To Hillary, From Amy
I’m looking into getting more real about food storage and am grossed out by the whole canned vegetable thing. How can you have a good food storage that is not entirely grain based. Should I just get over it and figure that, in an emergency, canned is better than nothing. I know we’re supposed to store what we use, but aren’t we also supposed to eat fresh foods rather than packaged (typically high sodium and preservative packed) foods. I don’t want 114 boxes of Lucky Charms, but I’m sure that will keep longer than my organic granola. Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. Feel free to contact me “offline”. What ever that means.
Dear Hillary,
I think you’ve just expressed the Great Food Paradox of our culture. In trying to address this, I hope that I don’t sound too preachy, too ignorant, or a horrid combination of the two.
While reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle, I realized that I–like most people I know–view food as something that comes from a store. Food comes, however, from the earth. A sustainable food system does not involve enormous, subsidized fuel-consumption transportation efforts to move produce from one side of the globe to the other.
Imagine if you were to make the switch to local foods, consuming only locally-grown produce, only from local farms and farmers’ markets. You would experience seasons of abundance and seasons that leave you longing for seasons of abundance. You’d see immediately the advantage of storing the surplus of summer and enjoying it during winter’s want. Applesauce and canned tomatoes would be a welcome alternative to empty cupboards, or scurvey. The blessings of storing food would be instantly apparent.
The question, then, is whether those of us who haven’t adopted a locavore diet would benefit from supplementing store-bought produce with store-bought canned or frozen goods. I think the answer is still yes.
Working backwards, if something were to happen to crops, or if a transportation strike kept grocery stores from stocking produce, you’d have something to survive on. For catastrophic purposes, it makes sense to have a reserve.
Next up would be “personal emergencies.” An employment gap is an obvious example, and while I have experienced that (and, as you are well-aware, an identity theft incident that left me without access to any sort of funds), far more common for me is a last-minute need to prepare additional food, for events or for sudden dinner guests, quite frequently on Sundays.
Thankfully, gone are the days of staring at soy milk, cereal, and a lone bag of rice, wondering what sort of loaves-and-fishes miracle would need to happen in order for me to feed others. Instead, I have a nice variety of whole grains and legumes on hand which I know how to prepare. There’s always something in the crisper drawer that can be augmented by the seasonings, seeds, and nuts we keep. Canned vegetables do not replace fresh ones, but supplement main dishes (including soups, chili, pilafs, pastas, etc). Canned beans also speed up meal preparation if none are soaking. Knowing how to cook with TVP (which involves only buying it and remembering to throw it into a pot) adds additional texture and protein to whatever we end up making. It has taken some effort to get to this point, but it is such a blessing to be able to regularly prepare entire meals without needing advanced planning or additional trips to the store.
If the thought of even buying canned vegetables grosses you out, then don’t do it. You are very industrious and know how to prepare and store large quantities of food. (Don’t you already own a vacuum sealer?) Factory-canned, freeze dried, and dehydrated foods are not the law or even the ideal way to store fruits and vegetables. The closer we get to the source of our food, the better we’ll be at enjoying it appropriately in its season and storing it appropriately for times of want.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
dear amy. i don’t know a lot of things about sustainableness and food storage and stuff.so i was just wondering, what is tvp and what does it look like and how do you use it?
kind regards.
jo
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:39 pm
dear jo. tvp is textured vegetable protein. click here for a picture of tvp–this is what it might look like if you buy it in bulk. http://www.foodsubs.com/Soyprod.html (scroll down)
you can find a lot of prepared fake-meats that taste at least decent. my problem with that is i’m not used to a “meat” element in my diet, so i forget to make them, and unless it can go in a sandwich, it will probably go bad in the fridge before i remember to do anything with it. so i like the dry tvp (sold in crumbles, granules or chunks) that i can mix in with other things. Corina makes a delicious dish with tvp, soy sauce, and rice, affectionately known as “the chunks.”
There are tvp cookbooks(amazon.com) but it’s really easy to just substitute it in chili and other dishes if you’re not ready to learn to make veggie burgers (which I still haven’t done, 15 years into being vegetarian). give it a try and you’ll be tap dancing all the way home.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Dear Amy,
Being a locavore is pretty hard work. I don’t have everything down to a science, but I sure do my share of reading labels to determine what products used the least amount of fuel to get to the store.
I’ve also bought some compost-derived potting soil from the Lower East Side Ecology Center. They have a booth at the Union Square Farmers’ Market. It might be a little late into the “farming” season, but I also picked up some seeds for herbs and will have a 2nd attempt at growing my own goods.
I’ve got a month’s worth of bulghur and brown rice, and my at next trip to the market I’ll pick up some honey and syrup. Sugar snaps are about due. Squash is coming. Strawberries come around June, and blueberries around August. And the apples never stop.
Have you tried canning yet?
It sounds like you’re doing a fantastic job living off the lay of the land. Keep it up; I’m right behind you.
Thanks for your diligence,
may
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
dear anagram,
you are right- it takes effort to change our food choices, habits, traditions, and culture! ;-). i haven’t bought compost-derived potting soil yet, but i should look into that!
i haven’t tried canning yet, although i did make applesauce on saturday that i’m keeping in my roommate’s old applesauce jar (in the fridge, not much of a shelf-life there). i want to learn more about water bath canners and hopefully purchase one as we get further into the summer.
one thing i’ve started doing is a once-a-week trip to the Union Square greenmarket. I am trying to base my produce on what I can find there, and supplement it with groceries, rather than the other way around. On Wednesdays i can get a big bag of small apples for only $1, and that lasts me through the week. i’m also getting more plants each time i go (i still don’t have the patience for seeds yet!)
do you know anything about canning?
April 30th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Thanks for the advice. Long time reader, second time commenter.
I’ve been wanting to adequately reply to your reply. But I’m tired. I will say this though… I think I need to separate my emergency preparedness into 3 categories: short-term, mid-term, and long-term.
Short-term, would be 72 hour kit, don’t have a bare cupboard, keep staples on hand.
Mid-term, 3 months, 10lb bag of rice, hearty supply of canned beans, soups, frozen items (I got rid of my vacuum sealer and don’t really regret it. It always made me think of this gross lasagna I made and ate for 6 months), pasta, assortment of grains and legumes, etc.
Long-term, this is where you get into the the stuff that isn’t really on a regular rotation. Winter wheat, canned vegetables, dehydrated dairy. I’m not planning on regularly cooking with plain wheat or powdered milk, you know. I would in an emergency, but if given the option I want my daily diet to consist of fresh fruits and veggies and non-processed, dehydrated foods; which I believe is a healthier lifestyle. Man should not live primarily on canned vegetables and Kraft macaroni and cheese.