Posted on 01/09/2010 5:03:43 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
There are many predictions regarding life in 2010. The Food Channel (FC) recently released their Trends for 2010, based on research conducted in conjunction with CultureWaves and the International Food Futurists.
Here are a few from their list I hope become reality.
Keeping it Real. In light of our back-to-basics economy, FC predicts we will return to basic ingredients. Pantries will be stocked with essentials; pure, simple, clean and sustainable foods. We’ll shift from convenience foods to scratch cooking, now that we have more time than money and more food knowledge and concerns.
Remember cuisine d’opportunite? We will be exploring what more we can do with our basics and what’s on hand to get ourselves through the long haul of economic recovery.
Food Vetting. Food vetting, or sourcing, is something I’ve been promoting for several years. Food vetting will give us an element of control over the quality of the foods we eat. We want to know where our food comes from, how it’s grown and harvested and whether it is truly good for us or not.
According to Territorial Seed Company in Albany, Ore., polls conducted by the National Gardening Association indicated that two million more households grew vegetables in 2008 than in 2007, and 2009 results suggest a 20 percent increase in vegetable gardening as compared to 2008.
As we continue to struggle in the midst of this recession, growing a garden helps us to gain control of our personal food security. Growing and preserving food are skills that help us “stay in shape mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
“Renaissance by definition means a rebirth, a revival, or a retrofit of the best of the past,” reads the introduction of The Territorial Seed Company catalogue. “Time-honored homesteading skills are becoming modish. Those with a keen instinct to thrive in tough times are returning to the fundamentals of gardening, canning, cooking, baking bread, sewing and cutting fire wood. A return to the use-it-up, wear-it-out, make-it-do or do-without values hit home again. These are the very values that once defined our country.”
Mainstreaming Sustainability. When we started publishing our monthly sustainability section it was hard to put into words exactly what sustainability meant. Now, the concept is as natural and ingrained as tying our shoes.
I have been teaching sustainable cooking classses for going on four years now. My family has eaten local, seasonal food for longer than that. FC suggests that we replace the words “local” and “sustainable” with “nearby” and “hometown,” which may help clarify that local designation.
Packaging will also take a sustainable change. You will see more bamboo and biodegradable and “nude food” that is more transparent with less packaging.
Food with Benefits. Just a few years ago, it was hip among Hollywood celebs to eat a “gluten-free” diet, even if it wasn’t medically required. Nutritionally fortified and “free from” foods will be more easily found, and we can expect to see nutritional value labeling on foods, which will make it easier for the consumer to know what the food contains.
FC says we will make changes in the way we feed our children, making sure that school lunch menus are built with beneficial foods and not just “cheap” foods.
You can also expect to read more in this column about how to feed your family tasty meals for pennies and still ensure nutrition.
Will Trade for Food. This notion has huge potential. As we raise our own vegetables and fruits, chickens and eggs, make our own cheeses and sausages, we are realizing that we have items that others may need.
FC predicts that barter exchange companies will spring up to redefine banking with ‘trade dollars.” More cooperative meals (remember the neighbors who take turns cooking for each other?) and gifting of foods will be occurring, too.
You can read the complete list of trends at http://www.foodchannel.com It’s fun to read what psychics and researchers predict for the New Year. But in the end, we determine what the new year will bring.
One certainty is that over the next year we will prepare approximately 1095 meals. My wish for you is that each of those meals, even the low-ly PBJ, is prepared with attention to the ingredients and loving intention for those who will eat it, so that you might experience the joy of cooking.
Thanks. I have some ideas, but I do keep some on hand and it would be good to have some options.
Actually a small town-no homeless no nothun exciting, except we kids knew to stay away from the roundhouse (where the train engines were serviced and turned around to go back) since that was where the hobos hung out. I never heard of any actual trouble with whoever might have been there hitching a ride on the freights, but oooohh stay away.
My grandma told me about them, of course she also lived through the depression and saw a lot of things.
Try the recipe on the cornmeal box. Not too gritty. Great with ribs.
I was given a package of that over Christmas. I’ll be trying it for the first time tomorrow!
<found a Cadbury ‘Royal Dark’ bar. Score!
LOL. I can just imagine the happiness. : )
I got a bit depressed about the 1000 meal thing. I make a lot of food because I eat vegan. We are in a money-saving mode, but I don’t think my son realizes that sometimes I feel really hostile about having to cook, again, and am perfectly willing to pay someone else to cook. I’m fortunate that, as a professor, I’m either at home or can get home early and don’t have to run home and cook at 5:30, but darned sometimes I just get tired of that kitchen. Even a vegan burger & canned baked beans can seem like too much effort sometimes.
i just finished my first try at bulk cooking... last weekend i cooked enough food for a month... we've been eating for a week now... it's working out really well... today we had porkchops with gravy... yesterday it was beef stew... a couple of days ago it was chicken tacos... in just 12 hours i cooked all of our food for a month!
Thanks for the tip. A grain grinder is on my ‘things to get’ list. I can get one through work.
When I was working part-time, raising three boys and feeding two adult men at every meal, too...talk about a multi-tasker!...my crockpot saved the day. Lots of great vegetarian/vegan recipes for those. I’d use mine once or twice a week. I still use it a few times a month just for the two of us & my Dad.
Here’s a recipe I’ve become a ‘little’ famous for on the web:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Dianas-Egyptian-Lentils-Rice-96581
That’s a smart way to go if you have a reliable freezer, for sure! :)
http://busycooks.about.com/od/makeaheadrecipes/a/cookOAMC.htm
We have a LOT of venison to eat up every year, and one of my favorite ways to use up the ground burger is by making Millions of Meatballs:
http://www.bigoven.com/157974-Millions-Of-Meatballs-recipe.html
I LOVE Sweet and Sour Meatballs! Sweet and Sour anything, actually. :)
Or a bacon Cheesburger, onion rings ,ice cold Pabst or Coke.
I came along at the end of the depression. However the railroad round house was there for several years after the depression was “over”. Lot of lessons to be learned, even as a child, from those years.
Be aware some can be used for soy beans and nuts, which are oily aswell as oather grains etc. Mine does not do oily. Try miloing regular dry beans— which can be used to fortify soups and meal loaf etc. Mine just sits on the counter because I use it several times a week.
Have fun with yours.
I noticed you talking about the sauerkraut that you had in Europe. My Grandma used to make her own, and although I can quite a bit and make my own pickles, I haven’t tackled sauerkraut.
Try Frank’s “sweet” Bavarian style...nearly as good as Grandma’s.
Thanks for the suggestion.
You betcha-——and now you’ve gone and made me hungry.
:-)
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