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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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