On Friday my wife and I shared a dinner that was unusual at least for us. Other than the fresh (at least fresh-ish) sockeye salmon that I had received from my “small fisherman to table” subscription service I’ve mentioned before, we had lettuce, tomatoes, and potatoes, all grown in our own garden. Simply prepared, all were incredibly delicious.
The more distant we get from the land, the more we lose sight of what food actually tastes like. What we buy in our markets are either highly processed or fruit and vegetable varietals selected because they ship, store, and display well rather than because they’re tasty.
It hasn’t always been that way and doesn’t have to be that way. Until about 80 years ago every city in the United States was ringed by mile after mile of “truck gardens”. You can frequently see the remains of old truck gardens in nurseries and garden centers with greenhouses. At least there was some chance of getting fresh-grown fruits and vegetables. Now the produce we buy has all too frequently been shipped for days or even weeks from thousands of miles away.
We’re able to get produce out of season but don’t kid yourself. It doesn’t taste as good as locally grown and freshly picked produce. A simple example is corn on the cob. Good as it may be the fresh corn you buy in the store isn’t nearly as good as fresh corn you’ve picked yourself, cooked, and eaten nearly immediately. The natural sugars in the corn have continued to turn into starch while it was shipped, stored, and displayed.
Bananas in places that actually grow bananas taste much better than the hard, bland things we get here.
Specialization has resulted in greater economic development than would otherwise have been possible but we’ve lost in that process as well.
one of scary places I’ve seen is grocery store when the truck is delayed bare shelves are not a good thing especially when dodging tractors on the way in.
What’s happened with your exotic squash seeds from Christmas? Have you been able to research how to plant and tend them in your garden?
We grow a lot of our stuff so we agree. What you find in stores is generally stuff grown that will tolerate transportation and storage well. Especially true for tomatoes. I will say that I thought potatoes were kid fo an exception. I thought the ones we grew were a bit better but not that much. Dont bother with them so much now.
I am also now an advocate of making your own pasta. I used to think making your own isn’t that much different than the boxed stuff but after watching YouTubes of a bunch of old Italian ladies I think I learned to make it better.
Steve