Whatever Happened to "Good" Produce?

Hi everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your Sunday!  John & I had hoped to get outside to do some planting but the rain poured down last night so that put an end to that   : (   Instead I decided to sort of rearrange our gathering room.  John helped.  I must say that I'm not all that thrilled with the results.  When we moved here we tried putting the furniture every which way & there only seemed to be one place to put the sofa.  Lately I've been feeling like I need a little variety in the house so what we did today is we took the TV & VCR off the coffee table (we had been using the coffee table as a media cabinet), moved the coffee table in front of the sofa, & then moved a buffet-type cabinet from the third & only other wall in the gathering room & put the TV & VCR on that against the wall opposite the sofa. Well, actually we put the TV on there.  The VCR wouldn't fit so John suggested we take an end table, clear it off, & put that alongside the buffet to hold the VCR.  As I said, I'm not all that thrilled with it but it's done & it will stay this way ... at least for now.  Guess I'll have to be on the search for a primitive looking media cabinet again.  Never could find one when we moved in.  Maybe I'll have better luck now   : )

As you know, I have started a weight loss program.  Of course I'm allowed various fruits & vegetables to eat & that's good ... I like fruits & vegetables   : )   I had to make a quick trip to the market this morning to pick up some celery & lettuce.  Here is where I ask the question "Whatever happened to 'good' produce?"  When I was growing up, I don't ever remember going to the market with my mother & her standing there picking up apple after apple after apple ... or lettuce head after lettuce head after lettuce head ... looking for a "good" one, but it seems I have to do this every time I go to the market!  I'll buy a bag of potatoes, start cutting them for dinner & usually find a few that are rotting inside.  When I was little, I used to grab a potato from the bin, ask my mother to pare it for me, & then sit with the raw potato & a salt shaker & eat the whole potato!  Never, ever worried about biting into a rotting area.  There never was one!  If mom wanted apples or oranges or celery or whatever, she'd go to the produce section of the market, grab whatever she needed, & head off to another aisle.  The other day I needed lettuce & I went to one of our local markets.  They had a huge display of lettuce but I walked out of the store without buying any.  Each head was turning brown.  I went to a different market this morning for my celery & lettuce.  They had only a few heads of lettuce, & after looking at each & every one I did find one that looks like it will be okay.  The celery was, as usual, in a plastic bag with advertising on it.  It's hard to tell what the celery looks like behind that advertising.  Again I looked through all they had & picked out 2 bunches that looked like they'd be okay.  When I made my lunch I got one of the bunches of celery & was dismayed to find it turning brown here & there.  After cutting & removing all the browning pieces I was left with just a few stalks from the middle of the bunch that looked "good."  However, when I started to eat it I found that it was very tough.  I wonder if it's the pesticides they're using now-a-days, or ???  I just don't get it.  I've had this same trouble in various states we've lived so I can't just attribute it to where we live now.  Doe anyone else have a problem finding "good" produce?

I think I will go find something else to do here in the house.  I might not be thrilled with how our gathering room looks right now but it also got a good cleaning along with the rearranging so that's a good thing   : )