Charlene Tomato was sick of trying to meet her mate at bars. So she took the plunge and bought a trial membership on producelove.com. She stumbled upon a pretty interesting profile. His screen name was cholesterolfreenutboy. He claimed to enjoy hiking, pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, preventing heart disease, and being high in magnesium. Also he volunteered with old fruit. Wow! Too good to be true? She e-mailed him to set up a date. He told her his name was Warren. “Warren Cashew. That’s a nice name!” she thought. She was so nervous the night of the date! But when she met him, it was like she had always known him. He looked exactly like his picture, which was a pleasant surprise. They talked about everything… religion (She was raised a fruit but really identified with the vegetables. He was agnostic.), travel, spices (they both like them – lots of them), being pureed. And well, they’ve been together ever since! Now they just have to figure out a story to tell people about how they met! They’ll never admit they met online!!

I recently attended one of those town hall meetings to hear what all the hubub was about. And boy, did I get an earful. People just cannot decide if zucchinis and pears can be in a soup together. What a debate!! What is your opinion? People were like “Pears can’t be in soup!! They are sweet fruits that should be eaten alone or in Waldorf Salads and should remain that way!” Others screamed “Isn’t zucchini season over?? You can’t mix fall and summer produce!!” But others said, “What a wonderful pairing – no pun intended!! The farmers are just finishing up their squash supplies and the pears are just coming in! The sweetness of the pears together with the light zucchini flavors would be wonderful. Why are you people so afraid of change in your soup!!” And I had to agree with the latter argument. Don’t fear the mixing of the end of summer produce with the newly arrived fall fruit! And pear in soup! Let’s do it! Let’s break all the rules! So that’s what we did. And we are glad we did. Because, gosh darn it, this is a good soup.