Eileen buys radishes. She practices what she preaches in our book “Prevention Does Work: A Guide to a Healthy Heart” Paul Goldfinger photo. 2013

Near Naples, Fla, is a large agricultural area called Immokalee. The word means “my home” in the Seminole language. The reason the Seminole language did not survive is that it had too many M’s and not enough U’s.   Many immigrants and migrant workers live there now, and that is where the produce originates that we buy at the Lakes Park Farmers’ Market in Fort Myers. The produce there is amazing, usually picked that morning.  Those big radishes that Eileen is clutching snap when you bite them and they have just a hint of spice.  She likes to go there because she is thinner than all of those women.  Note that she is carrying her environmentally friendly Wegman bag.

The Immokalee farmers  provide much of the fresh produce that is distributed across the US in winter, including 80% of the tomatoes.  Before the Seminoles were the Calusa Indians. They evidently ate a lot of seafood but they became extinct, possibly due to the failure of their high tech invention–the shell mound, the only extant sign of their existence.  Scientists don’t know what the shell mounds were for, but some think that they were the precursor of the iPad.  —-Paul Goldfinger

From the Fantasticks—Hugh Thomas:

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