So maybe I don’t know anything about lesbians but you know what I do know about? Fruit.
I was at the fruit stand recently, in the area around the Ontario strawberries. You can tell which these are because they’re not enormous. They look like in-season ones, taste rather close to those as well. An older man saw me looking at these and told me he had bought them recently, and that they’re good! And from Ontario! But, he said, they’re not grown outside. At that point I gestured to the sky (it hasn’t stopped snowing since September or whatever) and was like, you don’t say.
Well. I have learned from the incredible comments to Hiroko Tabuchi’s New York Times article about Japanese greenhouse strawberries that Canadian greenhouse strawberries are relatively OK for the environment. They are also surprisingly cheap (at the cheap fruit stand) and less prone to rot than the Greenmarket in-season sort.
But the comments, they are their own whole, delightful world.
We have:
The people who don’t see the point of out-of-season fruit, who I guess either live in California or only eat fruit two months out of the year. (“If I want home grown strawberries in January, I open a jar of homemade jam, or thaw a bag of frozen strawberries out of the freezer and pour them onto my ice cream.” Congratulations. “I have always found it strange when people buy strawberries or anything else out of season. What's the point?” To eat, and not just potatoes, is the point.)
The Californians. (“Sacramento has a yearly ‘farm to fork’ celebration featuring the locally grown food that is in SEASON at the time of the festival.” Good for you I live under a mountain of snow. “Here in Santa Barbara the strawberries being harvested now are as big as a golf ball and very sweet. I'm fortunate to have a nearby vegetable stand for a small farm which specializes in strawberries so we have them all year.” Happy for you as well.)
The gratuitous xenophobes. (“Sorry. The most fragrant best tasting strawberries are French. The most expensive Japanese strawberries may be picture perfect but not the most fragrant or tasty.”)
The well-travelled (carbon footprint much) frugal (but, the travel) gentlemen who wins this round:
Some of the best fruit I've had, other than what I've grown, was in places where it was picked ripe from varieties that were grown for taste rather than how well they travel, the tropics, Italy, France.
I remember a fruit stand in Tuscany where I asked the farmer which of his melons were good to eat today and he replied "all of them", and he was right. I still remember the fragrance.
And it should really be grown outside, free and in the Sun where it belongs. Hothouses just don't cut it. Have you ever picked a cherry tomato on a hot day in your garden, warm from the Sun and popped it into your mouth? And it didn't cost $200.
The gist in the comments is, of course, that because Japan has embraced, but may be moving away from, a less eco-friendly approach to strawberry-growing, one can only conclude that the answer is to stop being so “spoiled” (a word a commenter uses) in feeling entitled to… eat produce year-round.
I give up, I give up! It’s March, which in Toronto means blizzard season. Fresh, local, outdoor-grown produce is only showing up in July. (Sometimes a farmer’s market will open earlier and it will be a fine place to buy, like, maple syrup.)
As a practical matter, it is entirely possible to enjoy first-of-season or fleeting-season items while also consuming their less delightful cousins in the off-season because you know what? I am literally just trying to get small children to eat fruits and vegetables here. Are English muffins in season? Were they grown locally? Exactly.
NYT commenters have a unique talent for being tedious and self righteous, ESPECIALLY where food is involved.