June 22, 2016
Well here’s a great way to start a fight with your spouse; just
say, “I’m NOT eating arugula. You can’t make me and I won’t do it!” (Hmm, that’s
sounds vaguely familiar from my childhood.) Let me explain.
This is our second year of buying into a sort of a home
delivery of farmer’s market veggies. You buy a share of farm grown veggies and
they are delivered to a house in the neighborhood where everybody goes to pick
them up. Every week the box has a little different mix of vegetables. When I
peered into this first box I knew I was in trouble, nothing really edible in
there like carrots or peas or beans or tomatoes. There was a collection of stuff
of various shades of green. Don’t get me wrong, I like green. . . when it’s on
a golf course or in my yard right after winter but I’m just not a fan of many
of the green vegetables and especially of the leafy variety.
Which
reminds me that I once had a co-pilot with whom I flew all over the world. His
self-given nickname was “Golden Hands.” There were times that his hands did indeed
act like hunks of metal, gold or not, but that’s for a different story. In any
event his motto when it came to food was “If it’s green don’t eat it.” Now why I have taken the advice of a person
who clearly had a lot of personal issues is beside the point but I have never
forgotten that and apparently took it to heart.
Back to my story. Sooo we open this
box of stuff . . . and it’s confirmed - there’s nothing good to eat in there. Spinach,
arugula, kale – yuck! There were a few
really good radishes which I devoured right away. I know what you’re thinking,
you epicureans you, what a food swine I am! How can you not like kale and arugula?!
Well I’ll tell you why. Because it tastes crappy! If I can put enough 1000
Island dressing on it, I can probably force it down (but that seems like a
terrible waste of 1000 Island dressing.) I mean when I was growing up fresh
peas were like a delicacy. Green beans from a can, mmmmm. Iceberg lettuce; what
a treat!
Before you go all smug on me think
about this:
The first time my mom made (or tried to make) Italian spaghetti – basic tomato
sauce and pasta, I think - in the early 60’s sometime my dad simply said, what
is this and what do I do with it? Good question. Also, I had never heard of
pizza until I went to college in the big city of Duluth. Chinese food? Same
thing, Chun King in a can anyone! How about you, smart ass?
Don’t get me wrong, though, through my
68 years on this earth I have developed a taste for some of the more modern
foods. Like asparagus (sparingly and only with sauce), cauliflower (sparingly only
with sauce) and mushrooms (only on pizza.) There are still things, however,
that I simply don’t care for and it’s too late to change now. Among them,
arugula (and sushi.)
Luckily, this year, having learned our limit on how many
fresh vegetables we can actually eat, we split a share with a neighbor. They
don’t know it but they are our saviors! (well MY savior.) And, much to Mrs.
Dear Leader’s chagrin, I can pawn off all the crappy green things to them. Ha
ha ha! (Oddly, they apparently like that stuff.) Better yet, I get to make them
feel bad that we “sacrifice” the green stuff just for their kids. This will
work out great – until we start to get REAL vegetables.
And let’s hope that happens soon!
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