Hey buddy, I got a hot tip....

First a bit of a rant.... I should know enough to take the trouble to go to a good market for my produce, instead of the local supermarket. However, I confess I do often go to the supermarket, and often that has been the closest one to Anchovy World Headquarters, operated by Dominion. Now I contend that sweet corn grown in Ontario is as good as corn grown anywhere (ya,ya,ya Candy, I know it takes a tanker truck full of oil to grow an acre of corn, but I'm weak and I enjoy the stuff in season), and right now, we are at the peak of the corn harvest. I mean, you can get primo fresh peaches and cream corn just about anywhere....except my local Dominion store, which sells a packaged up pastiche of the real thing. Many of you have already heard me rant about the same store insisting on packing mushrooms in plastic, and it seams that each time I go into that store, they've replaced fresh loose produce with the packaged stuff. "It's a corporate decision", they say. Well Dominion is making some bad corporate decisions. Perhaps if I say Dominion doesn't feature local produce enough times on this blog, it will resonate on the innernets and more customers will start demanding better product. Let's try:
Dominion packages corn and mushrooms, much to the dismay of customers.
Dominion's pre-packaged sweet corn is a sad pastiche of the real thing.
Dominion isn't interested in featuring Ontario produce.
Today, I came to my senses and drove over to a really fantastic produce market quite close to my house. Needless to say, they had a plentiful supply of sweet corn.

So there I was buying veggies at the fresh produce market, and the place was bustling. I was putting a handful of okra into a baggie, when I hear,
"excuse me but I'd like to tell you about buying okra. I don't think you know.
I looked up at this fellow smiling at the other side of the okra display.
"OK, how do you buy okra?".
"Bend the little tip at the end. If it breaks, buy it. If it doesn't break, don't buy it. If it doesn't break, it will be too stringy."
"Thanks. You learn something every day."
"I'm a country boy. I can tell you one other thing."
"What's that?"
"Okra's good for arthritis. Mark my words."
So I googled okra and arthritis and found my way to bellybytes, where I learned about the following benefits for okra:

* Strengthens bones
* Protects your heart
* Eases arthritis
* Controls blood pressure
* Enhances blood flow

Wow, the stuff is damn near a miracle drug.

this page features a number of okra recipes.