live bugs and mister ribbets
This morning I went to the farmers market and bought $20 worth of organic, local farm veggies. Later for lunch, I broke out a head of lettuce from my bag of greenie goods and prepared to make a salmon Caesar salad. On the head of lettuce was a caterpillar wormy bug thing. It was flipping itself hither and thither, obviously very alive.
NEAT, I thought. It's alive because no one sprayed poison on the lettuce. It's alive because (hippy lady told me) it was plucked from the earth just yesterday and in the middle of a hail storm no less. It's alive because it wasn't suffocated with plastic containers and air tight bagging. It wasn't put in refrigerated semis and driven here from New Jersey. NEAT, I thought. A FRESH VEGETABLE WITH A LIVING BUG ON IT!! Then I rinsed the bug down the drain (Of course, I should've put it outside in the spirit of all things natural. Hindsight's 20-20. Sorry bug.) I finished making my salad, sat out on the porch, enjoyed the sunshine and ate my delicious organic grub (so to speak).
I remember when I worked at eBay someone found a good-sized frog in their cafeteria salad. It was dead, of course, hidden in the lettuce along with its dismembered appendages. People flipped out big time. A picture of the posthumous Mister Ribbets hopped its way onto the web and spread like a bad case of warts. My cube mate used the image as his PC wall paper. It was big Bay Area news for about a day.
I'm sure the cafeteria manager caught holy hell. He probably got a visit from Meg Herself. I didn't know who I felt worse for, the frog or the manager. That cafeteria was mediocre at best but the one thing they did take pains to do was buy organic from local farmers. That's really cool for a big company like eBay but it's too bad the cafeteria manager couldn't find employees who actually washed the vegetables they were serving. One of my coworkers found a great big caterpillar in his salad. I think after that the cafeteria switched to good old pesticidal greens from a far coastal region. It's really amazing, the amount of fear and disgust that was ignited from one dead frog in the lettuce. It's also really amazing how three tons of poison sprayed onto every vegetable sold at Safeway will never make the majority of Americans skip a meal, at least not until they fall over dead from cancer.
Anyway, I'm into the organic, local farmers thing. I go every week now and my dinners with slutpuppy are determined by the loot gathered at the fm (that's short for farmers market).
My favorite thing to buy at the fm are tomatoes.
NEAT, I thought. It's alive because no one sprayed poison on the lettuce. It's alive because (hippy lady told me) it was plucked from the earth just yesterday and in the middle of a hail storm no less. It's alive because it wasn't suffocated with plastic containers and air tight bagging. It wasn't put in refrigerated semis and driven here from New Jersey. NEAT, I thought. A FRESH VEGETABLE WITH A LIVING BUG ON IT!! Then I rinsed the bug down the drain (Of course, I should've put it outside in the spirit of all things natural. Hindsight's 20-20. Sorry bug.) I finished making my salad, sat out on the porch, enjoyed the sunshine and ate my delicious organic grub (so to speak).
I remember when I worked at eBay someone found a good-sized frog in their cafeteria salad. It was dead, of course, hidden in the lettuce along with its dismembered appendages. People flipped out big time. A picture of the posthumous Mister Ribbets hopped its way onto the web and spread like a bad case of warts. My cube mate used the image as his PC wall paper. It was big Bay Area news for about a day.
I'm sure the cafeteria manager caught holy hell. He probably got a visit from Meg Herself. I didn't know who I felt worse for, the frog or the manager. That cafeteria was mediocre at best but the one thing they did take pains to do was buy organic from local farmers. That's really cool for a big company like eBay but it's too bad the cafeteria manager couldn't find employees who actually washed the vegetables they were serving. One of my coworkers found a great big caterpillar in his salad. I think after that the cafeteria switched to good old pesticidal greens from a far coastal region. It's really amazing, the amount of fear and disgust that was ignited from one dead frog in the lettuce. It's also really amazing how three tons of poison sprayed onto every vegetable sold at Safeway will never make the majority of Americans skip a meal, at least not until they fall over dead from cancer.
Anyway, I'm into the organic, local farmers thing. I go every week now and my dinners with slutpuppy are determined by the loot gathered at the fm (that's short for farmers market).
My favorite thing to buy at the fm are tomatoes.