Mar 29, 2022·edited Apr 5, 2022Liked by Alicia Kennedy
If my grandma was alive she would point to her sustainable small garden in her urban home in the town of Arecibo a mile away from the Atlantic Ocean. It was in that small plot were she raised aguacates, limones, eggplant, tomatoes, okra, plantains, cilantro, culantro, passion fruit, green bananas, sunflower for the seeds and I can keep going. She taught me that abundance is what the earth provides in any given day. This women believed in the power of "one." For her growing food was a job that every one should take part and should not be delegated to only a few. I've always struggled to understand how was she was passed down that vision of abundance and acceptance since I don't resemble her much but value her extraordinary live.
Food abundance was not limited to our household since at least every other neighbor in "la urbanizacion" had some sort of fruit tree or vegetable growing in the backyard. It was a ritual to find a food item in front of the house gifted by a neighbor. But this phenomenon was not unique to our neighborhood either, it was also seen when we went to visit our family members in the country side. Everyone of our family members had a special fruit tree in the backyard that we visited as part of the trip. The adults stayed inside chatting and having cafe con leche. The kids were told to go out and play around these massive pomarosa, mango and pana trees. Once the adults were done talking then they would head out to the backyard to enjoy the second part of the visit which included visiting the trees and talking about their harvest. Before going home me and Abuela would leave with a big bag full of fruits and vegetables. On our drive back we would discuss what food items were going to be eaten first. The weeks menu was already in the making. Our little food network was full of worldly flavors that were now rooted in our land and were embraced as part of our culinary traditions. The foods were eaten in the most natural state and their unique flavors created a memory DNA that is impossible to recreate.
I mean...11:49pm on a Friday night tipsy writing, I'm ready to go on this journey with you :) Your article raises a lot of complex questions we need to ask ourselves. Technology is not stopping for any of us and (among many industries, food being a very important one)...just because we can, does it mean we should?
One of the things technology is bridging for people who want produce, cuisine, etc is to create or recreate experiences. A sense of nostalgia or longing. However, to your point, it is SO good to eat something where it's good. Paying a premium to continually enable some kind of distanced experience, like evoking the idea of vacation, seems like such a waste.
I think what Goldbelly has set out to do plays an interesting role in this - does everybody win in that marketplace ecosystem? I hope so! But I'm sure it has its consequences. There are also restaurants that try to invoke feelings of a home-cooked meal and home meal services that try to invoke the feeling of a restaurant...so I guess we're always searching for food to temporarily transport us somewhere else.
This piece hits to many ideas that keep coming up for me while reading Eating to Extinction. The fact that our modern food system is unsustainable partially due to completely ignoring locality. People trying to grow food in places that it is not meant to, therefore, needing too over compensate and depleting the land. In conjunction, the white west has been and continues to export/colonizing diets of others world wide, making what we eat more similar, perpetuating diets unrelated to the land one lives on.
Something that keeps coming up for me regarding this is what food is considered “poor” food vs “luxury” food? It now seems, food that has in the past been considered not edible, for the poorest, is now being turned around as luxury due to the now rarity of it (heritage grains being one). and to your point of exporting tropicals, much of it depends on the availability in a place, and if it is not possible to grow in the US for example, it equates in many ways to the perceived increase in value. As always, so many things to ponder. I am excited to check out that foodscapes book, thanks for sharing!
I think I understand what you’re saying but you also don’t live in the northeast where we have winter for like forever. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to cut into a pineapple yesterday and feel warmer days.
If my grandma was alive she would point to her sustainable small garden in her urban home in the town of Arecibo a mile away from the Atlantic Ocean. It was in that small plot were she raised aguacates, limones, eggplant, tomatoes, okra, plantains, cilantro, culantro, passion fruit, green bananas, sunflower for the seeds and I can keep going. She taught me that abundance is what the earth provides in any given day. This women believed in the power of "one." For her growing food was a job that every one should take part and should not be delegated to only a few. I've always struggled to understand how was she was passed down that vision of abundance and acceptance since I don't resemble her much but value her extraordinary live.
Food abundance was not limited to our household since at least every other neighbor in "la urbanizacion" had some sort of fruit tree or vegetable growing in the backyard. It was a ritual to find a food item in front of the house gifted by a neighbor. But this phenomenon was not unique to our neighborhood either, it was also seen when we went to visit our family members in the country side. Everyone of our family members had a special fruit tree in the backyard that we visited as part of the trip. The adults stayed inside chatting and having cafe con leche. The kids were told to go out and play around these massive pomarosa, mango and pana trees. Once the adults were done talking then they would head out to the backyard to enjoy the second part of the visit which included visiting the trees and talking about their harvest. Before going home me and Abuela would leave with a big bag full of fruits and vegetables. On our drive back we would discuss what food items were going to be eaten first. The weeks menu was already in the making. Our little food network was full of worldly flavors that were now rooted in our land and were embraced as part of our culinary traditions. The foods were eaten in the most natural state and their unique flavors created a memory DNA that is impossible to recreate.
I mean...11:49pm on a Friday night tipsy writing, I'm ready to go on this journey with you :) Your article raises a lot of complex questions we need to ask ourselves. Technology is not stopping for any of us and (among many industries, food being a very important one)...just because we can, does it mean we should?
One of the things technology is bridging for people who want produce, cuisine, etc is to create or recreate experiences. A sense of nostalgia or longing. However, to your point, it is SO good to eat something where it's good. Paying a premium to continually enable some kind of distanced experience, like evoking the idea of vacation, seems like such a waste.
I think what Goldbelly has set out to do plays an interesting role in this - does everybody win in that marketplace ecosystem? I hope so! But I'm sure it has its consequences. There are also restaurants that try to invoke feelings of a home-cooked meal and home meal services that try to invoke the feeling of a restaurant...so I guess we're always searching for food to temporarily transport us somewhere else.
Look at that lovely plantain! I've never even heard of that variety before. You can easily swap "wheat" for "banana" throughout this essay.
Love the entire post with a special heart for this - "feed each other for free from what they grow."
This piece hits to many ideas that keep coming up for me while reading Eating to Extinction. The fact that our modern food system is unsustainable partially due to completely ignoring locality. People trying to grow food in places that it is not meant to, therefore, needing too over compensate and depleting the land. In conjunction, the white west has been and continues to export/colonizing diets of others world wide, making what we eat more similar, perpetuating diets unrelated to the land one lives on.
Something that keeps coming up for me regarding this is what food is considered “poor” food vs “luxury” food? It now seems, food that has in the past been considered not edible, for the poorest, is now being turned around as luxury due to the now rarity of it (heritage grains being one). and to your point of exporting tropicals, much of it depends on the availability in a place, and if it is not possible to grow in the US for example, it equates in many ways to the perceived increase in value. As always, so many things to ponder. I am excited to check out that foodscapes book, thanks for sharing!
This gave me so much to think about--thanks!
I knew I was going to love this one, even before I saw you quoted Lin’s piece! Thank you for sharing it.
Brilliant and thought-provoking as always. Thanks.
I think I understand what you’re saying but you also don’t live in the northeast where we have winter for like forever. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to cut into a pineapple yesterday and feel warmer days.