The Real Meal Deal 8/22/09
Weather
Clear
74F high to 55F low at 1:30 AM
Wind? What happened to the wind?
The nice part about living in a country that is 50 years behind in agriculture is that you get real produce. Not some piece of plastic that has been molded and painted to look like produce, but the real thing; with seeds.
Take this
watermelon. I have not spit a watermelon seed in ten years and I have not tasted a real watermelon in twice that long. This stuff we get in the U.S. is plastic. It is produced to be picked early, artificially "ripened", and to have a long shelf life for maximum ($) yield and minimal spoilage. This watermelon tastes 50 years old, I mean from my childhood, when watermelon was 2 cents a pound and you could buy one for a dollar that weighed more than I did and tasted like a candy store.
I long for the tomatoes I ripen in my garden, and the peas, and the green-beans (and I don't even like beans) and the basel and the . . . but even all those are hybrid eunuchs that cannot reproduce themselves. They are delicious because they
are picked ripe, but they are still not Garden of Eden vegetables "whose seed is within itself". I don't know where all of the produce we eat in Russia comes from, and some of it rots quickly (some is even rotten in the store) and much of it is just plain ugly, but it is what God made, not what science produced.
You can't buy ugly potatoes like these in the store even if you wanted them. You get a pile of spuds all the same size, shape, and perfection. Where is the reality? I grow potatoes. I know potatoes. Most of them are misshapen and random in size and appearance. Raley's potatoes look like they were cast in a mold.
Carrots are random-growing tubers. Most are forked and stubby, not long, slender, and all the same length. What do they do with the ugly ones? Where are the real carrots? In Russia we get all sizes and shapes from long and skinny to short and fat. These come with the dirt still caked on them; black, rich, sticky dirt--real dirt.
Although I have to soak it in soap water and scrub it, soak it again in a chlorine solution, and dry it like a baby with a chapped behind, It Is Real, honest-to-goodness, not-to-be abused vegetables.
What a country
DS
Weather
Clear
74F high to 55F low at 1:30 AM
Wind? What happened to the wind?
The nice part about living in a country that is 50 years behind in agriculture is that you get real produce. Not some piece of plastic that has been molded and painted to look like produce, but the real thing; with seeds.
Take this
watermelon. I have not spit a watermelon seed in ten years and I have not tasted a real watermelon in twice that long. This stuff we get in the U.S. is plastic. It is produced to be picked early, artificially "ripened", and to have a long shelf life for maximum ($) yield and minimal spoilage. This watermelon tastes 50 years old, I mean from my childhood, when watermelon was 2 cents a pound and you could buy one for a dollar that weighed more than I did and tasted like a candy store.
I long for the tomatoes I ripen in my garden, and the peas, and the green-beans (and I don't even like beans) and the basel and the . . . but even all those are hybrid eunuchs that cannot reproduce themselves. They are delicious because they
are picked ripe, but they are still not Garden of Eden vegetables "whose seed is within itself". I don't know where all of the produce we eat in Russia comes from, and some of it rots quickly (some is even rotten in the store) and much of it is just plain ugly, but it is what God made, not what science produced.You can't buy ugly potatoes like these in the store even if you wanted them. You get a pile of spuds all the same size, shape, and perfection. Where is the reality? I grow potatoes. I know potatoes. Most of them are misshapen and random in size and appearance. Raley's potatoes look like they were cast in a mold.
Carrots are random-growing tubers. Most are forked and stubby, not long, slender, and all the same length. What do they do with the ugly ones? Where are the real carrots? In Russia we get all sizes and shapes from long and skinny to short and fat. These come with the dirt still caked on them; black, rich, sticky dirt--real dirt.
Although I have to soak it in soap water and scrub it, soak it again in a chlorine solution, and dry it like a baby with a chapped behind, It Is Real, honest-to-goodness, not-to-be abused vegetables.
What a country
DS
4 comments:
seems like real veggies/fruit would be worth all the hassle of the cleaning!! I am sure they are better for you than what we get in our stores!!
This post makes me hungry!
That is so true. I think that there is something wrong when I pick from my garden a not perfect tomato or pepper. All that I have missed out on. Wow what a lesson to be learned. Nothing is perfect.
Yum! I long for your tomatoes and potatoes too dad!!!I am waiting to see what the produce variety here on the east coast will be like...
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