As The Fruit Turns
Apr. 8th, 2003 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
same_skyAll is well in the land of the produce. I didn't work today but I did go down and visit for an hour or two. I picked up bread, a tomato and a banana pepper. I do love banana peppers, though I don't eat them raw like my uncle does. Hmm. I didn't eat my fruit today, though. I've had a cantaloupe (no, not the whole thing!), an apple, a pear and an orange, which is kinda neat because I don't typically eat a lot of fruit even though I rather like it. The orange was seriously excellent. The pear, too. All but the orange were from the back in the pile of "things that don't look good enough to sell but are still somewhat salvagable to varying degrees" pile.
I've learned such weird and interesting things in the last four days. For example, and this might be an obvious statement, but it's worthy of mentioning: produce goes bad. A lot of produce goes bad. For the love of Pete, go buy some produce RIGHT NOW before it rots!! I've also learned that fruits and vegetables are cheap. You can walk out of a produce market with a serious amount of food without spending all that much money. And it's also been confirmed for me that people are odd. If you have a box of oranges that aren't as nice as the regular oranges (which are 3/$1) priced at 4/$1, they won't sell, but if you bag up those same oranges in a bag of eight and mark them for $1.99, they're gone in a heartbeat. The most important thing that I've learned, though, is "Do not drop rotten fruit." Believe me when I say that this is important!
In general, running a produce market is more work than you would think. Not only are there customers to be taken care of, there's also this eternal dance with the food. Some of it has to be refridgerated overnight, some boxes get carried outside in the morning and back in at night. The cabbage needs a layer peeled off each morning. The carrots need inspected for black spots, the tomatoes have to be watched extremely carefully. The green onions need the ugly edges trimmed off, the extra leaf lettuce needs bagged up and refridgerated, the green peppers need to either stay green or be removed from the pile.... Meanwhile, someone has to drive an hour and a half to pick up fresh stuff a few times a week, and someone needs to make deliveries to the local businesses.
I think it's the sheer amounts of the stuff that gets you. There's always at least one large box filled with questionable stuff sitting on the table in the back to be sorted. Some of it gets eaten or given away. Mom has been peeling and slicing the good parts of the damaged apples for freezing (my grandfather adores fried apples for breakfast. This is possibly a somewhat local delicacy.).. Saturday she did seven quarts. She was working on it again today when I left, and I'd say she'll have just as many again. I wonder how many quarts she'll have before she gets bored with trying to save it all? Tomatoes also pile up quickly, and mostly, they still look wonderful when they get thrown into the box except for one little black spot or something. And no one wants to buy something with a black spot! It's perfectly logical for a customer to only pick out the best-looking stuff, but man, does the rotten (or even just funny-looking) stuff pile up quickly!
I'm planning homemade salsas and pasta sauces, salads and casseroles. I'm officially in the market for great vegetable recipes. Magnus and I once toyed with the idea (over a chicken sandwich) of becoming partially vegetarian--well, just on the weekdays or something like that. I guess this is our chance.
I've learned such weird and interesting things in the last four days. For example, and this might be an obvious statement, but it's worthy of mentioning: produce goes bad. A lot of produce goes bad. For the love of Pete, go buy some produce RIGHT NOW before it rots!! I've also learned that fruits and vegetables are cheap. You can walk out of a produce market with a serious amount of food without spending all that much money. And it's also been confirmed for me that people are odd. If you have a box of oranges that aren't as nice as the regular oranges (which are 3/$1) priced at 4/$1, they won't sell, but if you bag up those same oranges in a bag of eight and mark them for $1.99, they're gone in a heartbeat. The most important thing that I've learned, though, is "Do not drop rotten fruit." Believe me when I say that this is important!
In general, running a produce market is more work than you would think. Not only are there customers to be taken care of, there's also this eternal dance with the food. Some of it has to be refridgerated overnight, some boxes get carried outside in the morning and back in at night. The cabbage needs a layer peeled off each morning. The carrots need inspected for black spots, the tomatoes have to be watched extremely carefully. The green onions need the ugly edges trimmed off, the extra leaf lettuce needs bagged up and refridgerated, the green peppers need to either stay green or be removed from the pile.... Meanwhile, someone has to drive an hour and a half to pick up fresh stuff a few times a week, and someone needs to make deliveries to the local businesses.
I think it's the sheer amounts of the stuff that gets you. There's always at least one large box filled with questionable stuff sitting on the table in the back to be sorted. Some of it gets eaten or given away. Mom has been peeling and slicing the good parts of the damaged apples for freezing (my grandfather adores fried apples for breakfast. This is possibly a somewhat local delicacy.).. Saturday she did seven quarts. She was working on it again today when I left, and I'd say she'll have just as many again. I wonder how many quarts she'll have before she gets bored with trying to save it all? Tomatoes also pile up quickly, and mostly, they still look wonderful when they get thrown into the box except for one little black spot or something. And no one wants to buy something with a black spot! It's perfectly logical for a customer to only pick out the best-looking stuff, but man, does the rotten (or even just funny-looking) stuff pile up quickly!
I'm planning homemade salsas and pasta sauces, salads and casseroles. I'm officially in the market for great vegetable recipes. Magnus and I once toyed with the idea (over a chicken sandwich) of becoming partially vegetarian--well, just on the weekdays or something like that. I guess this is our chance.
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 03:29 pm (UTC)Jag skulle skicka ditt brev snårt!
In the meantime, I just wanted to let you know that I'm really enjoying reading about your produce market adventures. I for one do not do well with big unexpected changes! :-)
Here are some vegetarian pointers for ya :)
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/
http://www.vegweb.com/
http://www.vegetarianrecipe.com/default.asp
http://www.fatfree.com/
Enjoy! :-)
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 07:38 am (UTC)Glad you're enjoying the produce news. Some of it really sucks, but it has its good points. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 07:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-08 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 04:57 am (UTC)So, Kisha, you must enlighten us...
The standard of "fresh" produce here in Sweden is appalling. The first few times I went shopping I bought no vegetables because I couldn't bear to actually pay money for what was on offer. I found a nice shop owned by Middle East people that was far better than anywhere, so I would buy from them. So like Carrie, one small spot would be no problem.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 07:57 am (UTC)(More about the apples in my next post.)
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 07:41 am (UTC)*wave*
Date: 2003-04-09 07:05 am (UTC)~E
Re: *wave*
Date: 2003-04-09 08:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 03:24 pm (UTC)So weird that someone knows where these places are.. :)