I have a pet hamburger.

Some people have plants or Chia pets where they work, but I keep a hamburger in my desk.

Once I had a marshmallow Peep that was at least five years old once, but I took it to a gift exchange. I still sort of regret taking that yellow bunny Peep to that white elephant exchange.

On July 2, when I was buying the new Angus burgers from McDonald's to test, I purchased a plain hamburger and stuck it in my desk to see what would happen.

The answer is not much. That was scary at first, but Mary Ann Lienhart-Cross said it's not surprising.

I thought the hamburger may rot or mold, but it didn't.

The bun, which had been toasted, simply dried out; one half even broke.

The burger shriveled to the size of an air hockey puck and the color of an ice hockey puck.

But it doesn't have a speck of mold.

I got the idea from seeing a similar burger at an agriculture group meeting I was covering several years ago and decided to try my own experiment.

I bought the burger, unwrapped it and forgot about it.

It wasn't until I was making hundreds of hamburgers for the Goshen Noon Kiwanis three weeks later that I remembered I had that in my desk.

It had dried and shriveled and continues to do so.

I chalked it up to preservatives and haven't had a fast food hamburger since late July.

But Lienhart-Cross said that while the bun likely has a dose of preservatives, the burger probably doesn't. After cooking, it simply turned into dried beef, or beef jerky.

The bun probably has ascorbic acid, better known as vitamin C, as a preservative. That worries her less in a hamburger bun than a pie not made from scratch that sits at room temperature in a grocery store until it's sold.

"We say it needs to be refrigerated," she said of a pie with eggs, cream or milk. "How much ascorbic acid is in there so they can set it at room temperature?" Lemon juice gets used in canning, and Fruit Fresh is essentially ascorbic acid for the home cook.

Mold needs moisture, a place to grow and a lack of sunlight, she said. The hamburger wasn't thick enough to have much moisture, so it just dried. "When something dries out, it prevents mold from growing," she said.

Lienhart-Cross told me, "You got bread crumbs and dried beef."

So what?

It simply makes me think about what I'm eating.

As I take a bite, I'm most concerned with how something tastes. But too many bites of something that tastes good, with no nutritional value, will give me less time to take bites. Fast food doesn't automatically mean we'll die faster, but it could.

Fast food has the quick and easy reputation, though it's possible to get a meal at Bill's Bar-B-Que or Baker's Nook in the same amount or less time. Apples and carrots are incredibly convenient and easy too.

Clearly, they aren't Twinkies and Hostess CupCakes, which are too easy to grab. The cakes will keep for years without molding, as Lienhart-Cross says.

The food industry makes it easy to get food quick without thinking much about it. Years ago, philosopher/poet/farmer Wendell Berry wrote that the industry would chew your food for you if they could find a way to profit from doing so.

I'll spend most of a morning, amid my other work, thinking about lunch. Not everyone can afford to do that or even wants to. Lienhart-Cross said interest is growing in what and how we eat, but the majority still don't care. "I think we have a whole piece of the population who's concerned and 90 percent of them who want food easy," she said.

That's why I keep a hamburger in my desk. To remind me to think about what I'm eating rather than settling for what's easiest.

I have a pet hamburger. Maybe it needs a name.

QUICK BITES

* McCarthy's on the RiverWalk opened just over a week ago at NIBCO Parkway and Elkhart Avenue, Elkhart. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner weekdays and brunch Sundays. (Editor's note - Co-owner Tom Borger Sr. said food is generally served from 11 a.m. until at least 9 p.m. and as late as 11 p.m. This corrects what was in the original version of this story.)

The interior is classy and the menu ranges from sandwiches and salads to dinners and includes a lot of Irish options. To see the original column on eTruth.com announcing the restaurant, go to http://bit.ly/1iJ8CV.

* The Vine's South Bend location is having a Think Pink event to raise money for breast cancer patients. The wine tasting with appetizers and silent auction will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $20 at The Vine, 103 E. Colfax Ave., or RiverBend Cancer Services, 919 E. Jefferson Blvd., Suite 401, South Bend.

* I got word too late to include in last week's column, but the last barbecue of the year at Greater Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, 1829 Oakland Ave., Elkhart, was Friday.

Members of the church smoked and sold about 700 pounds of rib tips and chicken. I'll pass along word on when the first one is next spring or summer.

* I got the chance to talk briefly with personal heroes during a chance meeting in Ann Arbor recently. Jane and Michael Stern, who have written the Roadfood column in "Gourmet" magazine and authored books about where to find the food at diners and cafes across the United States, were dining at Zingerman's Roadhouse on a Sunday morning in September.

The Sterns were working their way through the breakfast offerings at Zingerman's prior to a book festival. Michael was pretty focused on what he was eating, but Jane was chatty and even asked if Gohn Brothers is still in Middlebury, where they visited the Village Inn and wrote about the pie. I told them I'd love to see them come back to northern Indiana.