What Was Old is New Again

The Seniors CHOICE, over the past two years, has carried several stories about people supporting the philosophy of the ‘100 Mile Diet’ and farmers and gardeners collecting and sharing ‘heritage’ seeds. In the early days of the ‘Diet’ most followers were looked on as weird, hippy crackpots – but no longer. Thanks to the sky-high price of oil, the idea of communities becoming self sufficient in food now seems forward thinking and revolutionary! The cost of trucking, shipping or flying foods in from across the continent or around the world has become a real daily concern. People on fixed incomes can only pay so much at the grocery store.  Great grandparents are smiling, of course, because that is what they once had and were forced to give up. The more things change…. Every summer people in the Valley have seen their local Farmer’s Markets increase in size and variety of produce as demand has grown. It makes good sense, because in terms of flavor alone, once you get used to fresh tomatoes and asparagus it is hard to go back. I wonder what our own grandchildren will think when we tell them that once we paid a fortune for dry, limp asparagus that had been shipped to Canada from Peru. What kind of ‘carbon footprint’ does that make, I wonder? Now, what was old is new again. ‘Cow Sharing’ is the coming thing. Friends get together and find a local live stock producer who does not use hormones and chemicals to fatten and bulk up his stock. They place their order for chemical free beef, divide it up among themselves, and stock their freezer for the year ahead. This was quite a common thing once, and then it fell out of fashion. Now it has been rediscovered as the new thing! Who knows, maybe the old idea of community freezers or ‘locker plants’, will come back again. The downtown folks living in microscopic condos with kitchens the size of broom cupboards have no space for a freezer. For them the community site where everyone has their own food locker would be ideal. Once upon a time that is what people did and it worked just fine, thank you. Over in the Kootenays now they are taking the next step in market gardening. The vegetables are well established in the markets but the locals wanted to be more independent with their bread supply. They held a community meeting to bring farmers, bakers, millers and future customers all together and hatched a plan that promises to make them almost self sufficient in grain. After much discussion between bakers and farmers they chose five different varieties to grow – all heritage grains! They chose grains that are suited to the locality, hardy, and flavourful. One of these is Red Fife, which was once the only wheat that Canada produced. Many readers who spent their childhood on the prairies will remember this. Another even older grain is Polish Wheat, which was chosen because many people with wheat allergies can eat this. All across Canada this philosophy of bringing back the bond between communities and those who supply their food is growing. The imitation foods produced by agribusiness are falling out of favour. Those strawberries that last forever in their little plastic cases are genetically modified to look good and store well – flavour is not even discussed in the chemistry labs. Today there are heritage grains being grown and enjoyed on Vancouver Island as well as in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. So – we look backwards to move forward – and perhaps give the old farmers a bit more respect. The battle against agribusiness is not the only one being fought in the Okanagan. The locally produced community newsmagazines are also under threat from the outside super giants. You will have noticed that the number of free papers available in your grocery stores, malls and pharmacies has grown by leaps and bounds in the past two years. Publications that are 100% ads touting real estate, used cars and everything in between are elbowing out the local papers. Free papers such as ours are finding it harder and harder to keep our stands in convenient locations. Some stores have been so overwhelmed with these franchised magazines that they have thrown all the free papers out, and we can’t blame them. We understand their problem but it makes it difficult for those of us who produce a local product – ‘by seniors and for seniors’.   If you enjoy one of these community magazines, and there are several to choose from, then let your local store manager know which ones he/she should give space to. As well, you might consider taking out a subscription to the ones you enjoy. That way the papers you like appear in your mailbox, rain or shine, and you can enjoy them with your morning coffee. We hope you enjoy the June issue of the CHOICE along with all the other treats of an Okanagan summer. Now that the longest winter in the history of the world is finally over we can all look forward to a summer of good food with good friends! Bon appetite!

 

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