Slow Food and Its Discontents (or similar)

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So I was just over on Pandagon reading stuff about cooking from scratch and making healthy food choices and how economic class has a huge impact on the kind of food you’re likely to be eating/buying (not just in the sense of Food Deserts – although that’s definitely significant – but also in the case of the not-on-food-stamps-but-definitely-below-“upper-middle-class” segment(s) of the population.
They were talking about how cooking isn’t intuitive.

And I thought “Yes it is” and then I thought again.

Because while, once you understand the basic concepts of cooking (such as “Food should be softer or darker or both, and hot all the way through, if you want it to be safe and easy to eat” and “Washing vegetables before you eat them will take the dirt and/or chemicals off and make them safer to eat”) it *can* be intuitive… If you’ve never been given those basics and instead got basics like “if it’s X big, hit the ‘pizza’ button X number of times” or “upend bag into boiling water. Drain and serve with sour cream and ketchup”, well, cooking from scratch becomes a hell of a lot more daunting.


I mean, I can look at myself and go “Jeez! I mean, yeah, I technically cooked Real Dinner with three different fresh vegetables AND salmon last night, even if the salmon came out of a box with a lemon-pepper-“crust” already on it, but most of this past week’s meals have been either totally pre-fab or eaten out.”
And I know how to cook.
And (these days) generally have a kitchen that is tidy enough to allow me to do so.
And I grew up in a house where both parents (predominantly my mother, but definitely both of them) regularly cooked from scratch, including stuff like bread and yoghurt.
And, up until I was six or seven, we had a big backyard garden that provided a lot of our summer veggies.
And I’ve grown (some of) my own food before.

So, yeah.
I know what food looks like before it’s harvested. And I know how to take (some of) it from seed to grown fruit to kitchen counter to oven to table (and then to compost, because that’s how I (would like to) roll).

And I spend a lot of time not having the energy or the inspiration (and berating myself for it) to Make Everything From Scratch.


Seriously.
I have a lot of vegetarian cookbooks (still). And while one or two of them aren’t like this at all, a number of them (possibly due to publication date, but – alas – generally not) get, ah, kind of sanctimonious about stuff like not using stuff from cans or using ingredients that are hard (or impossible) to find outside of (high-priced) specialty stores.
I suspect that there are omnivorous-minded cookbooks that do the same thing, but I only have one of those (The Joy of Cooking. Seriously. What else do you need? ;-) so I don’t exactly have much of a sample to go on.


And I would like to be able to do that.
I would like to have the easily-chosen option of getting my animal products regularly truck-delivered by a local farmer or three, picking up my produce at the Herb and Spice or the Saint Paul’s market. Making my own bread and cheese and jam and pickles and yoghurt and Every Other Damn Thing. And having the time for it because I was living in My World where there’s always something going on, but it all works together seamlessly, allowing me to go from early-morning yin yoga to a modeling job to a lunch meeting at Umi about the upcoming writing workshop I’m facilitating at fill-in-the-blank, to mixing up a new batch of yoghurt, to a couple of hours of crafting, to making a fast, healthy, beautiful meal from fresh, organic ingredients, to blogging, to a hot date with my girl… or whatever that particular day happens to hold… and so there is time In There to do all the DIY food that I want to be able to do.

But, as it stands, the easily-chosen option is the one where I go “I’ll pick up some perogies and alfredo sauce on the way home. I think I’ve got a tomato in the fridge” and the only food I buy that consistently fits into the food-buying habits I *want* to support are my free-run eggs.

And while, yes, part of that is time and energy, a lot of that is also money. Free-run, organically raised animals are really freaking expensive.

<*sigh*>

But yeah.


I mean, I’ve been thinking about this stuff, and realizing that I don’t actually know what “seasonal food” is in Ottawa. I have a rough idea of what’s available (mostly from watching the MacFlail’s garden and paying attention to what rottenfruit and Metawidget are cooking at any given time) but I don’t actually KNOW.
I don’t know if there’s anything fresh available in early April or if you actually *are* stuck with last year’s turnips and cabbage and kale plus whatever you can sprout on your windowsill.
I haven’t the foggiest notion how long a carrot will actually last, or an apple, or even a winter squash (since I was storing them in a heap in a cardboard box, which wasn’t the best for keeping things dry and free of mould).

So there’s a fair bit of stuff I need to remember and a fair bit more I need to learn.


There’s more to this coming I think, talking about materialism and trying to reconcile my glee over getting new shoes (or whatever – consumerism R us) with my desire to be low(er) impact and less dependent on petroleum and Buying Crap. Y’know?


Anyway. At the moment, I'm actually blogging at the office (after hours - which may come as a shock to some of you), and I'd rather be getting myself home (and pick up Something on the way to bring to Phamily Dinner).


But yeah. Stuff that's weighing on my mind.


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)