mapped out. I am already counting down the days till peaches and mangos come back. The only thing getting me through cabbage season is the rumor avocados are on their way! Yet, then again America is fun because you always know you can get exactly what you want, we might be paying a price (no pun intended) for that… but we probably will not ever know the exact cost in our lifetime.

Let me clue you in on a few of the things I have learned about food, mainly produce, throughout my stay thus far. Those of you who know me really well know I will not touch, peel, or look at a banana with a brown spec on it. I have gone to such extremes as hiding bananas while babysitting because looking at rotten bananas makes me want to scream and the thought of someone consuming that fruit fly infested fruit makes me want to vomit. That has all changed! The bananas I eat here can be completely brown on the outside and unharmed on the inside. It took me four months to give in and check it out for myself, boy am I glad I did! Similar to the durable banana peel, oranges have a mighty thick rind making them incredibly tough to peel. Now J.L.W. you might be thinking you have had difficulty peeling oranges in the states, well you have no idea. I have fond memories watching you spend your entire lunch period peeling an American orange, granted you are a meticulous peeler. These memories add laughter to my life here each and every time I choose to eat an orange. I am now the one who spends me entire lunch period peeling, you would be peeling all day! As for my favorite apple, the Granny Smith, they’re actually not normally as humongous as they appear in American produce section. In reality, they are just as small as the other breeds. And when stored with other fruits and vegetables they release a potent gas (ethylene, I think but should know) that causes other fruits and vegetables to rot faster.

Shall we move on to veggies? Cabbage can be cooked with anything and lasts for decades. I am on my second head of cabbage now and can officially declare my dislike. Luckily, it won’t go bad for over five weeks. I will continue to force myself to choke down a leaf a day until it is gone, forever. It’s hard to turn down a head (much bigger than mine, which is quite large) of cabbage when it cost less than a dollar, provides over 15 meals, and I’m on a PC salary. Peppers have a very short shelf life and mold from the inside out (tricky). The biggest shock has be carrots, which are actually flexible when pulled straight from the garden and much like my dear friend the green pepper they do not last long at all! Leafy greens, a gem when found, have an increased life expectancy when left soaking in water until use.

On to my newest fascination: eggs! I have heard people in the states claim certain eggs are delicious, and we are not talking about the way they are prepared. I am talking about the egg itself. I never understood until I started buying eggs from my family the day they are laid. These eggs are scrumptious! While they are best the day they are laid, unrefrigerated they last over a month. I said I would never eat meat after watching that first sheep go down, but lately the lack of iron in my body is taking a toll on me. I have not given in yet but each day breaks me down a little more. As far as meat observations go I have learned chickens actually have incredibly thin, almost transparent, skin. It is no surprise we have thick skinned chickens in the good ole’ U S of A, after all our turkeys are so genetically modified they can’t reproduce on their own.

My newfound knowledge on food has me a little hesitant to come back to the states where preservatives, pesticides, bigger and brighter are always better are the norms.