The local supermarket, where someone "hand picks" the items in our order and someone else delivers it to our door, has claimed for three weeks now to be out of 2-pound bags of fresh carrots. Let me say right here I am grateful for this service. However. Instead of normal carrots, they've provided what they think passes for an acceptable substitute: a two-pound bag of baby carrots, peeled and cut into egg shapes. To me, these "eggs" look like they've been laid by a sinister reptile.
Now an 8-ounce bag of baby carrots is probably OK if you have school-age children. They're great for school lunches. But wait! At least around here, kids have not been eating in the school lunchroom for months. See, the trouble with a 2-pound bag of baby carrots for a couple of old folks is they start changing (and not for the better) after a day or two. I'm talking about the carrots. A whitish "skin" blooms on the surface and they start tasting weird. (It could be my sense of taste is off because of a medicine I take.). I was very unhappy when a second bag of baby carrots showed up the next week as a substitute for regular carrots.
We went to the family cabin in Knox County, OH two weeks ago. We carried all our food in coolers because of the corona virus. I thought maybe I'd cut up the carrots for vegetable soup, but once I got to the cabin, I got lazy. My husband gamely chomped away on them day by day, but I wasn't having it. Came the day to go home and too many carrots were still hanging around.
"Oh, just get rid of them! Toss them out for the rabbits."
"Haven't seen any rabbits around here for years."
"Well, maybe the chipmunks will like them. Or the raccoons."
Well, he didn't toss them all out because he knew Dilly Dog would immediately gobble all 20 of them up.
So here's what he did. He put them on the top of the Subaru. "They'll fall off on the way home," he said. We could hear them rolling around when we went up hills or around corners and we could see one or two fall off now and then.
It was very discouraging to drive through rural Ohio one week before Election Day. For every Biden/Harris sign, there were twenty Trump/Pence signs. It looked like 2016 all over again, back when the President was running against Hillary. We saw only one Confederate flag this year, so that was encouraging, but we also saw a sign that said "Pro God, Pro Life, Pro Gun", and that wasn't.
We drove in to Washington, PA, just over the line from West Virginia. A billboard invited us to "rent a machine gun" from Washington County Machine Guns. Well, that got our attention! When I got home, I looked the organization up on line and it turns out to belong to a company that provides individuals and groups with supervised access to the latest in military weaponry and vintage World War II weaponry on the company's shooting range. Check out their amazing inventory of guns and rocket launchers on line. If you want to fire one of these babies, you have to be at least 16 years old and accompanied by a parent or guardian if you are 18 or under.
We started our 9-hour trip with a dozen-plus carrots rolling around on the roof of the car. We reached Laurel, MD with two. They'd gotten stuck in wind deflector.
Man, those carrots are persistent! You need to rent a rocket launcher to get rid of them.
ReplyDeleteProbably could have gotten a rocket launcher in Washington,PA.
DeleteI had a bag of those carrots that you're talking about because that's all we have here too and by the way there are no canned carrots on any of the shelves. There must be a shortage of carrots but I don't understand why they have those little things but anyway they do the same thing here I can't eat them fast enough so they turn white and I throw them away so the last time I bought them I decided to cook half of them and keep them cooked in the refrigerator and to let the others for raw but the ones I cooked tasted so bad that I ended up throwing them in the trash so now I'm wondering just what the heck those carrots are
ReplyDeleteIf you find out, let me know. I also doubt that they are really carrots.
DeleteI have this funny picture in my mind of carrots being dispersed while travelling down a rural highway from the top of a Subaru!
ReplyDeleteExactly what happened, except that sometimes we were on the Interstate.
DeleteI've seen pictures of those gun ranges. They might be fun to take out some aggression. (See, not every commie pink liberal hates guns ;) The signage is much nicer around my neighborhood, but there were still the MAGAt signs about. Just not as many.
ReplyDeleteVintage WW II weapons are one thing, but some of the modern ones they list seem too dangerous for gun hobbyists to be messing around with.
DeleteWhile we too drive long distances, people of the US drive longer distances and without complaint.
ReplyDeletePro life and pro gun seems like an oxymoron to me.
I am surprised about the carrots. They normally keep such a long time. I like the way you dispersed them and laughed at two being caught in the wind deflector.
The trip is 385 miles one way. Nine to ten hours in the car depending on traffic.
DeleteTotally agree about the oxymoron. Also being pro-life and pro-capital punishment. Also being pro-life but disregarding the mothers and their rights, and they are the ones breathing. Also, being pro-life but turning a blind eye to all those infected with a potentially life threatening virus and all those who have died from Covid and their families. Cold and heartless.
DeleteLOL, I like your solution to getting rid of them. I would think they would ask if you want substitutions if they are out of what you ask for.
ReplyDeleteThis was their substitute. I've learned to check the "no substitutes" box.
DeleteThank you for the wonderful belly laugh. As Ohio, there's not much blue here. Just Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Shame, we have so many other cities that start with C.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in PA, and was pleasantly surprised.
DeleteVegetable soup sounds good.
ReplyDeleteStay Safe and Coffee is on
It would have been a good way to use them, but I was too lazy to bother.
DeleteThat is a very creative way to get rid of the carrots. I find the rent a machine gun very scary.
ReplyDeleteScared me too.
DeleteHave you tried roasting those carrots? Coat with a tablespoon of oil, garlic salt and ground thyme and bake at 425° for about 35 minutes. So good!
ReplyDeleteToo late now, but thanks. Your recipe sounds yummy.
DeleteI'm afraid that was a waste of carrots, dropping them off through that area. Republicans don't eat vegetables.
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised. Isn't candy corn a vegetable?
ReplyDeleteI get baby carrots every once in a while. The trick is to put them in a bowl of water in the refrigerator. They last a long time. And once they are cold and wet (they absorb water) they taste a lot better. They are actually sweet. Great for grabbing a few when you are browsing in the frig.
ReplyDeleteFor us, it we get the baby carrots (not desired) we put them in a container with water and they last and taste normal for a similar time to real carrots. The white coloration is simply due to them drying out and that does change the flavor negatively.
ReplyDeletePipeTobacco
We buy carrots at a local farm market, but they all will be closing soon, so we will be dependent on the supermarket once more. For some reason, our garden carrots failed this year. I'll have to take Mike's suggestion about storing baby carrots in a bowl in the fridge. We struggle with the turning white thing, too.
ReplyDelete