Teleidoscope

Sat, Sep 29, 2007

Vegetable Topology

Posted at 5:27 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

I sold squash at the market again today. Next week Nanette will be out of town, so I will probably stay home and play with my new computer.

At the end of the market day, I pack the unsold squash and pumpkins into logs and tubs. It can be a little tricky because the veggies must not be allowed to stab each other with their stems, and if they stick out above the topp of the lug at all, they will be damaged when the lugs are stacked.

And the squash are all sorts of lumpy shapes and sizes. Butternut squash, which are often very long with a lump at one end, are especially annoying to pack. Delicata are handy: they are rather like multicolored, slightly lumpy cucumbers, and fit nicely into various nooks and crannies.

I'm fairly good at filling the crates without wasting space. It's a little like a sort of three-dimensional Tetris game, but with time to fiddle with the packing. Today there were 10 filled crates and two partially filled tubs when I finished packing. (Tubs are slightly larger than crates, but not as strongly constructed. Squash are heavy.) This was more than I needed to pack on either of the past two Saturdays, but we were restocked with more squash halfway through the market.

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