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R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
a snack. “But in a sphere,” she continued, “the volume becomes
eight times larger.”
This lesson was not lost on the young Giuseppe, and at the
market the next Saturday, he peered at a tray of strawberries,
some as large as a tomato, and at tomatoes the size of a cherry,
and an idea began to form. “If I can produce larger and larger
fruits and vegetables, it will be much quicker to peel them, since
the volume grows much faster than the surface to be peeled.
And it is not only a question of time, but also of economy, since
by peeling less, there will be less wastage.”
So in his spare time, Giuseppe began to carry out experiments
in a little-used greenhouse at the rear of the farm. He was
unsuccessful however, and eventually gave up. It was not until
years later, when he finally inherited the farm, and was walking
its perimeter, that he saw the old greenhouse and recalled his
investigations. One morning, while he was spreading a thick
layer of strawberry jam on his breakfast cornetto, Giuseppe let
his mind drift back to those earlier experiments. He quaffed his
macchiato in one gulp and reached for another two cornetti,
and that was the precise moment that the solution came to him.
He couldn’t wait to try out this new technique to control plant
growth hormones.
This time Giuseppe was successful. He refused to divulge his
secret to other growers, and slowly his products became sought
after, and soon he could hardly keep up with demand. All
his fruit and vegetables were grown to fixed weights, so that
they could be sold without the need to weigh them, and with
uniformly high quality. In addition, they were 100% “organic”,
and not in the least genetically modified.
One morning a good friend of his, the cook of a local Greek
restaurant, came to buy two 5 kg eggplants for preparing his
renowned moussakas. He knew that their weight was reliable.
Nevertheless, he insisted on their being weighed, so he could
express his wonder, and repeat his favourite joke: “Next you’ll
have to grow them cubic to better suit the shape of my baking
pans And also grow them some legs, so they can run down
the hill to my restaurant, saving my arthritic knees.” Giuseppe
laughed at the old gag, and put the eggplants on his scales. To
his great surprise, he found that they weighed 5.1 kg each, 100 g
above their nominal weight.
R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
a snack. “But in a sphere,” she continued, “the volume becomes
eight times larger.”
This lesson was not lost on the young Giuseppe, and at the
market the next Saturday, he peered at a tray of strawberries,
some as large as a tomato, and at tomatoes the size of a cherry,
and an idea began to form. “If I can produce larger and larger
fruits and vegetables, it will be much quicker to peel them, since
the volume grows much faster than the surface to be peeled.
And it is not only a question of time, but also of economy, since
by peeling less, there will be less wastage.”
So in his spare time, Giuseppe began to carry out experiments
in a little-used greenhouse at the rear of the farm. He was
unsuccessful however, and eventually gave up. It was not until
years later, when he finally inherited the farm, and was walking
its perimeter, that he saw the old greenhouse and recalled his
investigations. One morning, while he was spreading a thick
layer of strawberry jam on his breakfast cornetto, Giuseppe let
his mind drift back to those earlier experiments. He quaffed his
macchiato in one gulp and reached for another two cornetti,
and that was the precise moment that the solution came to him.
He couldn’t wait to try out this new technique to control plant
growth hormones.
This time Giuseppe was successful. He refused to divulge his
secret to other growers, and slowly his products became sought
after, and soon he could hardly keep up with demand. All
his fruit and vegetables were grown to fixed weights, so that
they could be sold without the need to weigh them, and with
uniformly high quality. In addition, they were 100% “organic”,
and not in the least genetically modified.
One morning a good friend of his, the cook of a local Greek
restaurant, came to buy two 5 kg eggplants for preparing his
renowned moussakas. He knew that their weight was reliable.
Nevertheless, he insisted on their being weighed, so he could
express his wonder, and repeat his favourite joke: “Next you’ll
have to grow them cubic to better suit the shape of my baking
pans And also grow them some legs, so they can run down
the hill to my restaurant, saving my arthritic knees.” Giuseppe
laughed at the old gag, and put the eggplants on his scales. To
his great surprise, he found that they weighed 5.1 kg each, 100 g
above their nominal weight.
