It’s true, it’s true that a strawberry – even one toxic with pesticides – is better than a strawberry flavored gummy; a strawberry flavored protein shake; or a strawberry breakfast bar. You’ve been listening to Let’s Get Real and you get that now. And getting that is all the difference between the real food eating “us” and the foodiness™ eating “them”…and you know who “them” are — they’re the ones treating Ground Zero like it’s an M & M themed ride at Disney. After all, “we” know not to drink slurpees at all, much less walk around memorials with them while little Travis, Tiff’anee, Britney and Billy Bob treat the reflecting pool like it’s a waterpark ride.
Just like “we” know we are not supposed to be eating at memorials at all, we also know we’re not supposed to be eating strawberries in September. The fact is that you’re about to be faced with the cold, hard realities of out-of-season fruit and vegetables. I think it’s time to prepare you for life’s little disappointments in the realm of real food, and the temptations that come with the grocery store produce aisle where it’s eternal summer (and where they hired that hot stock boy!).
So straight out of the Let’s Get Real vault comes tonight’s reminder (not rerun) that Strawberries in Winter = The Taste of Disappointment. In tonight’s “reminder” I will get real about how foodiness has created the illusion of fruits and vegetables that are always in season; why anyone should care about eating fruits and vegetables that are in season (because they taste like sh*t when they’re not); how expecting an average American to only eat seasonal food is totally unrealistic; and how anyone anywhere can realistically begin to introduce seasonality into their diets.
And if you can remember not to wear white after Labor Day – and to not spill cheese fries on the names at the National September 11th Memorial – then you can remember that pears and apples are coming in season and strawberries and blueberries are out. There, I said it.