Any questions?
I have a few, and so I made a whole new blog to keep my other one more on track with food issues and leave the rest of the fluff in my mind to this. I've been collecting observations and questions in my mind and now is the time to let them out before they start cluttering up what precious space I have left in there.However, in an effort to wean myself off of my other blog, I will start this one off with a food question.
Being a New Englander, I am shackled to the laws of what is in season. Supermarket fruit isn't as amazing as I always hope it is. The berries taste watery and the apples are just tart (no matter the variety) instead of having that sunshine flavor that I love so much. On top of that, the local food scene that my boyfriend turned me on to is even more restricted because they don't have the luxury of flying in fruit from Chile and California (because that would defeat the purpose). Going to the local Farmer's Market in March was a very sad experience because all of the leftover apples were stunted and bruised, there were no greens and practically no vegetables except for maybe a few carrots and some radishes. Plus there were no onions or garlic to speak of. I called it "The Dark Ages". But what about the people who live in California and Chile or other places where fruit is readily available seemingly year round?
My grandmother has a few orange trees out in her back yard in Anaheim and it always looks like it’s perpetually giving fruit. Giant globes hang next to walnut-sized baby oranges every time I go out there to visit. Plus, they can get as many fresh avocados as can be reached by the picker my grandfather designed especially to get them from their neighbor’s tree (“Well, they’re hanging over my side of the wall, aren’t they?”) My aunt out there also has an in with a woman who owns a small strawberry farm and the berries there are always perfect. Is anything out of reach?
Well I’m no climate scientist, but it seems to me that fruits can crop up two ways. The first way is like llamas, who can become fertile merely by the act of intercourse (sorry about the grown up language, kiddies). Berries and citrus trees seem to grow out there without any regard to what season it is, probably because there aren’t seasons. They merely soak up all the sun they can and are happy to keep on producing fruit. Others like plums or other tree fruits stay tuned to their internal clock and only produce when the time is right, like elephants. Even though both the berries and the peaches at the supermarket come from Chile, the peaches are only there for a short time.
I know it’s naive to think that Chile and California are overflowing with more fruit than they know what to do with. Yes, during the winter berries become very scarce, even the imported ones. However, I get the feeling that the conditions in those warmer areas allow for a longer season and maybe even keep a small amount of the product growing.
(image from here)
