I do very little shopping; I don’t need to. I have very few wants or needs. But I do eat; it seems it’s an addiction that I picked up at a very young age. I shop for groceries only about once a month, I find no need to do it more often. I find that fruits and vegetables store quite easily for long periods of time if bought while fresh and stored properly.
Fortunately, for me, I was born during what history books now record as the Great Depression. I grew up when kitchen gardens, where fruits and vegetables were grown, were the in thing, which put the food on the table that fed the hungry tummies of many. There was a chicken coup out back where hens were kept and a few eggs were gathered each day. If you were lucky you may have had an apple or pear tree tucked in a corner of your yard; along with a couple of current bushes.
A clutch or two of cute baby chicks were hatched each spring in order to replace the aging hens; which, without doubt, ended up in the soup pots that simmered on the back of the heavy, cast-iron, kitchen stoves. Roosters, the less lucky gender of the poultry world, as soon as old enough to decipher, he from she, were tucked into fattening crates, introduced to the chopping block, followed by roasting pans, that were placed in the big old baking ovens, out from which they came a sizzling succulent golden brown on a large platter.
I was doubly fortunate in the fact that my parents moved from small town urban to rural route and took up mixed farming when I was only 4. Being second last born to a family of nine that was a necessity. And I was thirdly fortunate a few years later when they switched from mixed farming to full scale market gardening.
It was there that I learned how to recognize both fruit and vegetables that were fresh, or not so fresh. This is a real asset when shopping the expansive display of the far reaching produce of markets today.
Being a conservationist, who talks the talk and walks the walk, I take seven or eight assorted carry-home grocery bags that can be used again and again. I don’t like plastic but I do find it a necessary evil while keeping veggies alive and well in the refrigerator. While shopping I place each and every kind of fruit or veg’ separately in those clear and handy plastic bags, so well placed within arms reach.
Each bag I tie securely in such a way that it can be reopened again when necessary. I store the vegies within these bags while stored in the fridge. It keeps them from drying out and it also keeps their flavour from dissipating or mingling with the others; leaving them, considerably longer, crisp, and holding their own individual flavour.
Fruit is a little more tricky. Bananas and tomatoes I never put in the fridge. They are far tastier and ripen more evenly if out on the counter somewhere. All other fruit I sort according to ripeness and take from the refrigerator at least one day prior to use. They seem to taste more succulent if served at room temperature. Grapes, if firm and fresh when purchased, will keep up to three weeks without a problem. Apples will keep for ever and ever and Eggs run close on their heels.
Meats are not a problem with me. I’m still a bacon and eggs muncher at the breakfast nook, but other than that and dairy products I have become a vegetarian.
There are several reasons for that. Though time and space prohibits a proper explanation here and now, I will cover that too, in a later article.
In the past year and one half that I have been on my own, I have slowly and steadily dropped 60 pounds in weight and am feeling much better because of it. I do not miss at all meat in my diet, and am able to pig-out on food, as much as I want to, as long as I stay off of meat and large quantities of heavy pastry.
As a matter of fact folks, since I went almost veggie I’ve been feeling a lot, lot better. Perhaps a word of caution is warranted, that if I get feeling any better, I could be dangerous. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Take care, ’cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca 519-843-4544