Tuesday, 24 August 2010 01:09
Written by Madelaine Bullwinkel

GROCERY STORY DIARY

What began as a standard run to my local grocery store turned into a major frustration last week. As I entered, everything appeared perfectly normal. There were the usual bright lights, clean floors, icy air conditioning. But when I started looking for items on my list, I discovered they were not where I expected to find them. The aisles where I could have shopped blindfolded for the past 25 years had been completely reshuffled.

Tom, the store manager, was very sympathetic. No, I wasn’t losing my mind. Why the change? Younger women customers had complained that the cleaning supplies were too close to the boxed foods across the aisle. I’m not making this up!

LOVE APPLES

The small golden tomatoes looked irresistibly delicious piled in open tubs at my local farmers’ market. If you had popped one in your mouth - as I did - you would have agreed they are super sweet. Like candy. And I’ve become totally enamored of them. Is this normal? I searched Google for a diagnosis.

Strange as it may seem, this small yellow tomato was considered toxic when it was first introduced to Europe in the 16^th century. Botanists assumed tomatoes were as as hazardous as the other nightshade plants they knew: belladonna and mandrake. Tomatoes were immediately consigned to decorative gardens, along with the other nightshade newcomer from South America, the potato. (That’s the official story.)

An Illinois Cheesemaker

Illinois farmers are risk takers. Every year they risk their livelihood when they plant in the spring. So why would a farmer want to gamble on a new business? That’s what I asked myself when I learned that the Ropp family who farm just outside Normal, were making cheese from a herd of Jersey cows.

The Ropp Jersey Cheese became the first cows milk cheese in Illinois when they began production in 2006. That takes courage when you consider that the competition from near-by Wisconsin has had a 150 year head start in the artisan cheese business. How and why did the Ropps decide to make cheese? George and I headed down-state into rural McClain Country to suburban investigate

dairyplant

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