Shopping for Produce

It's been a while and I've been on break, so I have no excuse for not posting more often. Just a quick update - I have been having a great break. I've been reading, writing, doing applications, sleeping, watching tv and movies - it's amazing. Because I haven't been so hyped up on school work, I am able to enjoy some of the pleasures that I think college students miss out on.

The other day, my father took me to the fruit and vegetable market that we always go to for great prices on produce. It's called Joe Randazzo's Fruit and Vegetable Market (snazzy name, no?). I haven't been there since I left for college and so I had forgotten how much I enjoy shopping for produce. It's very different than being in a grocery store, because they only sell produce and its far from a fancy shopping experience, no high tech lighting or artistic arrangements (like what you would see at a Whole Foods market). So why do I like it? First of all, it's by far the most diverse place I have been to in all of Michigan - every ethnicity and nationality is represented in this market on any given weekend; you hear an assortment of languages, see a variety of different kinds of clothing. I particularly like to see all the grandparents who are around, wearing the traditional garb of whatever nation they are originally from, carefully discerning the good fruit and vegetables from the bad with their many years of shopping wisdom. I love observing their techniques, whether it is smelling the cilantro to see how fresh it is to clamping an avocado to know how ripe it is. Then there's the sensory experience. You forget how colorful nature is when you live most of your life in New Haven, or any city for that matter. And when I mean colorful, I don't mean the glitzy Las Vegas man-made colorful. The colors and shapes of all the fruits and vegetables in the market are absolutely amazing - the deep red-orange hue of persimmons, the clean whiteness of garlic, the smooth purple surface of an eggplant, the beautiful deep green color of romaine lettuce - it literally is a feast for the eyes. And the smell of a produce market is overwhelming - particularly near all the citrus fruits and herbs. I just love the smell of lemon and basil (seperately and together). It's just such a wonderfully relaxing (though overwhelming too) experience - it's almost therapeutic, even just to think about it. Oh, how much I'll miss these experiences when I go back to Yale.

I think I should try to get out to the East Rock farmer's market this spring semester - for therapeutic reasons...