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The people in that article must have been living in a cave. I thought everybody knew most foods are grown in the ground. Don't they know what a garden is? No excuse for not knowing what is grown in our own states. Our public schools teach about farms and produce and economies that are local and they should learn the basics from their home cooks. I never even knew about instant potatoes till i started seeing coupons for them. Why would anybody want to eat or serve something so processed?
This reminds me of the older neighbor who always kept a few cotton plants in his garden when he found out his grandkids did not know that cotton was a plant and the backbone of the south.
We had a potted cotton plant in our house when we were kids; we got it at the airport on the way home from Florida one year, along with a miniature orange tree. Of course, being dumb northern kids, we killed both plants by over-watering it. But we had them growing for a couple of weeks in our house, by gum!
You can hardly fault people for not recognizing unpopular produce. You come across as a snob who just wants to show off his superior knowledge and belittle people for being unfamiliar with uncommon things, as though that somehow matters in life. Btw, I bolded the ones I am familiar but I don't think I'll be losing any sleep anytime soon over not knowing what the others are. Seriously, get over yourself. It's produce.
you make a good point. I don't know if the poster meant to sound that way, but many people do not recognize some of the things he mentioned and are still able to eat and cook a variety of foods. For those in the younger generation particularly things like parsnips have never even been on their table. I am not sure my grandkids would know what they are. For older people things like Star fruit the same. How many seniors, unless they are foodies or spend hours researching have ever even had a Star fruit? I could go on and on. I think of what we grow, cook and serve today, compared to when I was growing up: the methods we use for cooking and the foods we eat are completely different.
Well you have now: I really never thought much about it, but I guess I always assumed they did, so I am dumb, dumb, dumb and I am the first to admit it!!! But remember, my degree is in foods and nutrition. I generally know where most foods come from, but if I were playing trivia I would have been eliminated pretty darn quickly..
I would like to apologize to you, nmnita, and to all for using the poor choice of words that I did. I didn't mean it when I said, "dumb enough". I think I chose those words because I was irritated at the "most Americans" statement.
I didn't mean to offend; please pardon my dumb remark!
I would like to apologize to you, nmnita, and to all for using the poor choice of words that I did. I didn't mean it when I said, "dumb enough". I think I chose those words because I was irritated at the "most Americans" statement.
I didn't mean to offend; please pardon my dumb remark!
I do admire that you have that degree!
~roosty~
oh, you didn't offend me, I thought it was pretty funny; not what you said as much as my not knowing or remembering they do not grow on trees. I guess I just know bananas do, coconuts do, mangos do and I just assumed pineapples do as well. Even spoiled brat said to me, honey, when we were in Costa R. we saw them growing by the side of the road. Well, maybe I have just finished one too many rum and cokes that day or something, cause I sure don't remember seeing them..
A lot of produce knowledge is generational as well as regional and of course it has to do with economic status. I doubt too many poorer people have ever had a fresh pineapple in their home. Some in the list of produce I may have read about but could not identify in person. Doesn't make me dumber than anybody else. Just not what I've ever seen or even have any interest in.
You can hardly fault people for not recognizing unpopular produce. You come across as a snob who just wants to show off his superior knowledge and belittle people for being unfamiliar with uncommon things, as though that somehow matters in life. Btw, I bolded the ones I am familiar but I don't think I'll be losing any sleep anytime soon over not knowing what the others are. Seriously, get over yourself. It's produce.
I was simply qualifying my claim that most people probably couldn't identify half the produce in the grocery store after it was questioned. That's it. No need to be so thin-skinned and defensive, but those things are all very common in produce sections. I was not talking about obscure things like gobo root and Australian finger limes. Those things are all commonly found at a normal Kroger, Wal-mart, Publix, or similar grocery store. I'm not sure how anyone shops in the produce section regularly for any significant period of time without seeing at least the majority of those things and knowing what they look like. The logical reason why someone would not know what most or all of those are would be that they don't shop in the produce section.
The reason why lack of food knowledge does matter should be blatantly obvious. Take a look around. The UK is nearly as fat as the USA. It's the fattest country in Europe, and lack of knowledge about food and cooking is a primary reason why. How are you supposed to cook something if you don't know how to select it, prepare it, or even what it looks like? There's a very strong correlation between food knowledge and the healthfulness of one's diet.
You accuse me of being a "snob" because I would like to see people become more educated about food. Because the trend of people becoming more and more out of touch with where their food comes is worrying to me (although I think that trend has recently started to reverse) and irresponsible. I guess apathy at seeing people needlessly ruin their lives with over-processed food is more noble.
Thankfully I do not ascribe to the anti-intellectual attitude that you hold towards basic knowledge about what people put into their bodies.
Last edited by EugeneOnegin; 04-27-2013 at 09:54 AM..
You can hardly fault people for not recognizing unpopular produce. You come across as a snob who just wants to show off his superior knowledge and belittle people for being unfamiliar with uncommon things, as though that somehow matters in life. Btw, I bolded the ones I am familiar but I don't think I'll be losing any sleep anytime soon over not knowing what the others are. Seriously, get over yourself. It's produce.
Unpopular? That's not really a accurate description. In point of fact, several of these items are very popular - in other cultures and in other parts of the world.
For example, star fruit is everywhere in parts of South Asia. The use it to adorn a cocktail, like we use an orange slice. Chayote is positively a staple in the diet in many states in Mexico, and Serrano peppers are frequently found in Thai, Mexican and Indian dishes. I now live in Raleigh, NC and swiss chard and mustard greens are on EVERY produce shelf when they are in season, but I rarely saw them when I lived in Phoenix, AZ. And in Phoenix, AZ I could easily find Anaheim chile's, while in Raleigh, they are nearly impossible to find.
In any event, your tone was unnecessarily harsh, IMHO. As you said, it's just produce.
Sure, there are a lot of folks that dont know, or care, how certain things are grown. Yet, at the same time, these same folks, can both explain, and grow themselves, all kinds of good stuff. I know HOW pineapple grows, but how to grow it? Uh uh. At any rate, we eat what we like, anx what we know tastes good. I LOVE pineapple, and use it for cooking a lot. Been known to just eat it, too. Along with a lot of other things. I take my cooking serious, not everyone does. A full belly is good enough. No shame, there. Just enjoy, folks. Life is good.
I think there is also certain lack of curiosity. People see stuff in the stores they never ate, and they have no desire to buy it and try how it taste. They rather stick to food they know, and never venture beyond that. Some have very boring and limited diet, but they are happy with it.
When I see a new produce item (or any kind of food), I will buy at least one piece, or very little of it, bring home, research what it is, try how it taste or cook it the way its recommended and then decide if I want to add it to my diet or not.
Some things taste great, some not so, or are too expensive but at least I know what they are.
I think that those people who never buy any "unknown" product also never try any "unknown" food in the restaurants. Maybe they are not foodies, or maybe, in general, they are just not curious about anything in life. I know plenty of those.
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I think I chose those words because I was irritated at the "most Americans" statement.
