We have refrigerators these days, so there's no
reason to eat preserved foods except that they
taste good. Wait...do they taste good? I don't
think so.

Well, maybe they're a little tasty. But those
floating things, embalmed in syrup, are a lot
less appealing than their fresh counterparts.
Preserved foods are out of fashion. You don't
find them in restaurants.

They sit at the bottom of the grocery shelf in
the loneliest aisle. They gather dust. Glass
jars with inert contents, like artifacts in a
museum case.

Long ago, you would put fruits and vegetables
into jars during summer so that you could have
something to eat during winter. What is the
moral of preserved foods? Prudence and
forethought.

These morals don't belong in the modern food
economy. Foods are either sinful or healthy,
like cheesecake or cottage cheese. A peach in
a jar is neither one: it is too dull to be a
treat, and too old to be virtuous.

Index