(note: Sorry about the banner size! I can't change it so just go with it :)....)
I knew one day there would be a way. I've struggled with figuring out how to consistently feed my family real food for so long - I've done everything in my power - but with so little we are given these days it's an uphill battle.
1) We are not given the wisdom. We are far away from our lineage, our extended family, and most of us have lost our culinary heritage altogether. We've lost our personalized strains of cultures passed down through generations and cherished for centuries. We've lost the familial connection we need in order to learn how to prepare food.
2) We've lost the skills. Even from non-familial sources, modern life for the most part deprives us from learning skills that originate from the food itself - the seasonal timing of food to table, of egg to breakfast, of meat to freezer, of kvass to glass. These skills are all but extinct. What used to be every families right, is now an expensive novelty food from the specialty grocer. If we do come across authentic diy ingredients, we rarely know what to do with them.
3) We've lost the time. We are so overwhelmed with trying to pay bills, keep on top of our jobs, getting caught up in projects, caring for children or parents, or being distracted. We scarcely make the time to figure out how to prepare food, how to build a good grocery list, shop intentionally, and then ... prepare it all! It's a big job - that's why women spent so much time in the kitchen.
4) We've lost our food. Literally. We've lost thousands of varieties of produce. We've lost our dietary diversity. Humans are designed to eat an incredible array of roots, animals (and animal parts besides boobs and butts, hellooo), flowers, leaves, spices, fruits, legumes, and on and on. We're designed to follow the seasons and be connected enough to the land to detect and honor our food source. The average diet today is devoid of a GIANT helping of flavor, nutrition, and sensory satisfaction. We don't own our food, we don't grow our food, and all too often food is not even cared about.
5) We don't like it in the kitchen anymore. It sucks. We as women want to do other, more rewarding things in the world, and be PAID for our worth. Being at home, cooking and cleaning up, has become a dirty, unrewarding job. At least it did for me. Feeding my family was exhausting, feeding myself was an afterthought. I did my best since I knew about healthy foods, but I didn't enjoy it.
Yet there's a moving wave of new, extreme importance. With the onslaught of GMO foods, child obesity, food fat misunderstanding, animal cruelty on careless farms, and foods shipped from other countries which we can grow ourselves, there's a whole handbag full of reasons to be a badass food mama.
I've changed my mind over the last few years. Watching my children grow strong and healthy with good food, lots of time out of doors, and the freedom to learn their own hunger instincts, has been encouraging. Watching them gain a passion for cooking and good food has been inspiring. And the thought of being a radical food renegade who eats wild, foraged, local, loved, REAL food, just plain turns me on.
I adore the diversity that arrives at a farm market. I adore the vibrant, self perpetuating bubbly vats on my counter. I adore the myriad crops the local farmers still save seeds for that Monsanto hasn't touched with their greasy, evil, nasty, sicko suicide genes.
I like my food edible, thanks.
OK so why the rant? Obviously you noticed the banner at the top, right? Yup - this, for me, is the golden key that I needed. I need a teacher-organizer-shopper all in one, and I need it on a tight budget to boot. Oh - and this time, I'm going to have fun. I am totally excited to start this journey with my family, and grateful for the guidance.
I hope you'll hop on the badass food mama (or anybody) renegade eco-bandwagon too and purchase one or more of Jenny's super-awesome offerings at Nourished Kitchen by clicking on the banner- I think you'll love it, and you'll support me too (I get a little coin from the affiliate program!).
Food activism, just as much as grassroots herbalism, is a radical, political, life-saving act.
(Now if I could just get myself to like gardening.....)
Oh - P.S - need some anger to motivate you? Vandana Shiva's videos are enlightening!
Eat well, eat slow, eat together, dear readers.
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