A friend has a plot in a local community garden. Tonight I was enjoying some of the lettuce she gave me. Before eating it I took it out of the fridge, where it's been for a day, washed it by hand, wiped off the dirt, put it in a salad spinner, shook it out. Then I added some carrots to it and a little oil and vinegar. Delicious, I thought.

Seems like someone else thought it was delicious, too. As Patrick (who was in the room via vid chat, along with Kazue, who said: the worm has been through a lot! A shower, a hurricane, and now sun!) pointed out later in our conversation, it's a good sign that there's a worm in my salad. A Twinkie will never have a worm in it. Twinkies never die because, like Cool Whip, even microbes are unwilling to munch on it.

What's funny about finding a worm in my dinner is it freaked me out! Patrick said, "you screamed like a girl!" It has been a long time since I saw something move in my salad. The more I reflect on it, the more I hope it happens again. I like that I'm eating food so fresh that worms are into it.

No, I take that back. I don't want to find things moving in my salad. I would prefer to put them in my garden before they make it onto my plate. But, you get my point.

So, here's the question. Would you have eaten the rest of the salad? And, another question, what percentage of the food you eat would be desirable to a plump, green inch worm? 

(To any of you food folks out there wondering what the non-worm items are in this pic: broccoli rabe, zucchini, shichimi togarashi spice, boiled egg whites.)