The Fruits of Desire

By Sandra Garson

A plum job, a peach of a person, the top banana … we humans love fruits as a symbol of all we desire. After all, fruits are the ultimate fast food: sweet, healthy and conveniently ripe for the taking. Just nab and nosh. Since they fulfill our wish for easy pickings, they’ve become the most traditional symbol for everything we want and pray for.

Sandra Garson is the author of Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking and How to Fix a Leek and Other Food From Your Farmers’ Market. As a longtime student of Tibetan Buddhism and well-known cook for Dharma centers from Maine to Mongolia, she became the first food historian to explore the Buddha’s influence on how the world now eats. This led to exploration of more religious beliefs about food.