We eat more vegetables than normal people. We've almost completely cut out starches from our diet over the past year, substituting an extra portion of vegetables in each meal. We're not totally successful at it, because sometimes you can't control what other people make for you, or the situation you find yourself in at restaurants. (When your boss has you down for sushi for a business lunch, you have sushi, which means rice. We don't have an excuse for the burgers we grab every now and then.) Thanks to The Joy Of Cooking we have been slowly and methodically working our way through the vegetable aisle. Perhaps it's mundane to you, but discovering spaghetti squash, and parsnips, and bok choy, and napa cabbage--well, it's changed our lives. So we really don't care--well, OK, we do care--but this whole spinach fiasco is not going to put us off fresh veggies. It is awful, and regrettable, but not entirely unavoidable, as some of the breathless (and contradictory) press would like you to think. For some cogent, rational, and informed comments on this whole thing, may we point you in the direction of Chez Pim? She has a farmer from the region, Andy Griffin, guest blogging, and addressing some myths and irrational fears surrounding this whole hoo-hah.

There's more "get your head out of your own personal e. coli factory" type press over at I Heart Farms, who quotes an article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel on the whole manufactured crisis. (Pun very much intended.) But it got us thinking about the ways grocery stores and organic foods are changing the way everybody approaches food, in ways good and bad. Something in Season examines the relationship between food and money, and tries to get a handle on how much food is really worth to us as a society. Then Gordonzola goes and hammers the point home with a funny little travlogue of his trip to get licensed for food prep by the state of California.

But enough of all this seriousness! To badly misquote Emma Goldman, "If I can't have dessert, I don't want to be a part of your revolution!"

Pic is from Something in Season, and is figs poached in red wine with young vinegar. Looks yummy!