Saturday, January 13, 2024

Produce Jeopardy: What is a Radish?

I had a major decision to make. Do I do self-checkout or go to the cashier with my groceries. I was calculating which would be faster since I had quite a few items including produce which I hate looking up on the screen. I opted for the cashier thinking it would be faster since there was no line. It may or may not have been faster, but it certainly was more entertaining. The cashier was a young college age man who I had not seen at this store before. He was able to deftly handle the fish, meat, butter, potato chips and all those items that have a UPC Barcode.

It is when we got to the produce that things got interesting. He slowed down studying every item. He got to the parsnip and had apparently never seen one of these before. I knew what was coming. He looked at me and asked “What is this?” I said “A parsnip.” I wasn’t surprised, many a cashier is stymied by the not so common vegetables. They want oranges, apples, green beans (Preferably in a microwave bag.) and broccoli. Yet the next one surprised me. He held up my bunch of radishes and asked again “What is this?” I tried to hide my shock and dismay but calmly said “radishes”. The last item was a cucumber. He looked at it. Somewhere in the deep recesses of his brain he had seen one of these before. He was straining to remember. He looks at me and tentatively says “This is a cucumber, right?”  I smile and say “yes”.

I think he burst a button on his shirt when he got that one right. I almost “high fived” him. Maybe I should have found the manager to tell them that they should be commended for hiring such a bright young man who knew what a cucumber was. However, I just left worried about the future of our country or at least our gastronomical future.

I mean I get this often. Many a young person has no idea what certain vegetables are. I wonder what they ate their whole life to never have come upon fresh produce. Do people not cook at home anymore?

I remember years ago I was working with a woman who hated to cook and would serve her son mashed potatoes that came from a box. Yet one day her son who was in first grade looked at her and asked “Mom can you make mashed potatoes from real potatoes?” She was ashamed and scared! She would have rather he asked “Where do babies come from?”  I always wondered what happened to that young man. I hope that he broke the noncooking cycle in his family or a generation of descendants will be raised on boxed mashed potatoes. A sad thought. Tears come to my eyes just thinking about it.

The next day I am in the produce section of a different grocery store. I really don’t like buying produce at this store because it is notoriously bad. Yet I only needed two things that are common one being a green pepper.  When an older gentleman (He looked old to me but the scary part is he was about my age.) asks me “Do you know what a turnip is?”

They are right in front of him but there is no sign. I point to them. He asks “Which is a good one? Which would you buy?” I look them over. The colors are fading and all of them are brown. I picked up a couple and they are squishy. To his dismay I say “None of them. This store is known for its bad produce.”

He goes “My wife sent me out to get a root vegetable for a stew.” He was shaken. I said “Tell her some guy told you not to buy them. Trust me.” Apparently, she suggested a few other items and I showed him the rutabagas and of course the parsnips. While neither looked great they were in better shape than those turnips. I mean someone should have lost their job for leaving those turnips out.

He brings over a yucca and asks me what it is but before I could answer he turns it around and there is a sticker that says “yucca”. “Oh. Will this work?” I said “I don’t know what she is making but it probably wouldn’t. I would stick with the parsnips or the rutabaga.”

I felt like saying “How did you make it this long in life? Being so helpless around food.” I thought about him and before I walked away I was going to make a career suggestion to him. I think he has the making of a good cashier. You will be happy to know that I kept all my wise guy thoughts to myself.

Now I no longer worry about the gastronomical future of our country. It is the present that is the problem.


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