Sunday, March 20, 2011

Springtime!

Happy first day of Spring, everyone!

 (Photo from Google images)

I was at the grocery store last week looking for a delicious tomato to buy for the cookout we were having.  I know, I know, it's not exactly tomato season, but my hopes were to find a good looking, red, ripe, tomato that would be the perfect hamburger topper.  I had my choice of three types of tomatoes. 

Choice #1: A regular looking, though unripe, tomato from Mexico.
Choice #2: An extremely red, tomato on a vine from New Zealand.
Choice #3: An "ugly ripe" tomato from the U.S.

So I thought to myself..., "Self...which tomato will you choose?  Will you go with a tomato from a country attached to ours, but one that may have been driven thousands of miles from California?  Or will you go for the tomato from New Zealand.  You've always wanted to go to New Zealand.  Maybe this tomato will taste like New Zealand.  I bet New Zealand tastes good.  I bet it tastes as beautiful as New Zealand is.  I bet once you taste it, you will find yourself picking up 2 more jobs to purchase your plane ticket to New Zealand." 

But then my Self got the best of itself and asked, "Self...how ripe could that tomato really be?  Coming all the way from New Zealand.  The flight alone must be 17 hours, or maybe they ship them over, which could take who KNOWS how long.  Then those little tomatoes would have to take a boat ride or a truck ride to get to good old Memphis, TN.  I think your best bet would be to steer very clear of the New Zealand tomatoes."

And then I looked at the "ugly ripe", yep, that's what it said, right on the side with a nice little sticker.  No regard for the little guy's feelings.  Poor thing.  And he was ugly as he could be, but he smelled like a tomato and he was the color red a tomato should be, and so I bought him, and he was delicious.

I'm not going to go on a BUY AMERICAN rant, because I don't always necessarily believe that.  With food, however, BUY LOCAL and if you can't buy local, buy as close to local as you can.  Because I don't know if you've watched Food Inc., (Here's a trailer, and no, it won't turn you into a Vegetarian...so open up that pretty little mind of yours and learn about what you are putting into your body), but there's some pretty nasty stuff (for lack of a better term) out there going into our food.  And I don't know about you, but I love food.  And I want to eat it in its truest form, because I'm a bitch like that, and I deserve it.  And you do too.

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