I'm living in a desert. Right on the ocean, but a desert landscape nonetheless. A lot like San Diego, really. The same plants thrive around here.
Which means as you walk down streets, you can see citrus trees loaded with fruit, awaiting ripeness. You can imagine how fresh the juices are around here.
Most juices are readily available in the grocery store. Instead of cold, frozen or chilled, they are sold 'brick packed'. All milk is sold that way too. Pretty convenient.
But imagine my surprise when I scanned the shelves for cranberry juice... and couldn't find it. Something that is readily available in US markets is conspicuously absent here.
For a while, I scratched my head and wondered why. Then I started thinking about it. Cranberries are grown in the upper East coast of the US. Massachusetts, Maine, places like that. Cold, northern climes. And they are harvested in bogs. By flooding the fields with water to displace the berries, which float.
As I look across this desert landscape, it dawns on me that there are going to be no fruits or vegetables that are so dependent on large quantities of water. No rice paddies. No cranberry bogs. It doesn't matter whether or not the elevation or latitude make growing possible. There isn't a supply of water to make this possible.
I have been thinking about possible replacements. Is there a powdered version of Cranberry juice? I don't think I've seen any. Crystal Light makes a 'cranberry-esque' product, but it's not something worthy of a Cape Code. And that is my final goal. I want my frosty adult beverage of choice.
And ice cubes. I want ice cubes.
--Sandee Wagner
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4 comments:
What is brick-packed?
Marilyn,
There may be another term for it, I could be wrong. But 'brick packed' is a way to package milk and other perishables gives it an extended shelf life and it doesn't require refrigeration until opened. Here's a picture of one http://schools-wikipedia.org/images/862/86287.jpg
(scroll down to the bottom of the page and the picture is on the right.) When you see it, you'll understand the reference to bricks. spw
I had the same question. Does that mean it is pasteurized? And you don't have any fresh milk at all?
Emmanuelle,
It's pasteurized and high quality, just not kept in chilled storage at the stores. It does have a 'sell by' date if you speak and read Arabic. Like anything else, you can watch the stockers and reach back to get the more recent stuff shelved to the back. They move the older stuff front, just like in the US.
I'm sure it's fresh. It's a local commercial dairy and I see the ads on TV and billboards. They have all the things, milk, lite milk and butter.
I need to find out what passes for sour cream and cream cheese though... I'm not doing any cooking so that has not been an issue yet. spw
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