Who would have thought that there would come a day when people were so disconnected from the land they did not realize where their food comes from?
In our family, it’s all about the food.
One day my daughter said to me, “why is it, all we think about is food?”
I told her, it’s because in our family “food equals love.”
Somehow, what my grandmother taught my mother; my mother taught me; my daughter also gleaned from her surrounding enough of the harvest to begin planting her own seeds of good food, home cooking, recycling and art.
All of the above, of course come with seasoned with creativity and imagination.
Strangely enough, the skills required to keep a family of 10 or 12 children fed and clothed on a farm have somehow diluted and lost to the point of illusion. In a time when everyone seems to think that food and clothes come from Walmart, I’m thinking to myself, perhaps documenting some of the things we have taken for granted our whole lives might not be such a bad idea.
Mixed in a few old family recipes, some crochet, knit or sewn projects and you see before you the strange mix of my life where, when growing up, “food equaled love.”
Somehow a New Year brings the desire to start off fresh, organized and purged – at least in my studio. I actually have begun the process of cleaning out and attempting to simplify my life. However, when a “normal” person walks into a room lined with wire baskets of yarn, tools and other stuff collected from thrift stores and the river bank, well… the look on their faces says it all.
So after a holiday season of overeating or at least indulging in foods we don’t normally eat on a daily basis, it’s time to think about putting good things in your body and your mind as well.
My freezer had empty ziplock bags. I hate washing them so I just reuse them by keeping them in the freezer. Oh, they are dedicated to holding scraps only. You know the leftover broccoli stems, celery middles and veggies that no longer can be used for eating. There’s also several bags of carcasses from chickens, or turkeys and trimmings from steaks and roasts. When the bags are full, it’s time to make soup stock. And, what better time of the year to make homemade soup than in the dead of winter? Down comes the large silver pot. The pot is filled about halfway with cold water and then the fun begins. Bay leaf and allspice balls join the bones and trimmings for a daylong simmering. Don’t forget to add onion and garlic to the mix. Do not add salt, it's not time yet... It makes the house smell wonderful. After enough time has passed, it matters not whether you simmer for a day or two, you strain the liquid from the “stuff” and throw the bones away. Then, you allow the broth to cool completely. We put it outdoors on our sun porch. Sometime this morning, I’ll bring it in and scrap all the fat that rises to the top. This makes for a wonderful low fat and flavorful broth. In the next post, we’ll begin to create the soup.
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