Vegetable varieties

maybe getting shewolfs point, but missing mine entirely.

was not looking at this from a supply or preparation standpoint.....but....whatever.....

What I was trying to say (badly) was that it seems there are many people who take the food item, eat it, and never wonder how it can be made different, or what it would be like to try something else, because, at some point in their lives, without ever having tasted a brussel sprout, were told they were disgusting.

I know someone who insists she hates fish...although she's never tried most kinds....she does say she likes 2 types of fish....Fried fish from Long John Silvers fast food restaurant, and canned tuna fish.....she knows there are tons of varieties out there, and different ways to prepare, but she has it embedded in her mind she only likes some greasy fast food fish, or a can of bumblebee.

It more like...."my grandma ate tuna fish, my ma did too, and I'm not gonna rock the boat by trying anything new."

(walter, I was being facetious regarding a beet being exotic...I don't think you can get plainer than a beet)

chai wrote :



you ought to try HAMBURGER"S famous HERRING-SALAD and you'll see how the lowly beet has been turned into GOURMET FOOD !

it's made with : pickled herrings , LOTS OF BEETS , a bit of potatoe , a bit of apple , some diced pickles and lots of sour-cream or salad dressing - add some sugar or spices to taste . it should best sit for a day so the flavours will mix nicely , but you'll have to beat some people off with a stick because they'll start gobbling it up as soon as it's ready !
i made a big bowl for christmas to go with the porkroast and turkey , but it's also nice on a bun or rye-bread .
hbg

this is a recipe for RUSSIAN HERRING-BEET SALAD , similar to what i make : HERRING IN AN OVERCOAT

here is a picture of what a marriage between beets and herrings - and other goodies - looks like !

Speaking of veggies...my stomach is sooooo happy right now.

just had a mixup of brussel sprouts, some leftover barbeque black-eyed peas from New Years Day, and lightly browned tofu.

damn that's good.

mmmmmm herring beet salad

yummmm

I have not made it through the entire thread yet so forgive me if I am repeating something that may have been said, but my point is that it seems that the foods that are offered are a small variety of the same thing .

No matter where you go.

even if you apply the 100 mile rule, every city, in every state, in every climate has the same, basic outline for food.

It is as if that is ALL we are supposed to eat, and that is ALL that is available on the planet.

Granted, it probably is not a good idea to ship veggies from other countries for cultivation here in america, but you can't tell me that between here and Maine, the only things that grow are broccoli, cauliflower, salads greens, root veggies and citrus fruit.

When I list all of the above, I am including its varieties as well.
When I say salad, I am including romaine, cabbages, ice burg, chard, etc..
Root veggies - potatoes, carrots, onions, nuts..

I can probably fill one college ruled sheet of paper with each individual thing offered in a grocery store and be able to check of 90% of those things in EVERY store.

As vast as vegetation is, and as many herbs that we have found, I find it hard to believe that this ( what is sold today, across the world it sounds like) is all there is to eat.

SOmeone said .. I think it was butterflynet.. That it is all about demand.
And I would agree with that 100%

As Chai pointed out, it seems that many people just take everything at face value when selecting and eating veggies.
That, even if you DON'T like it, you eat it because it is good for you.
Or that cooking something 20 different ways gives variety...
Well you can only absorb so much vitamin C at one time.. No matter how much you cook it, or what you make it taste like. So I would think that you would need to move on to something else..

but there doesnt SEEM to be much else.

And if there is, how does one find out about it?

Re: Vegetable varieties



Good point. I should have seen this post first..

Im off to read the link

Remember, 100 years ago most of your winter vegetables would have either been home canned, pickled or stored in the root cellar.

i wonder why noddy insists on telling us what her favourite foods were when she was THE BELLE OF THE BALL ?





hbg(NOT a friend of turnips )

I've posted this link elsewhere, but it fits nicely here as well

Superfoods or healthy hoaxes?

Vitamin C, oat bran, soy and pomegranates are a few of the 'recent' trendy items discussed.



(I was leary of soy before, now I'm going to be even more cautious)

baked stuffed tomato and olive oil
I bet if you took the number of vegetables and fruits available to you, figured out how many ways you could prepare each, had one a day, it would take a hundred years to eat them all. Throw in combinations, nuts, and any other earth producing item, you'll have it made.

Hamburger--

You and Mrs. Hamburger must come over sometime for a nice platter of parsnips.

We are definitely part of the problem. Those of us who seek out new food experiences haunt the farmer's markets and gourmet stores for buried treasures and pay the higher prices for that experience. When produce is that tasty you don't need to add anything to it to make it taste good, doing so spoils the sought after flavor.

That leaves the not so adventurous shopping at grocery store chains where their main concern is profit. Commercial farms create and grow the bland varieties that the super store chains demand, the ones that can sit in a grocery bin for weeks and still never spoil or gain flavor by ripening.

The not so adventurous are interested in getting food on the table with the least amount of prep time necessary and disguise the yucky grocery store produce with store-bought sauces and seasoning blends which the store also profits from.

Some grocery stores are willing to special order those buried treasures usually found in gourmet stores but you have to ask for them. If enough people were asking for them, they'd find a spot reserved in the veggie bins on a regular basis. The downside of that is the item would then be commercialized with new tasteless hybrids with long shelf lifes.


Shewolf isn't talking about variety in preparation methods of a few selections. She's talking about expanding that selection not just in the number of varieties offered of the same item (red, white, yellow, purple, finger potatos versus potatos, bamboo hearts, lotus leaves, seaweed).

These nutrition fads also drive the cost of the natural food item and are self-defeating.

It wasn't too many years ago that grocery stores were practically giving away pomegranates. I used to buy and eat dozens of them every year. Got plenty of their good nutrients directly from the source.

This year, I could only afford one this year at more than $3 each. The one I got had a lot of unripe seed kernels. I'm not getting any of those good nutrients this year.

I agree with Walter, who somewhere back in the thread suggested the same, and Butryflynet, re that the squeaky wheel gets the grease - or does to some extent.

We do have some good markets around here, re vegetable varieties, but they are all fairly far away from me, thus use of gasoline/time are both financial and ecological factors. My closest market is ridiculously bad re produce, grrrr. Yes, I plan on squawking about it, probably in a letter to the general firm with a cc to the market manager, one of these days. There is at least one other store in town by the same company, and I need to see if there is something going on re selection versus neighborhood.

A long time ago, there was a market in lower Santa Monica, or upper Venice, which had lousy produce and burnt potato chips... and I connected that to being the one that most served the 'ghetto' area. Send those chips to Venice! Of course I may be wrong, it might have been consistent within that corporation's markets in general, or perhaps some managerial stupidity.

I have a fantasy of growing odd fruits and veggies of my own.

Even if they are from another country..

now I just need seeds.. And names.

What is the "oddest" thing anyone can think of?

Growing exotic vegetables indoors in a tiny apartment texas?

no.
weed doesnt count..

with three cats

and 7 birds