The difference between farming and gardening

You have to make sure it has no suggestion of insect life on it. You have to shield it from the slightest bruise or blemish. You have to make sure it appears to all intents and purposes exactly as a customer's mind's eye expects it to appear: perfectly round or oval or pear-shaped and iridescently red, green, yellow or purple.

It is, in short, a helluva job, and one customers rarely consider when they cavalierly pick up an avocado to squeeze or a melon to knock. They simply expect it to be perfect. Anything less won't do.

Until, that is, you grow your own food. Then your expectations shift. You no longer demand perfection. The mere fact that something grew is perfection enough. It is on every level a fundamental change in taste.