Knowing where your food comes from, pt. 2
We don't know beans about beans. Asparagus, potatoes, turkey drumsticks-you name it, we don't have a clue how the world makes it. I usually think I'm exaggerating the scope of the problem, and then I'll encounter an editor (at a well-known nature magazine) who's nixing the part of my story that refers to pineapples growing from the ground. She insisted they grew on trees. Or, I'll have a conversation like this one:
"What's new on the farm?" asks my friend, a lifelong city dweller who likes for me to keep her posted by phone. She's a gourmet cook, she cares about the world, and has been around a lot longer than I have. This particular conversation was in early spring, so I told her what was up in the garden: peas, potatoes, spinach.
"Wait a minute," she said. "When you say, 'The potatoes are up,' what do you mean?" She paused, formulating her question: "What part of a potato comes up?"
"Um, the plant part," I said. "The stems and the leaves."
"Wow," she said. "I never knew a potato had a plant part."
- excerpt from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver
This reminds me that The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan caught my eye before, and is something I want to read as well. Must keep an eye out for it.