The perfection of grocery store produce came up for discussion one summer day when Elisa Whitman worked with me as a garden apprentice in my food garden. Professionally, Elisa teaches biology and environmental science at Stonington High School. She is a vivacious woman with a great sense of humor.
“Look at this zucchini! This eggplant!” she says, picking up vegetables just harvested from the garden. “They look just like the ones at the grocery store!”
We both laugh ... at first. But it’s a sobering point to consider: a grocery store, not our own mouths, set the criteria for perfection. We not only have learned to judge excellence by the eye instead of the taste buds; we have also learned to hold unrealistic expectation about what produce should look like.
A similar bias holds true for varieties. In other words, if your grocery store carries only Anjou and Bartlett pears, the appearance of a brownish Bosque or a small hard Sickle pear seems different and unappealing.
After all, some vegetables and fruits are naturally larger or smaller than the average. But grocery stores display only the industry norm. Oversized or undersized items seem odd when they do appear.
This expectation of perfections sets the stage for starlet strawberries and tangelos that could win tango contest. Everything is bright, perky, uniform, and flawless. How does a domestic tomato compete with the champions at the store? Especially if it rained last night after a two-week dry spell, and the poor thing split its sides in relief.
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