So this morning I had an obscenely proud moment when I made the baby (now 6 months old - how did that happen?) a casserole, using entirely home grown ingredients. I wallowed in my smugness for a bit, then realised that my grandmother wouldn't have found my prowess remarkable in the least. I can just picture her face, actually, frowning a bit as she declared my culinary creation "not terribly exciting" before adding some salt or some other lacking substance. The truth is, not only was she a vastly superior cook to I, but a much better gardener too.
Despite living most of their lives on modest sections, and wrestling with washing coppers and push mowers, my grandparents managed to grow pretty much all of their food too. Might have struggled with the beef side of things, but I guess that was a bonus of having their daughter marry a farmer. And although their garden was impressive, it probably wasn't *that* impressive compared to many others on their street at any given time.
When did buying our veges become the norm? It can't have been that long ago.
Probably about the time that we succumbed to the pressure of trying to make our children into concert pianists / Olympic swimmers instead of unremarkable yet content kids that climbed trees and read books. Maybe when we started spending so much time working and ferrying ourselves and ours around in order to pay for our dream that we ran out of energy to enjoy the lifestyle we are working for.
Lets slow down and enjoy the ordinary.
Well said. I agree. Urban farming isnt a new thing at all, we just seem to have forgotten along the way.
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