The History of Food by Linda Stowe
I have taken an interest in food history – what people ate long ago, old recipes, and regional cuisine. It has made me think about the access to and availability of food that we have today. Even working families had meager diets because of their limited access to food. In the early 1900s, a typical breakfast would consist of bread, butter, milk, coffee, sugar, and maybe eggs or meat. The midday meal was the largest meal with meat (leftover from the Sunday roast), potatoes, bread, butter. coffee, and milk. Supper might consist of coffee, milk, bread, butter, and a broth from the meat. The only fruit I noticed mentioned was apples, bananas, and stewed prunes. Vegetables were potatoes and onions, and sometimes tomatoes, or pickles. If a housewife from that period were to see the food in my kitchen she would be overwhelmed by the variety and volume of food just for one person. She might think I was some kind of pirate who raided an exotic ship and made off with booty from far-off lands.
~~~~~~~
I remember my parents talking about eating during the Depression. Or, more to the point, not eating. But that was 1930-ish.
My mom used to talk about having crackers and ketchup for dinner.
I wish I had had the forethought to ask my grandparents about these sorts of things. They were born in 1897, 1898. They lived on farms in Auglaize and Mercer Counties in Ohio. I wonder what they ate each day. Probably lots of chicken eggs.
Today, here in America, most of us have so much food we don’t know what to do with it. The tragedy is that we are so thick in our heads that we waste food while so many in this world go hungry.
Perhaps we can take a few minutes each day to be thankful for all the good food we have to eat. And make a commitment in trying not to waste our abundance in this.
