Food Traditions

For most of my memorable life, I have been surrounded by good food. Of course, I'm not referring to nights out at gourmet restaurants, or lobster bisque prepared by our personal chef. No I don't have any memories of anything like that. But I do have treasured memories of my Grandma, her sisters, Mothers, Fathers, Aunts, Uncles, and a lot of kids huddled up in the kitchen cooking and preparing amazing food for everone.

I'm talking about real food grown by real people, real close.
I also have very fond memories "helping" my Grandfather in his garden, when I was young. And how I have never tasted a tomato so sweet as those days. The ones he grew with so much love and dedication. Skills that his ancestors passed on to him, and I was lucky enough to pick up just a few.

Some would argue that food traditions have been lost on our generation and I would have to whole-heartedly agree. I hope now that we can seize any opportunity presented to learn about the origins, and amazing life and characteristics of food; All the way from saving seed to preparing loved dishes with our family and friends for a local potluck. These are things we can enjoy doing together instead of living a life of isolation in front of a television. Let's arm each other with these skills and do everything we can to keep our food traditions alive, all the while strengthening our bonds with each other and the land that cradles us.

I remember the old folks always tending gardens and growing delicious food. Spending hours shucking, shelling, freezing, and canning. Not to mention the cooking! Preserving, in the truest sense of the word. Trying to teach us, but we wouldn't listen. But nowadays I would rather spend the majority of the time that makes up my life doing something truly nourishing, in every way. Growing and preparing my own food, saving heirloom seeds, varieties that are rapidly being lost everyday. (Not even mentioning the seeds some families have worked so hard to preserve and pass down for many generations that have been lost, only to reappear patented and monopolized by huge corporations and agribusinesses, only to feed a montser global food system.)


Doing these things with family and friends, people I really enjoy and love, and need in my life may be the most important thing. The more time we spend together growing our own food, the less time we have to spend working some meaningless job, for some company that is sucking the life out of us. For a boss who couldn't care less.

Don't be afraid to refuse to eat bad, processed food that was grown who knows where, from genetically engineered seed, drowning in toxic chemicals and preservatives, and shipped across the world. We can do much better.

A good look at the big picture tells me we had better make the decision to take control of our own food security and independence before it really is too late.

I wish I could go back in time and learn everything I could from the people before me. The essentials like growing, dressing game, storing, preserving, seed saving, Environmental stewardship, and connection with a place. Thinking about it now, It wasn't that I was lucky to pick up on a few of these things. Maybe that's just how things were, and should be again. So, I'll continue on this path that leads me in and out of friends' kitchens and up and down garden rows. With any luck I will continue to be surrounded by good food, family and friends. And who knows? Maybe one day I'll come across one of my Grandfather's tomatoes again, in my garden.