Rhonda’s Ramblings

So, let’s talk about food. And not just about what I’m making for dinner tonight. Though that is always a fun subject.

I was listening to Marketplace on NPR a couple of weeks ago. It was a story about “Redefining poverty in the US. According to the reporter, “…food has gone from a third of a family’s costs in the ’60s to an eighth today.” That struck me. From 30% of our income to 12.5% is a big change. And it made me wonder. With all the talk about food prices going up, are they really just staying pretty level overall? Why are we spending so much less? What does that other 17% go towards? Satellite TV? Car payments? Savings?

As I was listening to this story, I was reminded of a letter that Michael Pollan wrote to the next president. In this letter he states:

What our food system does well is precisely what it was designed to do, which is to produce cheap calories in great abundance. It is no small thing for an American to be able to go into a fast-food restaurant and to buy a double cheeseburger, fries and a large Coke for a price equal to less than an hour of labor at the minimum wage — indeed, in the long sweep of history, this represents a remarkable achievement.

So, perhaps this is why we spend so much less on food. Because we can. And we can still get enough food to quench our hunger…and even to make us obese. And we don’t have to work as hard to get our food as people may have had to in the past.

Is this a good thing? I’m not sure. Would we value food more if we had to pay more for it? Are we willing to pay more for better quality food?

I am, admittedly, a bargain shopper. (And I may be a bit proud of that fact. ) But I’m willing to pay more for locally grown quality produce, which is usually way better than the outdated produce that I can find in our supermarket.

I know that I have more questions than answers, but I do recommend reading that whole Micheal Pollan article, even though it is long. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he does have some good thinking points.

So, what percentage of your income do you spend on food? Do you pay more for better quality (whether it is perceived to be better quality like a brand name, or actually better quality like produce that is fresh and crisp)? Do you feel like it is more expensive to eat healthier?

*I should say, that upon further research (on the internet of course), I was not able to find the statistics that Marketplace quoted. Most of the statistics that I found online quoted much lower food expenditure percentages in the 1960’s than Marketplace reported. I did find couple of articles that may give you a better idea of the actual change in food expenditures.

Food Expenditure Table

Americans spend less than 10% of income on food.

Time for pumpkins.

And I love the way the morning light shines on the hills and accents the fall color on the trees. It makes me gasp from the beauty. Really. Every morning, I point it out to Jason, because it still catches me a bit by surprise.

We got our first eggs from our hens today. Two beautiful eggs. I am practically giddy over them. Are eggs supposed to do that to you? I have always wanted to have my own chickens. And even though only 20% survived the ravenous foxes, we now have fresh eggs!

Jason and I made a quick trip to my hometown this past weekend to attend Sierra Nevada Small Farm Progress Days.

Basically, it’s an event for promoting small scale farming, networking with other small scale farmers and of course, showing off equipment. That’s really why farmer’s get together.

But, you won’t find these small farmers showing off their big tractors, but rather they show off their small equipment, a lot of which they have modified to best suit their particular needs. There were different types of hand seeders, a flame weeder (doesn’t that one sound fun?) and a celery hiller.

There were some great information and organizations there as well. We came away with our arms full of pamphlets and reading material and plenty of renewed dreaming and hoping and planning for our small scale farm.

I promise that I won’t make every new entry be about food. But I spend a lot of time in the kitchen (barefoot, but not pregnant.) I love cooking and waste my time in the kitchen when I should be doing other things, like vacuuming or cleaning the bathroom.

My friend Karen gave me a box of pears last week. Even if we ate a pear at every meal, that’s a lot of pears for two people to consume. Though, these pears are so sweet and deliciously juicy that we have been giving it the old college try. Still, lots of pears remain.

So, of course, I used pears in my meatloaf last night. And it was yummy!! I’m not sure that the yumminess had anything to do with the pears, or if it was because of the great recipe I followed. And by “followed”, I mean added various ingredients without measuring or following a recipe. I know you are dying for the “recipe”, so I’m happy to share.

1 lb ground beef (I use beef from a local grower)
1 package sausage (from the family’s pigs…very local)
1 egg
some diced onion
a few shakes of italian seasoning
a few squeezes of ketchup
a few drops of worcestershire sauce
a glug of milk
3/4 cups bread crumbs
one pear, diced

Mix it together all ingredients. Fill 6 muffin cups with meat mix and bake at 375ish until they seem done. Put the remaining meat into 3 small loaf pans and freeze to cook at a later date.

(This is really how I cook.)

Oh, I also made some pear butter in the crockpot. I sort of, kind of followed a recipe. It is also delicious.

And I made my weekly loaf of “good whole wheat bread”. That is the name of the recipe that I actually followed. Though I shouldn’t really take credit for the bread. The breadmaker gets all of the credit. I just dump the ingredients in the pan.

And still, pears remain.

This plum tree in our backyard is a survivor. This tree is tough. We live in the desert and get about 13.44 inches of rain a year. And this tree gets no extra water, yet it produced a bucketful of plums this year.

So I did what any aspiring farmer’s wife would do. I decided to make plum butter. Now, I am not what one would call a “recipe follower”. To me, recipes are just jumping off points. Most of the time this works out well…but not always.

The thing that I don’t love about making fruit butters is the standing over the stove, constantly stirring. So, I decided to just put it in the crockpot. And I didn’t want to use as much sugar as most of the recipes called for, so I didn’t. And I didn’t really measure anything.

And it turned out yummy!!

I can’t believe that it has been over two years since I’ve posted here. I blame it mostly on Jason!

A lot has happened in the last couple of years. I quit my job, took a drive around the country and then moved to a somewhat remote area of northern California. Okay, we do have a Walmart nearby, so it is not that remote. But it is pretty small and isolated.

I moved here to see if things would work out with a guy I met. And things ended up working out wonderfully!

I am now Mrs. Meadows. Except I would prefer not to be called that. It sounds like I’m old. I will answer to Rhonda Meadows though. Isn’t it a perfectly delightful last name?