We are a rich people, here in America. Even our poorest has enough food (or could if they applied). We just don’t see people in the US starving. It doesn’t happen. There are no swollen bellies here.
That doesn’t mean people aren’t hungry. As someone who’s lived on food stamps and charity at one point, I can tell you that the pickin’s are slim and you don’t get a lot of veggies. I had to be creative to keep myself and my family fed. But I managed.
This is an art that too many people just don’t get. I covered it briefly in my last article about food, but it bears repeating. There are too many people in our country who have such a sense of entitlement that they think everyone should have “great food.” While I’m liberal enough to believe that we should be providing just enough food for people to survive on, even if they’re poor, I’m not of the opinion that it should come in the form of filet mignon or lobster tails. If you are poor (when I was poor), you have to learn to budget.
And therein lies the problem. This generation has a terrible time with budgeting. They can’t seem to budget time, money, credit… and who can blame them, with the various people who’ve been in office over the last couple of decades. “Budget” has not been much in the vocabulary of any of our leaders. It definitely doesn’t seem to be in that of the parents of today’s generation.
I remember a time, about ten years or so ago, when I was picking up supplies in a bump and dent store. We were tight, and I wanted to make my grocery dollars stretch. I walked past a gentleman with his very young daughter, staring forlornly at the dried beans. I paused, and asked if he had a favorite bean, and he looked at me with tears in his eyes and explained. Seems his wife had left him, and he was trying to work, care for his daughter, and feed her. Money was too tight, and he couldn’t afford meat. He knew beans were a way of getting protein, but he had no idea how to cook them from dry. He’d only ever had canned. I sat and explained to him several really tasty recipes that I thought would go over well with a toddler, and he bought up bags of beans with a grateful thank you over his shoulder. After that, I actually printed out several bean recipes and with the store’s permission, posted them in the beans aisle. They would be picked up every single week. I got a lot of thank yous.
We need to know how to cook things from scratch. We need to know how to turn leftovers into a new meal. We need to know how to make stew out of metaphorical freezer scrapings. These are survival skills that will keep you going whether the emergency is a lost job, getting snowed in and unable to reach the store, or zombie apocalypse. Everyone should know how to do basic cooking. Right now, only a very small percentage of people are learning cooking as a skill.
I am hoping, so much, that with Trump in office we’ll finally see shop class and home ec becoming A Thing again. Not that I liked home ec. I failed it, only class I ever did. But the lessons I learned there hovered in the back of my mind. When I became an adult, and learned new techniques, some of those old lessons surfaced. Those who never learned in the home ec kitchen don’t have it to fall back on.
My children have grown up with home cooked meals being the norm. We’ve almost always had decent money on hand. I’ve cooked some fancy meals, and some “fill their belly” meals. There are old favorites from both categories. All those meals were cooked from scratch, though. The kids will tell you how excited they would get on the rare occasion I picked up a frozen lasagna or some other pre-packaged cooked meal. It was a huge treat, because I always cooked “real food.”
At ren faires, people often comment that we eat very well. My kids would tell the patrons, this is how we normally eat… like every day. They got excited over the fried oreo cart, not over my meticulously planned pottage. And that’s how it should be. The fried oreos should not be the norm. Somehow, that’s what’s happened, though.
I’ve watched “poor people” who eat out every night. It baffles me. What a horrible way to budget your food finances. But if you don’t know how to cook, it’s a necessity. And if no one is willing to teach you how to cook, it’s still a necessity. And that’s sad.
I’m off to New Hampshire Renaissance Faire, my friends. I get Handfasted this weekend, which I’m very excited about. My world has been stressful and a time sink, but I’m through the worst of it. One more weekend in the middle ages, and then I’m off to the Fort from May 21st through the 28th. Time to play in the 18th century! I’ll be baking pies and bread for sale to the people at the Rendezvous, and as a demonstration for people visiting the fort. I hope to see some of you there!
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