I'm tired of buying produce that looks great only to get it home and find the bruises. Having grown up in California and lived in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys most of my life, I've been blessed with abundant and beautiful produce. That made moving to Northeast Alabama that much harder since most of the produce here comes from outside the state. I've gotten used to it being not as fresh as in California, but really?!Just a few months ago I bought a bag of Brussels Sprouts from Costco and, while they looked fine on the outside, when I cut into them I found tiny worms! Thinking it was just an isolated incident, I bought another bag, this time at another Costco, and found worms again! (Costco graciously took them back and refunded my money.) Interestingly enough, it was just after that time that I began finding shredded Brussels Sprouts in all the stores, perhaps the result of a worm infestation?
Last summer I discovered sprouted seeds inside many of the tomatoes I cut into but I didn't take pictures and hadn't discussed it with anyone. My sister in law, Sharon, who lives in California, just posted this picture on Facebook of the same thing. If you haven't experienced this yourself, it's kind of gruesome to see these nearly full grown sprouts inside the tomato. And it's even worse when a sprout pops out through the skin of the tomato with leaves forming.
Is anyone else experiencing these issues? Is this typical in the southern part of the country where 'fresh' produce is trucked in from out of state? Should produce that's 'just arrived by truck' be relabeled something other than 'fresh'? And are we going to start finding a new produce item, tomato sprouts, in the stores soon?
Final Thought: Ick!
