joyful2beeblogs

I’ve been given two interesting ideas about foods, both from older gentlemen at the grocery store.

Being a friendly person who enjoys meeting others at the grocery store, I occasionally speak to others if their attention is on the same product, (usually in the vegetable department), and especially if I feel the other person is relaxed and not in a hurry.

So I was looking at the tomatoes, trying to find a nice, big, round, red, ripe tomato to slice for my sandwiches. But all I saw were the small, red, elongated Roma tomatoes.

An elderly gentleman walked up and was looking at the Roma tomatoes, too. As I was replacing one of the Roma tomatoes, I tried to find one large enough to use on sandwiches. I commented as I gave up on the little tomatoes, “I wanted a large tomato for slicing to use on my sandwiches. These are too small.”

A kind, elderly man smiled and said with an African or Caribbean accent, “You can cut these tomatoes like this for sandwiches.” And he showed me how to cut them lengthwise, making each slice a larger size than the round discs that I figured were inevitable with the little Romas. I was so stunned that I had never thought of it or been shown or taught how to do this before! Where had this idea been all my life?

I shared my experience with an older neighbor who was just as surprised as I was at the ingenuity of this “new”(?) way of cutting small tomatoes.

I was so impressed and grateful to this gentleman for teaching me three lessons:

• Experiment with new ways of doing things.
• Keep an open mind to new ideas.
• Don’t stay stuck in old ideas or methods.

I had never cut tomatoes any way but width wise or diced. Now I have a new way to cut any tomato.

The next interesting thing I was taught by another older gentleman was that the first number on a banana has a meaning. Usually the number starts with 3, 4, or 9. If the bananas’ stickers have 5 digits and a 9, that means the banana is organic. The stickers with 3 or 4 have four digits. The 3 and the 4 signify that the bananas were traditionally grown.

It is a good thing to try new ways of doing things and to learn something new that you didn’t know.

Just out of curiosity: did you already know this? I wonder how many others didn’t know this.