Yes, yes, seasonality is another joy and pleasure that industrial
agriculture has stolen from us. Would seet corn be the thrill it is if we
could eat it year around? Oh, don't tell me about those things that look
like ears of sweet corn which appear in supermarket produce counters during
the winter months, the plastic bag you take them home in has more flavour.
A week ago the apples I stored from our orchard ran out, but to the end
they were juicy and flavourful. So I gritted my teeth and bought a few
B.C. grown apples. They looked very good. I peeled one and started
cutting it up in my morning fruit salad. I popped the last piece in my
mouth....I might as well have bitten into a piece of Douglas fir for all
the flavour. It was solid but bone dry. Were these apples this poor when
first picked? Whatever it is that's the last I'll buy, we'll stick to the
dried apples, frozen apple juice, and apple sauce until our trees once
again bring us the joys of seasonal fresh fruit.
The first of this year's crop of B.C. Hothouse tomatoes (grown without
pesticides) are now in the stores and they taste like tomatoes, not like
those round red things from Florida. Now, let's admit it, they don't taste
like fresh fruit just picked from the vine on a sunny August day but they
are a nice start.
Here on southern Vancouver Island the stinging nettles are just about ready
to be picked for an early spring feed of fresh greens. Their flavour must
be enhanced by my watching them slowly grow in cool air in the swampy
places in the forest. Within the next few days we will be enjoying one of
natures delights and hope many of you have the chance to do the same.
Don Maroc
Vancouver Island, Canada
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