About Me: Apple Cider Vinegar and Fruit

I was talking with a co-worker and I realised that my family changed a lot more than I thought previously whenever I wanted something and they could comply. For example: Apple Cider Vinegar

It wasn’t all cut and dried. I didn’t one day walk up to my mother and say “I want Apple Cider Vinegar”.  No, it all started with Girl Scouts, the source of many changes in my life.

We were doing some kind of badge work that involved ‘Salt, sweet, sour, etc’ My Leader brought in some interesting things, including a common saltine, a jar of home-pickled cauliflower, and a kiwi.  I am certain there were other things, but these are what I remember because I never had anything other than pickles that were ‘pickled’ up until that point and the kiwi was weird, another thing I hadn’t had until then.  I remember the room we were meeting in and I remember my surprise at finding that I liked the cauliflower that way.

I went home and told mom about these new things. That night I grabbed some cauliflower and poured vinegar all over it.  I wanted my brothers to taste this amazing thing. I never got the same flavor, but that didn’t matter. My brothers and I started doing this all the time.  We learned that we LOVED carrots dipped in vinegar.  When my mother realised this trend was NOT going away, she resigned herself to keeping Vinegar in the house. But White Vinegar was not good for people, she found this out and started us on Apple Cider Vinegar. We were skeptical, but she insisted we try it… and that was the beginning of an Apple Cider Vinegar obsession. We liked the other vinegars, but Apple Cider was the best. It didn’t just stay with us kids either. Eventually, my brothers and I started finding other ways to prepare various veggies with vinegar and served them, my father even went so far as to try making various coleslaws with these marinations. Some 15 years after our obsession with this condiment, my mother happened across a book about the health benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar.  She laughed, bought the book and we have it as proof that we really do like what is good for us.

About a week or two after the vinegar thing started, mom finally brought Kiwis home. We served it to my brothers and my father… and once again started a trend. We didn’t become obsessed with kiwi per se… what it started was a trend of “If this weird fruit tastes this good… what about THAT weird fruit…”  We started buying whatever weird fruits we ran across and did a family tasting of it. In various forms, twenty-some years later… this is still a trend in the family. One brother travels, he tastes weird fruits and veggies all the time. When he finds stuff he likes, he sends it our way. And one of the strangest things one can find out about our family… we can’t get enough brussel sprouts. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving, we practically go broke trying to get enough brussel sprouts on the table. This has been a case for decades. As children we fought if we didn’t get the same amount of brussel sprouts.

Well, that is just another weird fact. Until Next time!

Tags: food, girl scouts, memories