Cheap Food: Whole Paycheck

Groceries of quality cost a lot.  They should.  Whole Foods has the nickname of Whole Paycheck.  Think about this.  The entire human race throughout history has worked to 'put food on the table' and 'a roof over the head.'   It's not an easy task if done correctly. 

With the proliferation of cheap food we are poisoning ourselves and the environment with pesticides, herbicides, and preservatives.  Why?  Because it's CHEAPER and less effort for consumers.

I'm telling you.  My grandparents had it right all along.  They grew their own food and raised their own meat.  They preserved vegetables and fruits by means of canning in reusable glass jars (which is a practice I picked up and continue to this day).  Refrigeration was the "ice box" which was basically a big, prehistoric cooler.  It was a shed that was filled with ice blocks cut out from the frozen lake with sawdust used as an insulator to slow down the melting during warm weather. 

Want milk?  Go out and find Daisy the Cow and get it yourself.  And yes, the cream really does come to the top.  Don't throw that out.  Churn it to make butter.  Want chicken?  Grab one that's waddling in the yard and bring it to the chopping block to cut off its head.  Let it run around spurting blood from its neck until it stops.  Then de-feather and gut.  Make sure you get those pesky pin feathers near the butt.  Oh, but make sure you get the eggs first or you just screwed yourself. 

Soap was made from lard and also for frying food.  Oddly enough, humble lard is making a comeback.  Clothes were handed down from sibling to sibling and mended many times over.

Winter months proved challenging.  The furnace was (and still is in use to this day) a wood stove in the "cellar"  -- the word "basement" is not used.  The storm cellar is under the house and smells like moist dirt.   Don't even ask about head cheese and the out house.  "Don't let go of the rope" is an old saying stemming from when a rope was tied from the house to the barn so you would not get lost in the blinding, blasting blizzard making way to and fro. 

Anyway... I'm getting off track.  Just thinking that my old fashioned grandparents were in retrospect really cool and hip.  I sure do miss them.