The Heart Of The Matter

My parents have always eaten some (relatively) strange things. At least they were strange when you live in a rural small town in the middle of nowhere Ontario.

If for instance we would eat guacamole back in the day (before it became 'cool') I'm sure peoples reactions would have been (and probably still are for a lot of people 'round these parts) would be something along the lines of "..uhh..there's some sorta green in this here - uhhh you forgot to put the MEAT on my plate"

Or take for instance my other childhood favourite (until I realized what they were) of escargot. I'm sure people would (and..uhh..probably DO) say "SNAILS BELONG IN THAT THERE GARDEN - NOT IN MY MOUTH FOOL! GET ME A STEAK!"

And then there were artichokes.

A delicacy loved by many..and yet..one of my biggest childhood fears.

I have very distinct, vibrant memories of sitting on our pantry floor, staring at jars of artichokes.

Or of being asked to grab something in the pantry and my hand brushing a glass jar of them and shuddering in absolute horror.

Or watching with what I can only imagine is a look of pure disgust on my face as my mother opened a jar and ate one - whole. And then proceeded to proclaim just how AMAZING they were.

It wasn't until years later, an age I'm not going to disclose for fear of being shamed right out of the vegetable farming business, that I realized that vegetables can have hearts too.

Yeah they do.

And low and behold...eating hearts aren't actually gross - they're increderifically yum. Well. Hearts of the vegetable variety anyways.