(statements in orange have been updated to this post on 2/24/08)
Meaty Chunks recently posted "While You Were Sleeping"
Xochitl Girl posted "A Beautiful Mind"
Now, I certainly can't deny the temptation to follow suit and post "The Fifth Element"
What are the first four elements? Well if you've seen the movie then you know they are Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. If you didn't see the movie, well, now you know.
The fifth element is the human element. I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and it really has got me to think about the human element.
Most of my life my food has either come from a can or a box. Growing up my mom worked full time and raised at least 4 of her six kids pretty much on her own (please note, I'm not downing my dad here, I'm just painting a picture) so she didn't have a lot of time on her hands and it was a struggle just to get us all up in the morning, much less prepare food from scratch. Sure, I had grandparents, one set had a huge garden and the other set had a pretty good sized garden, chickens and even a peach farm. Yes, my family even had a garden, peach trees (5), blackberry bushes (2), chickens and birds too. But pretty much all of that stopped for all 3 house holds at about the same time, that was when I was in my preteen years. So, yeah, I knew corn could be grown and eaten but that's corn on the cob - not regular corn...or at least this has been my thought for many, many years. I'm not saying I'm stupid, what I'm saying is that I simply didn't put 2 and 2 together and with supermarkets...who needs to.
Well, I need to now! That's what I'm talking about and thinking about, and when you see my book review on Michael Pollan's book you'll see where this all started. I lost the human element, the element of being connected to my food source and knowing how it came to be and what it is.
Sometimes at dinner we play this game...Either Jason or I say "Man, Mommy/Daddy sure does make good xyz." Sometimes it's pasta, sometimes beans ... whatever happens to be on the menu. Then we begin telling the story of how it all came to be right there on the table in front of us (or at least how it would have come to be on our table IF we were the human element of our food). Jason is way better at this game than I am, he'll say, "You see Abygail, last fall I harvested the wheat that was growing in our field..." and he'll continue on with what harvesting consisted of. Then he'll tell how he made it into wheat, and how that wheat was combined with eggs from the chickens (including how the eggs where gathered) and so on and so on through all the elements of our dinner, until you get to the cooking, setting the table and eating stage. Sometimes we have to stop and really think "wait, how does that happen, how does cheese come about, or where would we have to go to catch a salmon". (The first time we played this it was Macaroni and Cheese - try that one, a seemingly simple dish can be very complex.) It's fun to see what it would take to really make a meal without help from the supermarket or farmers market. (Again - not down on supermarkets because let's face it...if it wasn't for them I would have starved to death a long time ago and my mom would have gone insane too.) You should try this game - it's great family time fun.
Another thing that's been running through my head: I look at our dinners/lunches/breakfasts in a different way now. Mostly dinners because they are more complex. I think about how I can make it from scratch. Take last night's meal for instance: black beans, Rotel tomatoes, canned corn mixed with spices and simmered for a good while then served over rice. I look at it and think - "how can I make this fresh". It dawns on me, you shave the corn off the cob and freeze it, you preserve the tomatoes with hot peppers, you dry the beans (I don't know about rice, is it even possible to grow in this country?). Then when it's dinner time you use what you harvested.
My point is - I'm really excited for this summer and the change it will bring. I'm really excited about being an element of my food and for my children to know where food comes from. I know it's going to be hard and it's going to be a lot of trial and error and there will be some successes and some failures but, we'll be connected.
Well, there are some things that I eat that I don't want to think about where they came from...like hot dogs.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Amber. You'll be amazed how many changes you can make in your life in one season. A year ago we ate CAFO meat and got most of our food from the grocery store without any thought of season. Now we are CAFO meat free, we drink raw milk and eat raw milk dairy products. We joined a CSA and I grew more and preserved more food than ever before in my life. And the best part is my children see the cows that give us our milk. They know the farmer who gives us that box of veggies and have actually seen the land where they are grown and the animals that they eat. My children are so much more connected to their food than I ever was growing up, and they seem all the better for it.
ReplyDeleteI read this post last week and have been thinking about it ever since. I've always sort of dug the transcendental notion that everything is connected, but I've never thought about it in terms of food. And even though I'm not ready to do anything more involved than grow a few herbs and veggies, I really like your dinnertime conversation as a way to put the "fifth element" into context. Thanks for getting me thinking!
ReplyDeleteGreat Post! Yes, they do grow rice in this country. Actually, I have seen rice patties(sp)driving through Arkansaw. Must be hard to do- I think they have to keep the fields wet if not slightly flooded.
ReplyDeleteI will have to check out the CSA..