I went for a family visit today. My mom and I stopped by to see my Great Aunt and two of my Great Uncles. They still live in and near the house of my Great Grandparents and although they are in their 80s we drove up to find them working in the yard and nearby garden.
As we talked about the family and looked through some old pictures I was reminded that much of my roots reside there – the recipes I ate through my childhood and have since learned how to make in my adulthood as well as using the land for food and keeping it plentiful during the winter months through canning. My mom tells me stories about collecting the chicken eggs and watching cows being milked as a child.
While I didn’t have exposure to such extreme farm life during my own childhood, I was exposed to extensive gardening through my Dad and home cooking through my Mom. This visit brought memories of days passed which always bring me to the present and how I currently feel about food.
Getting to the point of supporting the growth, cooking and consumption of real food was a long journey for me, but here I am. Days like today get me thinking about why I’ve evolved into this person, this place. I realize again and again that it really isn’t about health for me. My interest in health made me take the path in my life that I have traveled, but my real reason for supporting natural, sustainable foods is memories.
These memories I have are not all that common anymore and growing rarer by the day, especially for upcoming generations. I know that everyone can’t live on a farm, but everyone from toddlers to adults can take a break from this multi-media reality we live in and experience a portion of this old fashioned life. We just have to make a bit more of an effort. It can be growing your own garden, supporting a local agribusiness through a u-pick adventure or simply walking through a farmer’s market and talking with local producers.
When I think about my family who lived long before I showed up I realize that this wasn’t a choice for them. It was a necessity. In addition, when they were my age those now popular fast food and soda companies were just coming into view. However, as opposed to being known for their greedy efforts to take over the world that now seem so prominent, they were still viewed as entrepreneurial endeavors, part of the American dream.
Oh how things have changed, for the worse of course, but lately I also think they are changing for the better. Why? Just take a look through all the fabulous food blogs out there using natural, nourishing ingredients eliminating our need for processed ingredients.
I’m fortunate to have these memories because they are what keep me wanting to learn more about real food, to make the extra effort to prepare it and to share that with others. I know we can’t go back in time completely, but we can pull those positive things from the past to our present way of living.
Why is eating real food important to you?
This post has been submitted to Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday.
What a great post and great reminder! I too have evolved into this place of nutrtitious, clean eating and I stay here because quite honestly it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I am doing not only something great from me and my taste-testers but something good for the earth overall. All of that chemically, gunky stuff isn’t natural for us or the Earth, and while I believe that we have made some wonderful advances over the years, engineering our food is not one of them in my mind.
Someone once told me that “any food less than 1000 years old is just an experiment”. I love that! Goes right along with the notion of getting back to your family and their roots.
What a beautiful gate!
There’s always the saying that you should eat the things your grandparents would have eaten. I’d differ with this slightly. My paternal grandparents are from Oklahoma. Absolutely everything fried. But…on the other hand, while my Granny is quite overweight, she’s also 89 years old and completely healthy. So maybe there’s something to her diet after all.
Thanks for such a lovely post!
I really enjoy reading your work…fresh, bright and also humble.
Thanks for your creative perceptions.
I think real food just makes sense! I grew up eating good, home-cooked meals and obviously strayed away during some of my teenage years but now I’m back! I would take some artisan bread and cheese over dorito’s any day!
thanks a lot lori….not just for dropping by n appreciating my mango loaf, but for introducing me to such a wonderful blog….i believe in the idea of real food n have been brought up eating old fashioned ‘whole food’….i do all my experimental cooking using ‘real’ unrefined ingredients n it gives immense satisfaction to me.
thanks for introducing michelle’s blog here…….it was wonderful going there.
Lori, what a great post! It’s so true, each generation seems less and less connected with their food sources. I like how you said soda was seen as entrepreneurial…never thought of it that way before but you’re right, it was totally different then.
Amy – Thanks! That is a great lesson to eat by. So true. Real foods have been around for a very long time.
Alison – Oh, I know what you mean. For example I often use white refined sugar if the recipe calls for it. That is what my great grandmother used. Then I hear people say they will only eat stuff their great grandmother would have eaten or cooked with, but they are against unrefined sugar. It doesn’t always workout, but generally a good rule to live by. 🙂
coco – Thank you, dear. :)Your comments are much appreciated.
Emily – Absolutely! Give me bread and cheese any day!
sangeesta – I agree. It is much more pleasurable to cook with wholesome ingredients. Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle – Thanks! You know, I first had that thought about soda and fast food when reading Fast Food Nation. I feel those companies have genuine roots and the history is interesting. At one time their ingredients were even more natural. They have just taken on their current roll with changing society and the desire to make more and more money. It’s kind of sad really.
We just got to the point where we wanted to know what we are eating & now that has started to move to knowing where that food is coming from. I think its funny that some people thing its a luxury that we get a csa, shop farmers markets & have a garden
I am very fortunate to have the memories of experiences on a farm that also remind me of the importance of eating real food. Every summer we rented a little cottage on a little family farm in a Ukrainian village. We helped out on a farm with little things – milking the cows, getting the fresh chicken eggs, harvesting the vegetables and just running around wild among the corn and wheat fields. And fishing of course was a lot of fun too! We cooked in an actual old-style Russian wood-burning stove. Even though we didn’t have things like hot water or indoor plumbing, we were just so happy there!
Lovely post; for me it’s much the same. Eating real is just better for everyone and everything… I love it.
I am woefully behind on blog reading due to recent travels but this seems an excellent place at which to jump back in….
Where would I begin with my quest to eat real food? Like you, it does go back to memories. My parents always gardened and we were spoiled by having lots of fresh produce from the garden during the summers and preserves during the winter. I guess I didn’t think so much about it then but now I appreciate something of what that gave me. The very core and fundamental knowledge that home-grown and homemade is good not just good for the body but good for the soul. I think, in the end, it all comes back to that for me and I am thankful that my formative years have helped shape my food views in the way they have.
Learning about all the adulteration that goes into the foods we eat today pushes me to support farmers that practice sustainable (environmental and socially) methods. It doesn’t have to be certified organic for me if I know who’s growing it and believe in their ethos.
What could be more important that something that you ingest and put in your body willingly?
I agree that the collective we are losing touch with how our food gets to us and what all has gone in to it. I think encouraging children to take a greater interest in where food comes from is a wonderful start to reconnecting.
Great post!
I love the country real food and traditionally good to earth food.
honestly …
Thanks for sharing such wonderful family story.
Welcome~~~
http://foodcreate.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
I wrote and then deleted my original comment when I realized that it didn’t strike the tone I meant! So I’m starting again:
Thank you for such a thoughtful and heartfelt post! I didn’t grow up with the same kind of memories or experiences of homegrown foods (except for the copious tomato plants that our dad made us weed and water every day!)
However, as an adult, I do try to eat as little processed food as possible. Under current circumstances, I have had to make the economic choice of relying a bit more on packaged and canned goods. As much as I wholly support the consumption of real foods, I still think there is a place for ‘industrialized’ food production as it was at its inception – a way to get real food over a wider distribution but NOT to actually CREATE it with synthetic ingredients! That’s where I think we have most gone wrong.
What a lovely post (and a gorgeous photo!), and so timely. The other day we were reminiscing about summers of bacon and tomato sandwiches and fried potatoes with green onions, all fresh from the garden every night. A good way to grow up. Reading your memories brought a smile to my face.
Simply put, you are what you eat, which is why the importance of nourishing yourself with real food should never be underestimated. Just one look at the epidemic obesity in the states is proof that not enough people take an interest in what goes into their bodies. And why diet fads will always be in vogue.
I love this post! Thank you so much for sharing so much of your heart.
Cheers,
KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)
What an inspiring post, Lori! You’re certainly right about how few of us have the opportunity to see first hand where our food comes from and it’s unfortunate. I am one of these people and was forced into learning about real food through poor health.
Although I became interested in real food because of my health, it now feels like more of a culture than a diet, which is how it should be, and I love it!
You brought back memories of picking peaches and husking corn with my grandparents! Grandpa bought the prize cows at the county fair and had them butchered and frozen. Mom said he used to make his own sausage, too. They knew how to grow their own and had relationships with their farmer neighbors. We always ate well at Granny and Grandpa’s house!
kat – I know what you mean. I hope one day people won’t look at it is a luxury, but as commonplace. 🙂
5 Star – What incredible memories! Thanks so much for sharing them.
Sagan – Thanks! It’s multiple benefits make it appealing to me as well.
Daily Spud – I join you in being behind in reading. I hope your travels went well! I have to admit I did not appreciate the exposure I had to all my nourishing food experiences when I was younger. It has only become valuable to me within the last feel years. Thank goodness it is now though and not in 10 more years. 🙂
gastroanthro – I am with you on your views of certified organic. There are other components as or more important.
Hi foodcreate – Thanks for stopping by with your comment.
Tangled Noodle – I’m interested to see how it is going to be for us when we move. I’ve had to learn to cook more, but overall it has been much more afforable to eat naturally in Brazil. I often think about the economic challenges we will face when we return to the US.
laura – Thanks! Bacon and tomato sandwiches were big in our house too. 🙂
Rowena – I agree for sure. I think we also need to do a lot of educating about what is healthy though. I spent years as a nutritionist believing that synthetic sweeteners and “diet” foods were healthy. Sometimes I think people might think they are being healthy, but they aren’t aware of truly nourishing foods.
foodrenegade – Thanks! These are the most fulfilling posts for me to write by far.
Vin – Thanks for stopping by with your comment. I like how you mentioned that it is a culture. That is the way it should be. I hope we can view these ways of eating that seem new and different (yet old fashioned at the same time) as a part of culture at some point and not have to seperate them out as being different or unusual. 🙂
OurNaturalLife – Thanks for stopping by with your comment! Husking corn! I forgot about that one. It sounds like you have some wonderful memories as well.
Thanks for this wonderful post. I can’t agree more since we have so much process stuff on the supermarket shelves these days. We are off to the south coast for the Easter break and are really looking forward to eating some fresh local produce where restaurants pride themselves in using fresh ingredients which are locally sustainable. How wonderful!