Monday:
Rabbit braised in Cream of Chantarelle soup left over from last week. Sauteed cabbage and mushrooms from the farmers' market.
Homegrown popcorn.
Taco Tuesday!
Ground turkey tacos with homemade flour tortillas, salsa from our remaining tomatoes, Spanish rice and refried beans.
Wednesday:
Chicken and Vegetable Curry soup. Summer squash from our garden. Carrots (Jeanette's) and onions from the farmers' market.
Thursday:
Chicken stirfry with cauliflower, onions, and bell peppers from the farmers' market.
Friday:
Jeanette (aka House Elf) made us ribs and roasted potatoes, parsnips and squash.
Saturday:
Visited my aunt who made us Prime Rib, squash, bleu cheese scalloped potatoes, and salad.
Sunday:
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup.
Reflections:
We've pretty much been finishing off the meat we've had in our freezers. We still have some left, but the chicken is gone. Our meat birds are almost ready to slaughter, but in the mean time we'll just go without. Yes, we want humanely raised animals, but if I can do it myself I just can't justify paying $6.50/lb for one. This leads me to the idea of sustainability and accessibility. Sustainable food just isn't accessible to a lot of people. Not only is it harder to find, but the cost is too much. The argument could be that people should just eat less meat, and while I do agree with that, I'm not just talking about meat. Sustainable fruits and vegetables are the same way. It's just too expensive for the poor to afford and that is a serious problem. Healthy, wholesome food needs to be available to everyone or it will never be a sustainable system. The rich shouldn't be the only ones that can afford it. Until the system changes and whole foods are available for everyone at affordable prices it will never be sustainable.
I live in Florida. Land of the newly wed and almost dead I heard someone say on the radio yesterday. I hear it over and over from the elderly who eat at McDonalds because they have a dollar menu. If you can get a burger for the price of one orange (yes in Florinda) and your hungry....You are so right on in this post.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I preach on my blog also: Affordable food for everyone, and I will tell you that its not where I live. Meat here is unaffordable to most of the low income. The only reason I got some was I was able to barter some of my garden produce and herbs I raise on my tiny lot here. Other than that, I cannot afford meat at all. And forget about fruit and veggies. Unless we have the farmer's market going in the spring and summer, we have poor choices for veggies. So I do cut back, but cooking for elderly parents, I cannot go veg.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I do not have answers to this question either, substainable is not going to happen, and I doubt the rich care anyway. The rich do not want their food chain disrupted.
I personally like to see McDonalds disappear but with the economy, I am afraid its a fixture.
I also love SPP's words of "newly wed, and almost dead". What a hoot, lol
Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday
An after thought:
ReplyDeleteAlso, hand in hand the obesity problem is stemmed from the inaccessable availability of fruits and veggies, and affordable food, and the promotion of fast food as a fixture, these places are zoned where low income families are living or shopping and its become habit to frequent these places for meals.Where I live, these poison laden places are positioned where Wal-Mart is and also the main drag steet coming off of I-80 and they catch tourists and travelers. The Chamber of Commerce also really promotes the fast food joints as a viable community fixture here also.
It's not just fast food... our government is creating an edible economic system that is destined to keep us in a hole. When you can purchase a turkey for $.25 a pound, and you KNOW it cost well beyond that to grow... then something somewhere is up. I hate that I sound like a conspiracy theorist... but it's a fact that our government subsidizes big ag food to keep costs below what it REALLY costs to raise food. Plant OR animal. Because of this, very few people in our country have even the slightest idea of what food SHOULD cost.
ReplyDeleteRachel, it's not a conspiracy because it's true. The biggest problem with this country is that the government subsidizes the wrong foods. Big Ag uses the excuse that they need to increase yields to be able to feed everyone, but what's happening is that they are producing TOO MUCH food, which is why the government has to subsidize it. The problem is that we are producing too much of the wrong foods.
ReplyDeleteYes, our abundance is overwhelming us. Literally. That, and the fact that our food supply is controlled by an unsettling small amount of companies.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. At my old job I had to go around the store and fill bags with things for a Thanksgiving dinner for families in need. It included canned green beans/corn/peas, canned fruit in heavy syrup, boxed dried mashed potato, pre-seasoned stuffing mix, cans of gravy, and a package of cookies. I kept thinking to myself, "Why can't we just give vouchers for FRESH fruit and vegetables to families in need? How are we helping them by giving them sugar saturated fruit, nutritionally questionable vegetables, and so forth?"
ReplyDeleteI have problems giving canned food for food drives because as much as I want to give food, I wish there was a system that made it easy to give fresh food. I do end up giving cans, but gah! Conflict.