Food & packaging. Gone are the days of 20-pound bags of flour and weekly trips to the general store. There is of course quite a bit of nostalgia for "simpler" times, but then, I wouldn't be blogging now, would I?
Firstly, my question is - where did it all go? The flour, I mean. Where would one put twenty pounds of flour or sugar or dried fruit or whatnot? What about the apples one would certainly keep over the winter and hope the worms weren't too voracious? Root cellars (which, by the way, one day I will have)? I can't imagine buying food in the same way as folks did way back when... But, then, I don't think I even could if I wanted to!
When I think about the "simplicity" of days of yore, I realise that it is really easy to get hung up on the idea that the "things" made the simplicity. There is definitely a renaissance of sorts with crafty things - knitting and candle-making and the like - things which, as my mother pointed out, were once considered "chores" but are now considered "crafts." But I don't think that it's really the things that make the difference - it's the attitude - the motive of the person in creating and using them.
Case in point: this weekend we traveled to Ohio for my brother's wedding. In our hotel room, they provided "Mini Moos" - a single-serve (or 1/4 serve, if you ask my husband) cream for coffee. A thoughtful idea - no powdered cream, which Nathan detests - and there was no need to refrigerate. Additionally, there were no health department infringements - so, essentially, it was a perfect package. Nathan appreciated the thought and drank it with his morning coffee, courtesy of an in-room coffee-maker and single-serve, sealed ground coffee packet. Yes, lots of packaging, but the convenience was second-to-none.
We brought all of the trash home from our trip, and, of course the Mini Moos were not labeled as recyclable. I stuck them in the "?" bin anyway.
I suppose there must be a middle ground in all this.
in the battle things we absolutely need and things we would like to have, our culture has catastrophically avalanched on the "things we want" side of matters. There is only so much money to be squeezed out of the milk, eggs, and bread category and when that runs dry we creep into the soda, chips, and candy realm. In all this mess there has been born the fusion of the two into single serve EVERYTHING and instant "insert whatever" and at the crux of it all we've lost the ability to function on a base level without considerable effort to run away from our single serve society. huzzah! Joe's frist rant in eons!
ReplyDeleteI am all for Middle Ground. As a family of 5 (3 teen boys-they EAT) and ONE income- buying whole-organic-etc for everything is just not gonna happen. We'd end up living on the streets. (Cali prices are HIGH, as you cann guess).
ReplyDeleteSo I decided it is more important for me/us to be 'hormone free' than totally organic in some cases. Dairy/meats/eggs- I try go for no hormone- but not 'organically raised' (unless it cost the same-which is rare). I try to buy the larger sized items (5-10 pound of flour instead of the conveinient sized)- but Ki loves the 'baby butters' at Panera and when I stop there to get bagels (which is only about once every other month)I grab a few of those over packaged butters for him.
California does have lots of (year round)Farmers Markets though! Those are nice! I have my bicycle with baskets for those days!
Lifestyles today are, in general, very different than 100 yrs ago when they had root cellars and 20 pounds of sugar. most families are double income, kids in daycare, longer working hours to pay off the summer houses or the iPhone bills- so they want fast, convenient products. so that is what is made the most- Supply & Demand I guess. Change the demand and the supply will change, too