How to Peel a Banana

One thing that has come up in recent comments is that everybody has different dietary preferences and different ways of eating the same foods. Bow and I would never dream of imposing our choices on anybody else, and our general policy is to live and let live. We each have our own way of enjoying the feast before us.

So, when you read a title like "how to peel a banana", I'm not really suggesting that anybody else should do it the way Bow does. What I mean is more like "how we peel a banana" -- or in this case, how Bow does it. I don't do it this way at all.

The temptation to be prescriptive, though, is always there and I have to watch myself to keep from sounding bossy. The first time I saw Bow try to peel a banana, I said: "Bow, no! We don't do it that way! Don't put the peel in your mouth!" At the time I was the mother of two very small children. Bow was the youngest of the two, and he was still in diapers and baby clothes and sitting in a high chair. Up till then, I had always peeled his bananas for him.

But then somebody said to me: "That's how chimpanzees peel bananas."

"Oh." I felt very foolish. After that, I stopped trying to tell Bow how to peel a banana.

We tend to try to socialize our kids to want to do things just the way we do. But there are times when we have to let go. There are times when we must concede that though this is not how we do it, our children have their own way, which is just as good, if not better!

So, in the spirit of live and let live, here is how Bow eats a banana:

He opens it in the middle, starts eating close to the stem and finishes at the other end. It's different from the way I do it, but I'm told it's not at all unusual. Is there a reason for this method? If there is, I don't know it.

But it just goes to show that there is more than one right way to do something.

Does Bow always eat his bananas this way? Usually, but not always. Sometimes I make fried bananas for both my kids. Bow loves them. He calls them "hot bananas" and eats them with a spoon. Bow is very flexible. He doesn't insist that it has to be his way all the time!

Savoring the Moment

As I mentioned today in response to a comment, the one thing Bow is not so good at is saving some for later. He does, however, excel at savoring the moment.

Take this morning's grapes, for instance.

Bow was presented with a lovely bunch of grapes, and he was happy.

He took great delight in his grapes.

Sometimes, he briefly paused to contemplate the treasure that he held in his hands.

But it was too good to just look at. It had to be sampled and savored.

Sadly, with every bite he took, the number of remaining grapes diminished.

Why, oh, why can't we eat our grapes and have them, too?

In the end, there was nothing left. But Bow continued to savor the memories.

In life, there are those who truly know how to enjoy the moment, like Bow. And there are others, like me, who make sure that there are also grapes left over for tomorrow.

We each play our part.

Plain Avocado

At my local, local store, everybody knows that a big portion of the fruit I buy will be consumed by Bow. They even sometimes ask how Bow liked his bananas or his apples last week. But I shop for fruit in other stores where people do not know me as well, and there are people in these stores who have some other conjectures about why I buy so much fruit.

One cashier asked me recently whether I have gone vegetarian and whether I have taken to drinking juice exclusively. I was surprised by this question, because in addition to the bags of apples and pears I was getting, I was also buying pork chops. How could she think I was vegetarian? And if you saw that someone was buying large quantities of fruit, why would you assume they would make it all into juice?

It turns out that there are people who are on some kind of health kick where they drink fruit juices exclusively, and that is probably why she thought that.

At my house, we are not on a health kick. We just eat healthy. And most of the time, we eat things as close to their natural form as possible. Take avocado. I don't turn it into guacamole. I wait till it is soft and ripe. Then I slice it in two and eat with a spoon. In Bow's case, he dispenses with the spoon. He just doesn't need it!

Is Bow a vegetarian? Hardly. He eats meat, too. But he does enjoy his fruits and vegetables in their natural form. You don't have to be a vegetarian  or on a health kick, to eat healthy. You can just enjoy the feast before you!

How to Eat a Promegranate

I love pomegranates. Eating them, however, can be a little tricky. The edible part is the pips, which are like ruby red little jewels. But they are embedded in a white pulp, like Christmas ornaments in bubble wrap.

The question is: how to harvest those pips and free them from the bubble wrap? Some people do not separate the eating from the harvesting process, but that can be really messy. If you are eating the pomegranate out-of-doors, perhaps sitting under a pomegranate tree, then it does not matter that the bright red pomegranate juice is spurting out everywhere.

My policy is to halve and then quarter the pomegranate, to separate the seeds out on a surface that can easily be cleaned afterwards, and to divide the pips into bowls.

Yesterday, for lunch, the pomegranate pips were divided into  two bowls, one for me and one for Bow.

Oh, yes, and we eat the pips with spoons. Although in Bow's case, that's only true for a majority of the pips. He has his own special method of dealing with pips that are playing hard-to-get and with the pips that got away!

Everybody's got their own way of eating pomegranate. Whatever way you choose is right, if it works for you. In the end, it's really the pomegranate juice that is the most important part.

Foggy Morning

This morning was very foggy. I got excited at the sight of it, and I wanted to go for a long walk with Teyman.

Teyman, however, was not nearly as impressed by the fog as I was. It was cold out, and she wanted to do her business and come back in immediately after.

Teyman was so insistent that I had to let her back in, and I went for a little walk by myself.

Then I went and gave Bow his breakfast. We were out of grapes, so he had two apples, but they were very nice: Jonathan apples grown right here in Missouri, so they come ready to eat, with no pesky sticker to take off and tear the skin. These apples were as round and red and juicy as the ones in a fairy tale.

I tried to get Bow to go outside into the outer pens to look at the fog, but he did not agree. He is not impressed by fog.

There's something about low visibility that creates a longing in me for the unknown. But the other members of my household are not impressed. To them, a foggy morning is just like any other morning. And the teenager among us did not wake until the fog had cleared!

More About the Salad

The truth is: I was planning to write more about the salad yesterday, but I got distracted by the butterflies! Sometimes the feast for the eyes is so overwhelming that we forget about food. But you might have been asking yourself: did Bow enjoy his salad? How did he eat it? Which morsels did he pick out to eat first?

The reason I like this kind of salad better than the traditional kind is that you get to see what you're eating, and even though the different vegetables are all sitting there together in the bowl, and they're all going to be together in your belly, you still get to experience each one individually, with its own texture, flavor and smell.

Bow seems to like that, too. Even though he ate the entire salad, he was very picky as he chose one morsel at a time to put in his mouth.

You can see the selection process in all its stunning detail in the following video:

You can actually imagine the different textures as you watch this video, because each vegetable makes a  different sound when Bow eats it. The radishes are crunchy, the scallions are secretive and whispery, and the tomatoes are full of juice. And the peas in the pod make two sounds, one for the pod and the other for the peas!

Life is in the details. Enjoying the diversity of experiences offered to us is what makes the meal before us a feast.

The Feast Outside

For lunch today I prepared an alternative salad for me and Bow. It consisted of cherry tomatoes, sliced green onions (scallions to some), sliced radishes, and English peas in the pod. I prefer this kind of salad to the kind that is mostly lettuce and coleslaw.

After lunch, I went for a walk with Teyman.  We had Bow's blessing, with the understanding that I would take pictures and get video footage, so he could see what we saw when we were out.

We saw leaves falling from the trees, heard the birds singing, and even observed butterflies enjoying a feast of their own on the wild flowers that pass for weeds by our shot-up rural mailbox.

Teyman allowed me to watch the butterflies for a long time. When we got back, Bow seemed a little impatient. But he calmed down and watched all the footage with me.