Food History

I just read my friend's post about food history.  You know the quirks and traditions that each family has and that we pass down through the generations.  She asked what other's food history or traditions might me, and that got me to thinking about how much food has changed from my grandparents generation to my children's generation. As a matter of fact, I think the food traditions might have taken a sharp turn in our family.

For my maternal grandmother, cooking and canning the fresh vegetables she raised and meat from the farm animals was a part of daily life.  Mother tells how Grandma made sausage but stored it in 9x13 size metal pans.  She would press the sausage into the pan and then seal it with a layer of lard, wrap it in brown paper and store it in the basement.  I remember Grandma wringing the neck of a chicken and then cooking it for supper.  Or sometimes Grandpa accidentally killed rabbits in the field with the farm machinery, and that rabbit would end up on the table for dinner.  At times it was all I could do to swallow a piece of meat if I thought about it.

On the other hand, when Grandpa butchered beef, I found it amazing to push on the lungs of the poor beast as they lay on the flatbed trailer while the carcass hung from a tree.  It didn't bother me a bit to look at the entrails and try to figure out what they were and how they had worked.  Perhaps it didn't bother me because that beef was not on the table that night!

I am afraid those traditions are gone for my children. The closest we get to that is growing and canning our own vegetables and buying free range chicken and organic beef at the farmers market.  We have lost some skills and some closeness to the land and the food chain to be sure. In one sense favorite dishes will continue through the family, but some of the ties to raising our own and feeding ourselves are probably gone for good.