How 2021 Surprised Us

 In Food

How 2021 Surprised Us

We rediscovered how to cook. We learned, or re-learned how to garden. We went behind the scenes of the grocery store. We were shocked to hear the dangers of working at a meat packing plant. We discovered farmers near our communities, even inside cities, on roofs, in yards, tucked into vacant spaces. We even found food growing in our cities and neighborhoods. 

Here are two kinds of tomatillo grown in a Western garden. The purple ones are the size of regular tomatillos, while the green ones are the size of a hand! This surprising fruit often grows better than a tomato plant, and can be eaten raw or cooked. It also keeps well, staying tart and juicy well into the fall.

Another surprise was realizing how dependent on restaurants and take-out places we've become. In some cases, we had to relearn how to cook and keep ourselves fed. I used to get kofta, vegetarian Indian patties in curry, from a place around the corner about once a week. When I tried to make it for myself, it took all day! 

I also used a meal kit service, Hello Fresh, for about six months. Even though the recipes were designed to be prepared in 20 minutes or less, I still spent at least an hour in the kitchen with clean-up factored in. And allowances had to be made to photograph my creations for Instagram! Though I no longer subscribe to the service, I've kept the recipes to be used over and over, customizing them to my preferences.

We've learned much that has been suppressed or forgotten about how Indigenous peoples cultivated, grew on, and cared for their lands. Did you know that canyonlands of the U.S. were once covered in peach trees planted by Navajo people? A woman named Reagan Wytsalucy is working to bring back the peach orchards. Her story is recounted in Return to Now. 

As surprised as we were about food shortages at the grocery store, I think we were even more surprised that stores recovered so quickly and came back with plentiful harvests, particularly of fresh produce. Building back the meat processing industry will take longer because working conditions must be improved and decentralization must take place. Just two weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak visited Wheat Ridge Meat and Poultry, a few blocks from my house, to learn about their multi-generation operation and the independent processing facility they are building. The fact that four processors control 85 percent of the beef industry is unsustainable and leads to poor prospects for employees. 

We volunteered in local gardens and food distribution centers and learned surprising facts about food. For instance, do you know what this contraption is? It's a hand operated mower to harvest baby greens. You simply insert a cordless drill or screwdriver in the side handle which makes the braided strings go around and gently gather the greens into the bag. I got to use one while volunteering at a local urban garden and CSA outlet in July, Green Gate Farms, pictured below. 

Comment with your surprises during 2021 on the subject of food. Let's keep the conversation going and enter the post-pandemic era with mindfulness and purpose.