Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Circle of Lard

The Prude has a tough life. 
This morning she is headed for her 3rd coffee date this WEEK.
Her grueling schedule doesn’t leave much time for a creative blog post.
But she wants to share some breaking news from Germany.
A retired 87 year old pharmacist there finally opened a can of lard he received in 1948.
Yup. The lard is 64 years old. It came from the US as part of its aid program to rebuild a ravaged Germany. The pig it came from has long ago disintegrated into the Circle of Life, but his lard remains.
And it is good.
Really. The lard is edible. And safe. As safe as 100% animal fat can be.
The retired pharmacist ate it on black bread. 
Of course this raises all kinds of questions of exactly how discriminating 87 year old taste buds can be, but Herr Feldmeier, the brave consumer, instead wants us to think twice about throwing away food items past their expiration date.
The Prude has always suspected those dates were just part of planned obsolescence, to keep the food industry going as we dump perfectly good animal fats and replace them with new animal fats that we also won’t be able to consume in time.
But this morning she is in a pensive mood, and chooses instead to reflect on that post- World War 2 American pig, who gave his life for some lard that would sit on a shelf in Germany for 64 years.
Today an American Prude honors that pig. 
The Circle of Life is complete.

3 comments:

Lori Lipsky said...

I'm so appreciate of the news updates I receive here and your clever commentaries.

Lard has many good uses, no doubt, but spread-on-bread-and-eaten-just-plain does not sound worthy of the pig we honor.

Of course, since Herr Feldmeier is 87 years old, he's earned the right to eat it in any manner he chooses.

Suef said...

The Circle Of Lard! Just saying that is going to keep me cheerful tomorrow since it is late enough today to carry over. Thanks!!

Joanie said...

Anything 64 yrs is old should not be eaten! It is either rancid or loaded with poisonous chemicals like Twinkies that live forever.