Spending time, saving money

When I think back to what I was eating when I first moved out of my parents home it was very different to my diet now. Although my mother was and is a great home cook I did not have a passion for cooking when I moved into my first home. Moving out brought with it a wonderful sense of freedom but it came with losses as well. I could now eat what ever I wanted when ever I wanted but, I was also not being cared for in the same way, no one was cooking my meals anymore.

I cringe a little bit when I think of the heavily processed foods I ate with my new found freedom. It was not until I started to prioritize local and seasonal foods that my diet started to change (for the better). Living in close proximity to a farmers market, developing a friendship with a grower and reading, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver, had a big impact on me. It set me on the path of eating seasonally and becoming a passionate home cook.

Living with Seasons

One of the things I love most about living where I live are the seasons. I divide my year into five seasons; Spring, Summer Fall, Christmas and Winter. The Christmas season is my favourite; the immersive experience of listening to the music, seeing the lights and decorations, watching my favourite Christmas movies, eating, cooking and baking special dishes and doing those activities that only come with Christmas, I relish it all so much because it is only for a short period of time. Seasonal eating is much the same, I get to enjoy certain produce for short periods of time and when one is done another one takes its place. It is one treat after another, each one different.

Having a seasonal mindset made me think of food differently. For instance, eggs are seasonal! I never thought of eggs as seasonal until I listened to this funny and eye opening episode of Ologies with Allie Ward. We forget that eggs come from chickens that only lay at a certain time of the year and that milk is made when a female becomes a mother. Factory farmed animals have been so far removed from their natural life cycles that it is easy to forget these things. Before we stopped eating meat, we switched to eating grass fed, local animal meat which meant eating meat during the summer months when animals were grazing outside.

Eating seasonally is also about subtracting, letting go of eating certain foods at certain times.

We don't eat fruit during the Winter months, fruit is something we look forward to eating during the summer. When we eat seasonally we automatically get variety and diversity, instead of trying to eat a rainbow every day we shifted to eating a rainbow over the course of the year. Lots of greens in the spring, reds, blues and purples during the summer and oranges, yellows and whites in the Fall.

Same money, better food (& better health)

Our monthly grocery spend 20 years ago was about $800 and most of that was spent on Organic cheese, eggs, grass fed meat and organic fair trade chocolate. Today we still spend about $800 but most months it is less than that and yet we are buying more Organic foods. We have replaced meat, cheese and eggs with chick peas, beans, lentils, Quinoa and nuts. Joe started making sourdough back in 2019 and it was his quest for organic whole wheat bread flour and rising grocery store prices that made us shift to online grocery shopping (currently our favourites are; OnlineOrganics and OrganicMatters). The pandemic showed me that with some careful planning I only need to visit our local grocery store once a week. This was especially true over the Winter as I would buy predominantly the Fall vegetables; carrots, onions, cabbage, squash, which can all be stored for several days.

We gradually shifted to a vegan diet but I don't like using the word vegan because for most of us that seems to conjure elaborate and complicated meals or the highly processed substitutions for meat and dairy. Like making our own chocolate, preparing a vegan meal is not difficult or complicated. We forget that a pan of roasted vegetables, a hearty vegetable soup or a luscious, colourful salad is a vegan dish, a simple, economical and delicious one at that. When we think that peeling and chopping vegetables is too much of an effort I think we have lost our way and we pay the price. Our health deteriorates when we stop making our own food.

Back to Preserving

We started preserving produce around 2004 and now living more rural we have started preserving again. This time we are doing more freezing than canning. Canning takes a lot of time and prep but we have found that freezing is quicker and easier! For example when Roma tomatoes are in season we buy a few flats of them, give them a wash, let them air dry and throw them into freezer bags. Done. Over the course of the Winter I would take out what I needed, let them thaw just enough to cut them into chunks, then let them sit in a colander to drain some of the excess liquid. I use them the same way I would use canned tomatoes but these are more flavourful and economical. To lower costs further, we have made the shift from canned foods to dried foods. Using dried beans requires a little more planning as they need to soak and then be cooked but we think the savings are worth it. Eating seasonal produce combined with preserved produce and a variety of legumes and whole grains provides us with a well balanced, nourishing diet.

Turning a negative into a positive

It is easy to focus on the negatives of a pandemic (and there were many) and rising prices but difficult situations spur creative thinking and push us to solve problems. Joe and I have more time than money right now so we are using that resource to make more of what we need and consume; we make our own bread, condiments such as ketchup, salsa (we use the Vitamix California salsa recipe) and mayonnaise (we use America's Test kitchen vegan mayo recipe) and chocolate as well as clothing, soft furnishings and even a split box spring!

We have found that eating seasonally is more economical and more enjoyable. Each season brings something new! Spring feels like a breath of fresh air, the flowers the bird song and the fresh veg; lettuces, spring onions, asparagus...its like Christmas! And the hits keep coming, then its tomatoes, peaches, pears, peppers, berries, cauliflowers, broccoli, squash, apples..and it goes on and on until the end of October. Food, glorious food!

Looking back our diet is very different from what it was 20 years ago but it started with one small change and then another and then another...start small, make one change at a time. It started with eating seasonally back in 2004 then making our own bread in 2019 and many other small steps in between and since. Is there one food that is a staple for you that you could start making yourself?