Sort & Cull

No one really knows what genius invented the BLT sandwich. Maybe it was just an early effort by an extraordinary talent that went on to imagine new paradigms in theoretical physics or write a great novel or patent some life-saving drug.

I just hope he or she realized at the end of a brilliant career that everything was pretty much downhill after those initial experiments in the kitchen with bacon, lettuce and tomato.

As you might have guessed, I was finally allowed to gorge on a delicious BLT last night, a gastronomic experience so rapturous that I didn't bother wiping my juicy face until David Lettermen had finished his monologue.

I suppose the agonizing wait for the damn tomatoes to ripen though this odd summer worked to make the ultimate payload all the sweeter.

Between the summer's crazy too-wet, too-cool, too-hot swings, playing the classic BLT spread (we ain't talking mayonnaise here) proved extremely difficult. While the wholesale belly primal consistently notched new all-time highs through July and well into August (e.g., averaging $186.70 in the week ending August 9, a new record that stood 22% above 2012 and 24% atop the 3-year average), puny and listless tomato plants promised nothing more than small green balls of meatless seeds.

Once upon a time, such a bacon/tomato disconnect might have been ruinous for the summer pork market. But snarfing through last night's delicious dinner, I had to admit the obvious: This was not my grandfather's BLT.

I'm not taking about the poor crop of tomatoes. Nor am I referring to the pre-cooked, microwavable bacon (though this is closer to the point). For even if the love apples had been incredible red orbs of flavor and the bacon strips had just tumbled sizzling from the griddle, there's something about the old culinary marriage that has lost its mouth-watering, market-powering zing.

"We somehow just grew apart."

That's the sad excuse old couples often make on the way to the court house to file for divorce. "But we're still friends" is another standard lame offering.

As much as I still love the combo, the BLT (lettuce never really helps anything, does it?) is losing its universal magic. For the sake of the kids, bacon and tomatoes are hoping to keep the break-up affable.

But we all know who's to blame. We all know who's had roving marketing eyes, who's made new girlfriends up and down the food service industry like a lonesome sailor on shore leave.

In a world of bacon burgers, bacon coffee, bacon ice cream, bacon breakfast food, bacon gum, bacon candy, and bacon vodka, the BLT is suddenly just a small face in the crowd.

These may be the best of times for bacon-slicers. As for me, the taste of late summer will never be the same.

For more from John, see www.feelofthemarket.com

(AG)

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