Sunday, April 5, 2009

Canned joy

I was going to add more to the logo, but I thought I'd keep this one simple and tasteful, rather than action-packed and tasteful, or awesomely cool and tasteful like some of the other logos have been.

I hate to revisit a topic that I so recently blogged about, but I had a pretty successful day foraging at Kroger's recently. So successful, that I'm pretty excited to share it with everyone. So it started out like any other shopping trip...I'd been out of food for about a week, and shear desperation forced me to drive the 1.3 minutes to Kroger's to restock on food. And, as is tradition, I went with no plan, or even a vague idea, of what I was going to buy. I got there, and the foraging commenced.

So there I was, out in the middle of Kroger, foraging for much needed sustenance. I had nothing but my wits to keep me alive and guide me through this expedition. It was long and grueling, fraught with danger, peril, and a hazard or two. But in the end, it was totally worth it.

As part of the traditional shopping trip, I headed to the canned fruit section where I'd normally grab a thing of pears, peaches, and apricots. I don't want you to get confused and think I buy this stuff for health reasons. I usually make sure to get the fruit soaked in heavy syrup, and just to make sure I get enough sugar intake, I drink like half the syrup after eating the fruit. Anyways, so there I was, looking at the cans of fruit, when suddenly a flash of light caught my eye from the top shelf. I glance up and immediately my eyes fell onto something new. Something exciting. Something you might even call exotic. New types of canned fruit that I had never seen before. Fruits that I would never have thought to can. As I looked at them, the can of purple plums seemed to tilt, as if nodding to me, and I thought I heard a voice in the wind whisper "Yes Mike, we are here for you. No we don't cost much more than normal fruit cans. Try us. Add us to your cart. We will never abandon you." Afterwards, lightning struck and two cans, glowing with power and sheer amazingness, fell into my cart. It was quite the experience.

A picture of my cabinet after the addition of the can of Red Tart Cherries (pitted), and the whole purple plums (not pitted it turns out). How do they fit so much goodness into a can? I suspect they take an entire fruit tree and put it in the can, and then remove the less good stuff like roots, bark, branches, trunk, etc.

I hadn't had a shopping trip experience like this since the one time I went to Meier's and found a can of mangos. My hobby used to be to try new types of fruit whenever I saw them at the store. As of now, my new hobby is to try new types of canned fruit. I'm excited to have my eyes opened to the wondrous and exotic world of strange fruits, stored in small, metal cans.

6 comments:

Jess said...

At least all those plum will keep you regular:)

Kathlen said...

Mike, you know that if you are starving you can always come to our house!!

Sheri said...

Hmmm . . . OK, I've missed reading your blogs for quite some time (what a shame!). I've just read a whole string of them and I've learned some new things about you that put my mind at ease as far as your future existence goes. You're eating (somewhat!), your life is frought with dangers, you know how to insult in a friendly manner, you enjoyed your visit with Kristi (possibly), and being a scientist is cool if you can speak in a monotone voice. Also, you and Arnold S. are "look a-likes". Does that sum it all up? Life in Michigan has been good for you, I guess. And aren't you glad you signed me up for gmail so I could write such long comments?!

Katherine said...

I bet you could make a mean fruit salad! Next mingle...you need to show your stuff!

thedannycrittershow said...

"I went with no plan, or even a vague idea, of what I was going to buy" Uhh...what ever happened to your diet consisting of rice, chicken, and peas, I thought those were on your permanent grocery list.

Kip said...

I'm with Lamar on this one. What happened to your 50 lb. bag of rice?

Man, I just caught up on your posts. Hilarious! It's like they warp me back into some late night comments at a cheetoh/cake-o party after hearing the buzzing of the lock on the door. Classic!