Let's Get Started!

How can you really live without fresh fruits and vegetables? You can't ... Not really?

Now I love beef (and I have no plans to stop eating pastrami), but beef can't be produced with out produce. Beef.org At http://www.beef.org/resoMeatProductionisWasteful.aspx, disputes many claims about how the production of Beef wastes foodstuffs and deprives the poor of nutritional essentials, citing and wrangling with many scientific studies . As an economist I see validity to both sides of the argument; as a gourmand, I see that beef cannot be produced without nature's garden. The food chain begins and ends with plants; after we die, do we not push up daisies?

Let's talk about why we love our fruits and vegetables...

In the U.S. the summer hosts some of the most wonderful fruits and vegetables that are only available fresh at this time of year: stone fruits. Though in winter they are also available from the southern hemisphere, likewise that season is inevitably short, so take advantage of the bounty while it is in bloom. Among the stone fruits are cherries, http://www.cherrymkt.org/ ; peaches, http://www.scpeach.com/default.asp, nectarines, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nectarine ; apricots, http://www.califapricot.com/ ; and plums, http://www.uga.edu/fruit/plum.htm . (For further reading on "Plum", see P.G. Wodehouse, http://www.wodehouse.org/ ). For me, the stone fruit is one of the many examples why fresh produce makes eating so exciting: the best of it is only available in short bursts, so enjoy it while it is ripe and when the season is over move on to the next season and enjoy another fruit or vegetable; if you use this maxim in your planning, your menu will never be dull and your palate will always be pleased.

Let’s develop a fruitful relationship; please reply with your thoughts and comments.

And remember to Eat Joe Veggies!

Veggie Joe