Enough

“You can never have enough,” Grandma Klee would advise.

Take care opening her closet doors, cupboards brimful of reassurance; can after can of button mushrooms and baby onions, along with infinite other treats, definite signs of culinary security, might jump off the laden shelves.

Apparently, my affinity for having a full larder has ancestral roots which have sustained me throughout my life, and has been fed by others as well. I was impressed and excited to tour our neighbors’ cozy bomb shelter, stocked with enough food to last forever, or so it seemed to a seven year old.

At eleven, Sue Smith and I equipped our under porch “sleepover fort” with ample penny candies to get us through the night.

As a young adult, when our New Mexican neighbor showed us his garage, filled floor to ceiling with large jars and bulk bins of grains, awe overtook me.

Now that I have gone six months with nary a trip to the grocery store, I realize what values my Mormon neighbor and I share— prudence, self-sufficiency, and forethought for times when illness or catastrophe might intervene.

While Apocalyptic fervor doesn’t dictate my life, and while I don’t have 720 Freeze Dried Emergency pouches of delectables to get me through a year, I even have something in common with Survivalists and Preppers. Oh my Gosh! Y2K was not even on my radar, but food security obviously is inherent.

Tis more the foraging squirrel or the busy bee in me, preparing for a long winter in the Northeast, that guides my food prep choices. Tis my love of gardening and eating locally that determines how I spend my summers. Tis my frugality and aversion to shopping that spurs me to forage for wild edibles, and to stock up on sale items, big time. Tis a pinch of persistent determination that gets me through long hot fall evenings making and canning gallons of applesauce from drops which nobody else seems to have nimbleness or desire to gather off the ground.

Flexibility and cooking creativity rule my kitchen and have gotten me through this food buying moratorium experiment with fun, enjoyment, curiosity, and an insights into my choices and values around food.

Throw in a pinch of challenging discouragement over the past month when no chocolate was to be found in my house.

Enough of this experiment. I am done.

I shall now move onto another project, likely scraping and painting the deck, or filling cracks in my driveway with hands dirty from gooey melted chocolate….after I go food shopping.

Where ARE all my reusable grocery bags?!






Off to a good start for next winter...