I’m not one to be ashamed of convenience, especially on a Monday. Lord knows, I take advantage of any modern marvel that makes my life a little easier. Forgot to pack my son Timbo’s lunch? Those prepackaged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a lifesaver. The boys want a cooked breakfast every day? We stock up on frozen boxes of pancakes or waffles – I say let them pop breakfast in the toaster if they want something hot to eat on a busy morning!
But recently I came across the kind of convenience I simply don’t understand – the pre-peeled orange.
Fruit is nature’s candy – it’s sweet, it’s good for you, and it even comes in its own, natural, biodegradable wrapper. Grab an orange or a banana, right out of the fruit bowl, and you’ve got a ready-to-go snack with no mess and no fuss.
So what’s up with all of the extra labor and packaging for a pre-peeled orange? Has our society really become that lazy? Is there such a thing as too much convenience? Or, do pre-peeled oranges serve an important need for those with arthritis or handicaps that prevent them from being able to peel their own oranges? The debate raged on Twitter (where this photo first appeared), NPR, and across the internet.
Although I understand the arguments, I would not buy pre-peeled oranges. As a die-hard clearance shopper, I couldn’t justify the extra price. Fruit is already expensive enough! Here are five more reasons why you won’t see pre-peeled, plastic-packed oranges in my shopping cart:
1. Pre-peeled oranges won’t stay fresh as long as an unpeeled orange.
2. The fruit bowl on my kitchen table would look pretty nasty filled with peeled oranges. And what’s more lovely in the kitchen than a bowl of bright, colorful fruit? There’s a reason that bowls of bright, colorful fruit have been the subject of so many paintings. I don’t think we’ll see too many paintings of plastic containers of peeled oranges….
3. Anyone who buys these isn’t much of a cook, either. You can brighten up a recipe with a bit of orange or lemon zest from the fruit’s peel. No fruit peels, no zest!
4. One of my favorite childhood memories was cutting a hole in the top of an icy cold orange and sucking out all of the juice. It hit the spot on a hot summer day! Can’t do that with a pre-peeled version….
5. You also can’t make those silly orange peel lip/teeth faces without the peel. Enough said.
Ultimately, I think pre-peeled oranges will be a short-lived fad – Whole Foods immediately pulled them from their shelves due to the Twitter controversy. After all, convenience is one thing, but packing an orange in plastic? How else can I say it? It’s both un-natural and un-a-peeling.
Happy Monday,
~Mary
