about those fruits in your fridge...

hey what's up, everyone? it's quiet in the blogosphere tonight--not just here, but on my google-reader too. :-( it's another late night of statistics homework (surprise!) and knee-deep piles of other stuff, as the semester starts to finish up. there are many things i've been thinking about writing about here, but i'm not feeling especially talkative. and while i've been doing a lot of hardcore thinking, there's no time for reflection. instead, tonight i will share some information with you. first, i'll share a piece of practical information with you, and then i'll share some useful information for anyone who likes gardening, strawberries, or both!

first: think about the last time you had a healthy snack. (now, if you never eat healthy snacks, you don't have to tell me that. i've got a healthy appreciation for chocolate too--or chips for that matter! and that's beside the point. the bottom line is that i don't care, and i also won't judge you)! :-)

anyway...where was i? oh, right, yes. well, if/when you pulled a fruit out of the fridge--say, an apple or a peach--you probably took it out, turned on the sink and washed it, and pulled off that little annoying PLU (Price Look Up) sticker affixed to it. then you threw away the sticker without giving it much thought. but that sticker has some useful information you might want to know about (other than the price you paid at the grocery store check-out):

1) a FOUR-DIGIT number indicates that a fruit or vegetable was conventionally grown. this # typically falls between 3000 and 4999.
2) a FIVE-DIGIT number beginning with a "9" means the that fruit or vegetable is organic.
3) a FIVE-DIGIT number beginning with an "8" means the fruit or vegetable is genetically modified.

second, speaking of fruits, let's talk about strawberries: i just bought a strawberry plant at the farmer's market this past weekend. yay! i want to give strawberries another try this year. i tried growing them at my parents' house a couple of years ago, but the problem (or as i learned, it was NOT a problem), was that the plant thrived as a very healthy green plant, but never bore any fruit! i later learned that strawberry plants often don't yield fruits in their first year. but they're perennials, and if you keep them around, they typically begin bearing fruit in the 2nd year. the vendor who sold me my strawberry plant on saturday said that all of his plants were started last year, and should bring me some red sweet delights right around june. i'm ready and waiting! i've always wanted to grow my own berries, so hopefully it works. apparently, there are two varieties of strawberry plants: ones that give you a crop of fruit in early summer, and ones that produce berries in several waves throughout the summer. the advice i was given, and which i now pass on to you, is to buy both kinds of plants, and you'll be set for the whole summer. that's all i've got for you tonight!