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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] We Can't Reform Health Care without Reforming Food

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] We Can't Reform Health Care without Reforming Food
  • Date: Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:14:43 -0700


Nice post, Morgan; there are resourceful people with a can do attitude, and
there's all the rest. Even people used to making meals are too often lost
when it comes to fresh foods. This may be part of a larger thing; homemaking
has become so commercialized and fragmented. Kids aren't sent out to pick
something from the garden. Family dinner table is often a thing of the past.
The kids activities keep them away from helping out at home. Two income
families are now required. We work longer hours with less sleep and fewer
vacations than Europeans - and we're pleased to think we have a higher
standard of living (whatever that means), but we don't. Who has time? In some
countries food is more of an enjoyable social event. Here, not so much.

Isn't it amazing markets sell stuff they don't know anything about. In fact I
check other growers and often they don't even know the variety, and variety
does make a difference in what it's good for. People like to hear us
describing what to do with squash or chard or how to freeze or peel tomatoes
the easy way. Romas are not for salad. Eat summer squash now; freezing
destroys their texture. Winter squash will keep for months and some just
taste better like Delicata, Butternut, Sweet Dumpling. Pumpkin pie filling
isn't usually pumpkin at all but squash, often Sweetmeat squash. People
aren't encouraged buying from the "I dunno..." sellers.

It's like being fresh food missionaries to the city. Michael Pollan down home
or something.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food
from fresh ingredients.
-- Julia Child

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 11/8/2009 at 8:29 PM Pumpkin Lady wrote:

>Tradingpost wrote:
>> Cooking from scratch doesn't need to take more time
>>and effort than the drivethru line at McDooDoos.
>
>Particularly if you live 10 miles from the nearest fast food
>joint. ;-) We had an addiction to mocha java chillers from
>Sonic and I used to love their yogurt whip thingies. I
>learned to make both at home from scratch. Much cheaper,
>faster - since I live 15 miles from the nearest Sonic now
>(used to live less than a mile from one), and probably
>better for me since I control what goes into it.
>
>But, cooking DOES take time to acquire a knowledge of what
>and how to cook easy stuff fast. Also there are rules that
>you have to learn as you go along. People bemoan the time it
>takes to learn. There is no spirit of play left. People want
>to be experts from the first time, they don't seem to feel
>like they can "fail". Honestly, I may not like what I cook
>sometimes, but it's rarely completely inedible.
>
>I recommend once a month cooking type things, but I don't
>necessarily recommend their recipes and menus. What >I< mean
>is to take a weekend and cook a bundle of stuff that freezes
>or cans THAT YOU LIKE and do up a bunch of food you like to
>eat so you have it. I'll take a weekend and bake bread all
>one day and make soup all the next and freeze the bread and
>can the soup and we'll have "instant" meals that are healthy
>and fast for when we need them.
>
>>The kitchen skills need to be learned, best by working
>>with someone who's done it, who knows how to make good
>>meals from whatever's in the garden, the pantry or icebox
>
>HAH! My mother died when I was 11, and she almost never let
>me in the kitchen before she died. My father didn't exactly
>make me cook, but if I didn't want to eat what he cooked I
>had to cook for myself - and he wouldn't buy me "special
>stuff" (you know, like cheddar cheese - if what's in the
>house isn't good enough for you, lump it!).
>
>The assumption that you need someone to teach you is a big
>limiter. All you need is the ability to read and willingness
>to muff up regularly until you figure it out. Start simple
>and work up.
>
>In order to use up what's on hand that you have a plethora
>of I recommend going to Google and typing in the ingredients
>and "recipe". Google will send you tons of lovely links and
>you can run through the recipes and pick out ones for things
>you have on hand that sound good to you.
>
>I ended up with a gallon of buttermilk (long story). The
>only thing I used to use buttermilk in was scones. I didn't
>want to make quite tat many scones, even with a big freezer
>like I have. ;-) I Googled and found a number of nice things
> we liked and I have more recipes for using buttermilk now.
>Good thing, too, since I make the stuff rather than buy it
>these days.
>
>>
>> But yes, it's not an uncommon problem. People at the
>>markets keep asking her how you fix squash or whatever.
>
>And I always wonder why people SELL stuff they don't know
>how to cook. Our "market" is staffed by people who don't
>grow food nor do they cook it. It's one reason I don't shop
>there. They can't tell me what pesticides went on it or
>anything else I want to know.
>
>One year I was weak and bought some red kuri because I
>wanted to use it as a bowl for some custards (one dessert,
>one breakfast). The guy asked me what I was going to do with
>them because he had no idea how one cooked them. My husband
>told him I was going to lop it open and pour egg based stuff
>inside and cook it. That answer left the guy completely
>puzzled so I explained in detail, but I could see he still
>didn't get it. He asked me WHY I'd want to do that and I
>told him that the particular squash had a taste that lent
>itself to those things very well and he STILL didn't get it,
>so we gave up and left. That was the last time I went to the
>"local" market.
>
>I hear we have another one now, but they are all the way the
>other side of town from where I live so I haven't made it
>over that way yet.
>
>I think people need to be less afraid to experiment with food.
>
>Morgan
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