Living in Southern California at a college while surrounded in the larger world by copycat pleasant-weather suburbia, while socially surrounded by extremely creative dreamers in my near vicinity, I was strangely inspired by the “plasticity” that permeated the places within walking distance.
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There were lots of chains and an oddly-convenient, warehouse-sized home supply store. Amused, I collected some interesting props from what I dubbed, “Retailland” along the way–among them a small, working shopping cart and various vegetables and consumer goods cast in plastic, like this life-size bright green plastic pepper (read: toys for kids who need to learn “how the world works,” you see).
Well, by its appearance, our bell pepper should taste perfectly ripe–slightly sweet, mildly peppery. But how how can you really know it is what it’s advertising by its appearance? At a farmer’s market, you can taste their wares and / or ask why things are how they are; and then you will start to understand how plant flavor is a function of its environment.
The plastic label is the only way to tell what kind of pepper it is.