Choose Strong
For Tim.
At 74, Mr. Zhao showed no sign of slowing down. He ate lots of refined
carbs, though, and put on fat. Over the summer, however, he lost 10
pounds laboring on his farm. He called my one-meal-a-day routine
"hunger-therapy" and credited it with the weight-loss. "I don't feel
hungry or thirsty when I work in the field" he enthused.
And there lies the problem. The Zhao's stay in one room in the house and
dad takes the other. Life in town and the job of caring for one old guy
are not physically demanding (not yet I guess) and there is plenty of
time to kill. Without something engaging, boredom is cured only by
eating and passive entertainment from TV or Web. I myself have found it
challenging doing nothing all day.
Early Monday morning, we set off on his electric bike, rode about 10min,
and arrived at a plot, less than an acre, where he cultivated peanuts.
About two feet tall with dark green oval leaves, the sturdy crop grew in
clusters neatly arrayed like matrices. "100% organic. No pesticides
whatsoever" Mr. Zhao claimed proudly. His definition of organic might
not be approved by the US FDA but I felt no need to find out the details.
My friend started pulling the plants out of the sandy soil and I picking
the pods off the roots of them. Some pods were torn off and left in the
ground, and we combed the soil with a three-claw garden rake to glean.
Picking could be tricky. Worms invaded about 10 percent of the pods but
most could be identified by dark holes. Some good-looking ones, however,
turned out to be only mud-stuffed shells, the work of genius worms, no
doubt. For these pods, another culling would be necessary.
The job was not hard if a bit boring. It would feel different if we had to
do it for say more than two hours. But time flew as we chatted about
this and that. Under half an hour, we collected two grocery-bags and
headed home. After the second pass to weed out a few bad pods, Mr. Zhao
washed twice and boiled them in a big wok. He added nothing but salt and
in 15min they were done. We let the peanuts soak in the briny water for
a while for more osmosis before eating. Tender, juicy, salty, and sweet,
they were irresistable and I couldn't stop shelling and munching until full.
Two feasts a day, I lived on the legume (and fruits) for two days, had
great energy and didn't gain weight. If we considered farming and
harvesting exercises necessary for the body, our nutritious food cost
almost nothing. At two over-fed, unhealthy-looking homo sapiens
gravely discussing on TV vital international trades and the domestic
pork shortage, I blurted out: "Who need all these?!"
