A local friend of mine with whom I share several personal and professional interests, Inci Kaya, and I recently discussed my blog. She mentioned that she'd like to try her hand at blogging. I am happy to introduce the second in a series of guest articles penned by Inci!
Why New England is not all that great in the fall
BY INCI KAYA
Come the beloved fall foliage season of New England, its agricultural bounty atrophies rapidly, dwindling to 1) apples, 2) pears and 3) root vegetables. And all that cheering for beets you hear, yeah, it's actually crickets.
Just think how much more joyous (!) the task of packing school lunches for kids is about to become - especially if you have a kid or two who routinely return their lunchboxes untouched. What is the one thing that you try to put in those lunchboxes all the time? A piece of fruit, right? Well come fall guess which fruit I have to choose from? This kind of apple or that type of apple or umm the other freaking kind of apple.
Before Halloween rolls around I've already had it with the various varieties of apples that I can never remember to distinguish - (same with potatoes, by the way). Was it the Cortland that was good? No, maybe Empire... Or the Macintosh - oh wait, those absolutely sucked and should only be used as puréed baby food for some innocent one who doesn't know any different... are those Granny Smiths going to be overly tart? And Why are the Honeycrisp apples so expensive? Should I get organic, or will my kids survive eating the regular kind?
Of course my kids are asking why they can't have mangos and pineapples as part of school lunch instead. Ugh, do I have to go into explaining the carbon footprint those delightful fruits bring with them at the crack of 7:00 am in the morning...? Also, is my name Martha Stewart? Please don't even....
Here's the thing: my bathing suit has barely dried from summer and I'm just nowhere ready for fall. I will complain and deny the fondness New Englanders have for autumn viewing and apple picking until some kind New Englander out there takes mercy on me and points me to a delightful New England bounty I have been missing (roasted carrots and turnips don't count). Please tell me and help put an end to my autumnal complain fest as the leaves turn color (which means my husband will want to go rake, wasting many a precious weekend time better spent doing other things); and as shopkeepers are wringing their hands with the anticipation of the snowy-star-lit-street holiday season. (Halloween is so last July, puhlease).
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to fill a couple of lunch boxes with a child and mom accepted fruit or vegetable that does not come from tropical places, but is also not in the apple or root vegetable family.