What?, you haven't got an actual garden? Never mind, we have garden peas for your delectability. Trust us! Buy our produce!
Never mind the fact that they would have been grown in a huge field, & harvested, by huge machines, at the exact moment of perfect ripeness as deemed by some inspector. If that time happened to be midnight on the day, so beit. They would be harvested, with huge lights & no messing about.
Whizzed off to be graded & frozen as fast as possible. I am not too sure of the rest of the process on the way to our freezers, in small plastic bags- which pollute the planet. Arriving like that, they actually couldn't be further from 'Garden Peas' except maybe if they were dried, & split. Then, of course they would be in smaller plastic bags, & would not require a freezer.
I know about the midnight harvesting of the peas for the freezer. When we had our Country Hotel, we had been out one evening, & were returning home on the long straight country roads of Canterbury. A dark night, & no other traffic about. Speeding a little, no doubt.
Suddenly, in the distance, we could see a huge field with lights flashing. As there had recently been a lot of UFO sightings, around Christchurch, we thought we had come upon the 'Mother Ship', or some such. Gom & I were both struck with this incredible eerie feeling, & as we approached, hair stood up on the backs of our necks.
As we got closer still, we could see the huge harvesting machines, but still had no idea who, or what was going on. We had slowed right down, but then quickly sped up again! Next day, we mentioned it to some of the locals, & they laughed, & told us it was pea harvesting time, & it went on round the clock to get the crops at peak perfection. The local growers were contracted to whoever the company was- probably Watties, back then. They were given the peas to sow, told what day to plant them, & then constant checks were kept on the crops, until harvesting time.
No doubt other vegetables are grown in the same way. No one really wants to think of that aspect of their vegetables I would imagine. If they think about them at all, that is. I am sure there are children who just think vegetables such as peas beans & corn come from plastic packets? Just as they think milk comes in bottles or cartons.
I am not sure why I am griping about this. Somehow I get the same irrational anger when I see "Garden Salad" on the menu in a restaurant. Often the sad tired limp mouldering strands of whatever couldnt be further from the 'Garden'.
The tasteless tomatoes were probably grown in some horrible glass house. How else to explain the lack of taste?
I am just turning into a grouchy old bat. I could go on. "Ocean Fresh" =bollocks.
"Catch of the Day"= probably some old stuff going off in the freezer. "Hand selected"=cheapest they could offer. On it goes.
While I am in a sour mood, I might just add one of my pet hates.
PITCHER!!
A pitcher is a vessel for carrying liquids.
It is NOT a portrait or a PICTURE!!
Who told the news readers to say PITCHER?? WHY??
Yes, yes, I am going off to get my blood pressure rechecked.
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Something much brighter & happy.
Fabric, from a quick nip into a quilty shop in my old home town in NZ. 'Dancing Kiwis', it is called. I kicked myself for not buying others. Or taking a photo of the lovely quilt the proprietor had on display, using all the lovely Kiwi fabrics.
The Tui is one of my favourite Native New Zealand birds, & my lovely cousin gave me this nice piece featuring the Tuis, & so now I should be thinking of some project to use them.
In the meantime I use them for stress relief, & a nice pat now & then makes me happy.Weather is nice, blue skies, & though it is chilly, it is still quite nice to sit in the sun, & read.
Oh, & last night's tea met with Hitler's Gom's approval. I did a Vegetable casserole, using some of the Freezer Bounty of corn & peas, plus fresh carrots, onion & potatoes, with a Chicken Soup mix for sauce, with Chicken & Creamy Mushroom Sauce for meat.
Jean-Michel Jarre, Equinoxe
