Feeding Your family Like Your Ancestors

Feed your Family Like Your Grandparents and Great Grandparents Did In The Past.

The Lost Art Of Food.

When it comes down to food, food production and storage, our Grandparents surely had it right. Times have changed in such a way that how we store food and the amount of food we have on hand in our homes at any given time is almost catastrophic. Granted life was a lot more rural than urban, but they planned for the year and to get through the winter. Life is a bit more high-tech now and in the process of all this technological change, we have lost some key skills. Most people are totally clueless about the ways of storing food for the long term. Fermentation, a crucial type of food preservation in the past, is greatly feared and barely utilized for the health benefits it provides. Processed foods are king and take up most of the space in our cabinets and pantries.

People Have Become Disconnected From Their Food

In the past, children were taught food preservation, as a matter of course. It was just part of childhood learning the way of food. That is not the case today. Most children leave home barely knowing how to cook. Food is not raised, nor grown for the most part in households. Food comes from the store.

Those born in the fifties and sixties bridge both the past and modern technologies. Technological change in society and food production in just a thirty-year span has changed how we eat and how we get and store food drastically.

 I was born I the sixties and my children in the eighties, How I was raised and how I raised my children based on societal norms is drastically different. Even when I was a teenager you could still have milk delivered. Today, in some places having milk delivered by a farm is actually illegal. Raw milk is illegal in twenty states in the United States. Raw Milk Laws By State
   By the time I had my children Milk delivery was a thing of the past already. The difference between me and my parents is substantially more dramatic in its differences Looking back I can see where the change began in me and my siblings. Our parents also following societal norms to a certain degree, but also what they were taught by their parents. My parents were about eight or nine when world war two ended.  They came into adulthood in the economic boom of the 1950s

American Prosperity

Following world war two America experienced a time of great prosperity before a deep recession hit in the 1970s.

I have some of the fondest memories growing up in the country. The weekend was for yard work and gardening. We helped our parents till, plant, weed and harvest all summer long. My sister and I should have also been helping our mother prepare it for storage but she didn't teach us when we were small. Even in my childhood, our parents began moving away from teaching us the way of food survival. I talk to my sister and she doesn't remember our mom preparing food for the winter. All summer long our mother canned, blanched, and froze our bounty from our large garden. We also Purchased all our beef, pork, and poultry in bulk.

This is the way our grandparents lived and taught our parents to live. In the process, they saved a large amount of money. My sister can't remember the three large chest freezers we had on the back porch. The freezers were completely full of the summer and autumn bounty. My generation was the beginning of the lost way of food. I had a large learning curve to get back to preparing my foods that are healthier and more natural.

I consider our food supply to almost be poison. Gradually, but not completely, my husband and I have been changing the way we eat over the last ten years.  We still have a way to go. Fast food and processed food is mostly laden with harmful chemicals and sugars.

Our food contains way more corn than people realize. If you can't pronounce it you shouldn't eat it. Corn is genetically modified to accept round up as pest control. We are told it is not harmful, but anything that has such a toxic chemical present in its own genetic makeup is not healthy. No matter how many scientists say it is so. I have a brain and I use it. Common sense should prevail here.

King Korn

If you have Amazon Prime you can watch King Korn on prime. I think the thing that motivated me the most to stop eating corn, was how long corn sits in the open environment before its scooped up and processed into our food supply. 

Bring Back The Past

Using grocery store sales, price matching, loyalty programs, and bulk purchasing, as well as Farmer's markets, we can move the garden back to our table. By Canning, dehydrating and vacuum sealing foods you can increase their shelf life by leaps and bounds. Deciding to take control of your food purchases, you will make the quality of your food better, healthier, as well as, save money in the process.

Consider A Garden

You don't have a large sprawling garden. You can utilize a few raised bed gardens around your yard. This will add foods that are more nutrient dense because you raised and harvested them fresh from your yard. It is not necessary to have a big garden to bring bounty to your table, cabinets, and shelves. Then again, if you have space, why not try a garden in the summer and fall months. If you own your home put in a few fruit trees that grow in your region.

By having a garden and fruit trees you can have fresh and organic produce and fewer pesticides. If gardening is not your thing, find farmer's markets in or near your town. Most all fruits and vegetables you purchase from a farmer's market will probably be organic, if not then at least healthier and way more nutrient-dense than conventional farming. It will also be cheaper than in the store. Buying bulk always is cheaper overall.

Stores may be bigger and more complex today than in the past, but you can selectively purchase items in bulk and on sale. It sounds strange to say buy more to save, but that is what we need to get back too. Some hard work and planning at the outset will actually give you more time and more money in the end. There is no reason that while living urban that you can not bring rural to the table and to your wallet. Lifestyles less of convenience and more of frugality.