As I was growing up, we always had chickens. When it was time to have chicken for cooking, Daddy would go out and get the chicken then chop the head off and put the chicken under a bushel basket so it would not flop all over the yard. When the woman who worked for as my babysitter would kill a chicken, she would wring its neck. Ewwww. Once the chicken was declared dead then it was put into a tub of scalding water. Ewww, it stinks.
Then all the feathers are plucked from the chicken. My job, because I had little hands and fingers, was to pull out the pin feathers. My mother would reach inside the chicken …ewwww and pull out the insides, and sometimes there would be an egg in there. ewwwww. Funny, once that chicken was fried golden and crispy, I never thought about the process. Yummm
Sometimes I think about the generations that followed me into the world and realize how much they have missed in life. Many of them have no true understanding of how our food is grown and processed. I grew up in the country, so I understand my experience is different that of someone who grew up in the city. I know how the earth smells as its being plowed in preparation for planting. I know the wonder of watching the garden grow and produce such wonderful tasting food. I know what it’s like to go to the garden and pull a fresh tomato or to dig up potatoes. I remember so well my mother not sending me to the grocery store, but to the garden to get what she wanted for supper. I’d come back with fresh corn that after I shucked it would be cooked and on the supper table, now that’s fresh! Oh, and that corn…it was smothered in freshly churned butter. Oh, wow was that good.
I have to admit that I’m a big fan of Fresh Market because it is one place I can find food that taste like what I grew up with. It makes me giggle that the trend now is “organic” food. When I was growing up, we didn’t’ call it “organic”, we just called homegrown.
Isn’t it interesting to see the trend to organic food and natural home remedies with the use of herbs and essential oils become the goal for the good life? I don’t know how to tell these folks that his is not a new discovery; it’s been around a few thousand years. This is how I grew up; thank God I was blessed with this experience.
I have to pass on one story about “Natural Cures” that I by no means recommend. When my father was five he had diphtheria and the doctor told my grandfather that the boy was going to die because he could not break up the congestion. My grandfather thought a moment then asked the doctor, that if the boy was going to die anyway, then anything he did could not cause any further harm. The doctor agreed. My grandfather then gave my father a teaspoon of kerosene which, after he swallow, resulted in lots of coughing and broke up the congestion and phlegm. Needless to say, the boy lived.
My thought is yes, enjoy the modern world and embrace the advances and discoveries it has to offer, but it never hurts to remember the old ways. Sometimes, progress isn’t. Think about it.
It's The Thought That Counts 