Continuing snowy white and frigid outside, and if it weren’t for the handy neighborhood supermarket, the last thing you’d be thinking about around here right now is fresh orange juice. The reality is, there’s plenty of it, legally speaking, at least: aseptic storage and flavor packs aside, fresh not frozen, not from concentrate, pulpy or pulp free OJ is in abundance, now as ever, and often on special, too!
supermarket
Empty shelves
OK, so it’s only the result of a really good price on rice cakes, and emptied shelves aren’t unusual during sales. Still, this time, standing in from of them, I suddenly imagined how fast ALL the shelves could empty, and wonder what we’d do right after that happened. Not an everyday cheery thought (I hope; it’s not for me)…and it quickly passed! Anyhow, I do have lettuce.
Improbably early corn!
Fresh sweet corn at the beginning of May?! Wow, it’s a miracle! After a period of mild outrage when I first started tiny farming, as it sunk in how far and in what conditions most of our fresh food travels, the knee-jerk negative reaction to the sight of long distance food at the supermarket, and especially at the farmers’ market via the big resellers, thankfully faded away. Automatic anger is a waste of energy that could be put to better uses (weeding comes to mind). So seeing corn in big bins at the store as if it’s fresh from the field down the road, with fields here barely dry and seedlings still in trays, doesn’t surprise or annoy me much now…but it continues to look odd and kinda ridiculous. A miracle, indeed! (I took the photo, but didn’t even think to check the sign to see where exactly this batch is from…)