Wednesday, October 06, 2010

What Three Things Look Like Before They Get To The Store

As we have been driving down the country roads just south of Yosemite, we have passed several orchards interspersed in the farmland. Most of the trees were not ones that we could identify, so we decided to find out what was being grown.

1) We stopped at this grove first:





After scraping off the pinkish skin from one globe that had fallen on the ground, we discovered a tan pistachio shell hiding inside, with the greenish nut inside it! Almost like a Mother Nature's Russian nesting doll!

2) Our next stop was this grove:





These look like hard, waxy green olives on the tree. We could break apart the outer skin, but didn't find anything recognizable inside.

Since our reverse engineering failed, we had to ask at a fruit and veggie stand. Turns out these are un-ripe almonds!

3) After a stop at the local Trader Joe's, we came away with brussel sprouts in all their "birthday suit" glory. This is only the second time I have seen them on the stalk -- the first was a long, long time ago -- 30 years or so -- when I was visiting my friend, Ken, in San Jose.



The sprouts on the stalk were wonderfully fresh, some of the best I have ever had. There are a surprisingly large amount on the stalk -- we have now had them for two meals, and there are still some left. Mon petite chou!

2 comments:

Sharon Del Rosario said...

That's interesting how you found out what one tree was bearing by examination, but had to ask about the other one. I guess Mother Nature likes to keep us guessing. Love the Brussel sprout stalk. We saw them in the field when we were in Watsonville last year.

Rosie said...

Last year 4 brussel sprout plants produced LOT of produce in my garden. I was also amazed on how the plant grew. Almost looked like little palm trees with the little sprouts all around the stalk like you are showing. Pretty cool.