Market Farming

["Heirloom Grower" <heirloomgrower AT gmail.com>]

Paul,

 

Our facility is an "as needed" facility...people come to us when all other resources have failed. We are a facility operated for the poor, and funded BY the poor. In other words, our food pantry is about the poor sharing what little they have with each other.

 

We give away lots of rice, beans, black-eye peas, split peas and lentils. Also, oatmeal, grits, and pasta. Flour and cornmeal. These things are the basis of our program. But we do provide canned vegetables, tomato sauces, and some proteins because of the storage issue. We just simply do not have refrigeration to provide fresh products. That is for people who have homes to go to and facilities for cooking.

 

But we also have families come to us who are having to live in their cars. Or in a tent in the woods behind Kroger. Or under the bridge by the railroad track. For those folks we try to keep things that can be eaten out of the can. Crackers, spam, tuna, Vienna sausages, potted meat, stews, dumplings. And of course the canned vegetables.

 

The reality of today's food situation is that it is the starches that are most affordable. The poor eat the dried beans and peas and rice. And they make cornbread and biscuits to go with them. They eat very little meat. But, they pretty much don't eat fresh vegetables and fruits any more because they are so prohibitively expensive. And they don't eat much meat, or even eggs any more.

 

I cannot provide, through this food pantry, a truly balanced diet for our needy. But I do like to see our families go home with a few cans of brightly colored vegetables and frutis for their health benefits as well as for the simple enjoyment of the families. And I like to send them home with adequate protein to foster brain development in the kids (this is particularly hard). We may use such items as rice or the ramen noodles as "filler" in the diet, but we try to include things that enhance them visually and make them more flavorful, while at the same time boosting the nutritional value at least a little.

 

Years ago, the lady who ran the daycare where my kids went told me that most of her families lived at or below the poverty level, and that was with both parents working, and often with one of those parents working two jobs. If that's the case for two parent households, then what about the single parent who works a 40 hour week making a 'generous' 8 bucks an hour. In this area, rent on a dump is 500 bucks a month. How on earth to keep the lights and heat on, the childcare paid, the children clothed and school fees paid? Much less to eat! Yes, there is very little left for food.

 

Most of my life I have gardened, but have not the last several years because I crashed emotionally after my son died. But still, I know from having lived it what a good, nutritional diet is. So, over these last several years I have bought it. Three years ago, it wasn't so hard. But today, it is scary how much "basic" vegetables cost. I cannot pay the price any longer.

 

I don't feel so bad for the well off that they eat poorly. They do it by choice. But I grieve over the poor because they really don't have any other option.

 

Elise

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 10:07 AM, TradingPostPaul <tradingpost AT riseup.net> wrote:

Forty dollars for four for two weeks? I never said you could have a "fully
balanced" diet on that figure, and I don't know what you consider "fully
balanced".

In practice we can do quite well. My partner has known how to shop very
frugally (as I detailed) and eat healthy all her life, and proves it all
the time. She learned from her Italian immigrant mother who at ten years of
age raised, clothed and fed ten younger siblings after their mother died
during WW II in Italy.

All the variety we want for a "fully balanced diet", and what we can live
well on when we're desperate are two different things. The typical American
diet is certainly not a "fully balanced diet", and if people with plenty of
money don't have the ideal diet then I wouldn't hold the poorest to such a
high standard. We can eat better than most at far less cost than most.

My point is just that food stamp recipients can eat healthier diets than
they do, if they learn more of shopping frugally and cooking from scratch.
And so can everyone else.

paul tradingpost AT lobo.net

-------------------------------------

Paul,

I challenge you to forsake your homegrown for a couple of weeks, take forty
bucks and go to whatever establishment you wish, and come home with a fully
balanced diet for four for two weeks.

It's one thing to preach a thing and quite another to actually do it.

Let me know how you fare.

Elise

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 2:05 PM, TradingPostPaul <tradingpost at
riseup.net>
wrote:

>
> We explain this to some of our customers: cooking basic foods from
scratch
> can actually be cheaper (and healthier) than buying those prepared and
> processed "fake foods" and starches in the store. All those boxed and
> canned items are "value added" - in other words processed and packaged
for
> convenience so they can bring a higher price - with a lot of nutrients
> lost.
>
>  For those on a very tight food budget, beans, potatoes, whole grain
rice,
> carrots, and some cooking greens can furnish a fair diet at low cost - IF
> -
> and I stress IF - they get them without the processing. Rice, beans,
> flour,
> and potatoes are still affordable in bulk, and furnish real nutrition.
> Fresh carrots aren't too expensive if you avoid the bagged, trimmed, or
> baby carrots, and if you don't have them every day. Some greens for
> cooking
> are fairly cheap long as you're not buying fresh salad greens. But canned
> vegetables are a total ripoff. And pound for pound, little boxes of white
> rice or fake mashed potatoes cost at much as the real thing in bulk, and
> aren't nutritions anyway. Hamburget helper and RiceaRoni are no bargain.
> Nor the mile of frozen vegetables, meats, dairy, and deserts. More "value
> added".
>
> For so many, part of the problem is they never learned how to shop and
> never learned how to cook from scratch. We've been shopping with other
> people who just push a cart down the aisle and start tossing things in
the
> cart, too rushed to even notice prices. Of course most stores today don't
> ring up the sale price. Nobody else catches the ripoff. When we stop the
> checker over it they blame the computer. But it NEVER rings up the sale
> price. The line waits while they get a manager to approve the sale price
> for us. We also watch other peoples' carts in the grocery checkout. It's
> amazing how much junk they can pile on that has little or no food value.
> And almost none of it is good, cheap, unprocessed food.
>
> And cooking? My partner mentioned flour prices to my daughter in law, who
> then asked her "but what can you do with flour"? Get that. Cook with
> flour?
> How?
>
> Our grandparents knew how to make tasty meals from the simplest things in
> the pantry. Not many of us have a pantry today. What about making and
> using
> stock? Easy gravy? Homemade bread isn't rocket science. Well, I'm lucky.
> She learned long ago to make good meals from whatever's on hand, like
many
> of our ancestors.
>
> Sometimes our customers see our Delicata or Lakota squash and look
> puzzled.
> Barb explains you just slice in half, throw some butter on them, and
bake.
> Makes a meal, almost. Or a desert even. Or other veggies, cooked simply.
> It's amazing how people appreciate the simplest recipe and come back to
> tell us it was great. We've found kids actually like real vegetables.
It's
> easy to cook and eat cheap when you start with real food.
>
> paul tradingpost at lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> >And so, lots of these folks live on ramen noodles, rice, beans, peas?and
> >store brand mac and cheese, corn bread, biscuits, gravy. Maybe there
will
> >be
> >a can or two of some fruit or vegetable thrown in every now and then as
a
> >treat.

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