“What Kind of Carrots Are These?”

The other day I went to the grocery store to do some much needed shopping. Lately I’ve been adventurous in the produce arena, trying stuff I’ve never had before. They had brisket on sale (and luckily they cut it into smaller, pot-roast style cuts) so I decided to make a crock pot roast.

In addition to the usual mirepoix mix of carrots, onions, and celery, I decided to try parsnips. Parsnips, if you’re not familiar with them, look a lot like an oversized albino carrot. Apparently they’re a close cousin to the carrot and is often confused with the plant used for making hemlock, but they’re more starchy like a potato.

So I was at the checkout counter and the cashier turns to his coworker, parsnips in hand, and asks, “What kind of carrots are these?”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not celebrating his lack of knowledge on an obscure root vegetable. I didn’t even know it WAS a parsnip until I looked at the sign above it. But that just got me thinking: how much do kids know and understand about food nutrition? And I mean real food, not anything that comes in a box or in a paper sack.

My parents were immigrants so I’m sure their knowledge of the local food was limited when the first arrived. And I know there are fruits and vegetables in the produce section I have yet to try, let alone know how to prepare, all because we never ate them as kids (parsnips being one of them). No wonder we’re getting larger and larger as a nation, living out of drive-thrus and pizza boxes. Food needs to be wholesome again I think. I long for that.