The Un-Frugal Gourmet

         

"Shopping bores me, except when it comes to food. I feel about fruits and vegetables the way Carrie Bradshaw feels about shoes. An oyster mushroom the size of a tree stump? I must have it. Those exquisite French Breakfast radishes that taste so good with butter and salt? Two bunches, please. I can easily walk away from a farmers' market with far more food than I can use—no simple feat, since I have a family of five to feed. So it's really no surprise that I find myself, every few weeks, throwing away wilted, rotten things from the depths of my refrigerator. As I sheepishly march the shriveled parsnips and soupy bags of decomposed dill from the crisper to the trash can, I can hear a familiar voice chastising me—a voice that sounds remarkably like my mother's."

Excerpt from October 2005 personal essay from Celia Barbour in Organic Style

Illustration: Organic Style