Talk to the 'old folks'!

I've enjoyed talking to my parents (aged late 70's early 80's) about what they ate as children and young adults.  We've also talked about where they got thier food and how it was preserved and cooked.  Here's a link to a USDA report on food trends over the last 100 years. 

How about your family?   Find out and then prepare some menus that they remember!  No fair cheating with prepared foods :)  

I'll do one too.....now to drag out the old cookbooks and talk to my mother-in-law!

An interesting journey

         This is not new, but I was thinking about eating as we planted the first of the seeds for the year.*  I remembered a series of photos about families around the world and the food they consume in a week .  The Time magazine article about this book shared some representative photos of the selection of foods each family made as well as the money they spent.  You can start here and take a look.  You might keep an eye on the presence, or absence, of fresh and/or "homegrown" foods.
        Can you picture what your family's food would look like?  Would you like to see more natural vegetables and fruits and fewer plastic bags and containers?  Consider planting a few veggies this year that you know you like...and that you've never tried before~
*beets, spinach, arugula, buttercruch, radishes, turnips, chard and cabbage (all tolerant of the 40 degree soil temperature)

How much do you spend on food?

Or, how much of what you spend is spent on food?  More or less over the years?  Here's an interesting chart on the food expenditures by families and individuals as a share of disposable personal income from USDA.  The high is in 1933, when I think farmers were plowing under rather than sell at depressed prices, or couldn't get the crops out of the fields, or couldn't get credit to plant.  Shortages mean higher costs.

We are currently spending 9.5% of disposable income (not gross) on food.  And eating more it seems!  Definitely more calories per dollar. Looks like the more industrial agriculture/food manufacturers centralized and commodified food, the cheaper it got.  Ok, great, you say.  Hmmm.. how's your  health?  How is the health of your community?  Diabetes rates among the poor?  High blood pressure?  Can your kid take peanuts to school for a snack?  Allergies, eh?

Supporting local food, local community health and local farmers might mean using more of our dollars to purchase food, but we are buying much more than just lunch.  Not least might be the ability to purchase food at all, or to be secure about the sources of our food.