America's fruit bowl

Vegetarian Times, Sept, 2005 by Val Weaver

It's a conundrum, Regular readers of this column know that VT just moved from Virginia to California. At last we're in our airy new digs, three miles from the beach. The people are lovely, the weather is even better--and the freeways worse--than we'd heard. We've unpacked every last box and settled happily into what is basically the national fruit basket, nut bowl and salad bar.

Actually, we were hungry for California produce be[ore we arrived, anticipating life in the land of citrus orchards, strawberries, limitless avocadoes, and mangoes, apricots, pomegranates and pecans, melons and mushrooms, spinach and asparagus and grapes, grapes, grapes. The state also produces 99 percent of the nation's artichokes, Brussels sprouts, almonds, dates, figs, kiwis, nectarines, olives, pistachios, walnuts and, uh, dried plums (you know, prunes). Not to mention more lettuce than you can shake a salad spinner at.

Vegetarian heaven, right?

Nope. To our astonishment, we got much better produce in our ex-home states: Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, New York and Washington, DC. At first we thought the skimpy fruit bins and drab greens were just a fluke. But by now, we've shopped at every farmer's market within 20 miles, hit every mainstream and gourmet grocery, tried the fancy natural food stores and even sampled the Thai-Town greenmarket in LA. Only the avocadoes (and the wines!) are consistently cheap, abundant and delicious. The rest is hit or miss--a few good cherries here, some yummy apricots there, a pound of nice heirloom potatoes one day. I finally found a bunch of good grapes last week. They came from Mexico.

It must be shoemaker's-children syndrome: The best produce in the world may be grown here, but the natives don't get any. So who's chowing down on California's lush fruits and veggies? Japan, Canada and Europe, for starters: Roughly 14 percent of California's agricultural production is immediately shipped out of the country. Based on our first two months, the remaining 86 percent must go to the other 49 states ... leaving those here with slim pickings.

I know, complain, complain. Maybe this (and the occasional earthquake--yes, we've already had one) is the price of perpetually warm days and cotton-sweater nights. But then I looked at the upside: If more and more produce is being shipped out of California every year--and the stats are staggering--it's because people everywhere else are eating more and more fruits and vegetables. Good news for the planet. So, hey, all of you out there, enjoy what we're missing!

Meanwhile, I'm starting to shop in the frozen vegetable aisles.