Marcie's introduction to kinfood.

"When we cultivate food in our backyards, we nurture it; in return, it nourishes us. Food is an integral part of our lives--not just at mealtime. Food is natural and unaffected.


In contrast, modern North America reduces food to a commodity that is manipulated, genetically engineered, irradiated, manufactured, or enriched and fortified. Food is fast-fast-food resteraunts, meals in minutes, instant this and instant that. We fill our physical fuel tanks with as much abandon as we fill our car fuel tanks--fast and full--and sometimes at the same stations.


When we make food in integral part of our lives and our homes, it becomes a part of our theology. We are connected to our food--cultivating it, preserving it, and preparing it. We are nurturers instead of consumers."

-Mary Beth Lind, pg viii in More with Less

For me, to eat better and to appreciate food more, I needed to understand some stuff.

More with Less, by Doris Janzen Longacre, and The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan really helped to blossom that understanding, and give me and my husband an idea of how to think like global citizens when it comes to eating.

Also, I travelled the world, tasting different cusine from India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Viet Nam. That also helped with the global citizen thing.

Also, we moved to BC, where plums and figs and pears grow on neighborhood trees, clustering so thick that the branches hang into alleyways, the fruit growing so succulent and juicy, until it splats on the pavement below, unless you valiantly intervene! Where blueberries and apples and peaches and rasberries have fertile soil and lots of rain to help them grow. BC should really be called Eden.

I think before we can answer the big question "what to make for dinner" we need to take a few steps back and fall in love with food. Real food. Not the way advertizing tries to make a burger look good. We need to be in awe of how many things you can do with a tomato. Or the way a carrot tastes fresh out of the garden. Or the way grain fields look in the prairies. Or how hundreds of countries around the world are doing different things with the same things, and this has been happening for thousands of years.

Next we need to start salivating over cookbooks. Go to the library and pick out ones with pictures. Make yourself a cup of tea and leaf through the pages. Make a list of the things that really stand out. Then when you head to the market it does not seem so overwhelming.

I like to organize my cooking like this: monday is crockpot day; tuesday is casserole/curry/stir fry day; wednesday is leftover day; thursday is try-and-use-something-from-the-freezer-day; friday is salad-as-entree day; and weekends I don't cook. And all the weekdays usually get mixed up...but I need something to work with, and this helps.

Lastly, when you cook, love yourself. Do it as a gift to yourself. When you sit down to eat, remember that you are nurturing your body. Chew slowly. Enjoy every bite.

So, those are Marcie's food thoughts in a nutshell.