Canning Season

An evening's harvest

     Things are a little crazy around here as the summer harvest begins to come in, and the deep freezes and canning shelves overflow. We've just entered Week 3 of canning season, and as I was putting away some of the newly canned goods (Sweet Pickles from Week 1, and Bread & Butter Pickles and Sweet Pickle Relish from Week 2), I realized something... 

     No, it has nothing to do with the amount of cucumbers we're swimming in. Well, actually, I take that back, it just might. It also has to do with all the cabbage, tomatoes and peppers, and all the not-so-blank spaces on our canning shelves as we expand to can even more of our own foods each year. You see, we're not going to have enough room for all of our canned goods this year.

     I was concerned last week about running out of freezer space after having to dedicate another compartment to chicken scraps.  (Two whole compartments of one of our 15 cubic foot deep freezes are now almost full with vegetables/fruits for the chickens this winter, and before it's all said and done, a third compartment might be added as well to make sure we have enough for them.)  

     Now, with the lack of space for canned goods, some serious rearranging is going to need to take place, because figuring out where to store canned goods is not quite as easy as everyone thinks as this is our year's supply worth of food essentially being "purchased" at one time.  (Take a look at "You Plan To Eat All That?" if you don't believe me.)  

     Some days a weekend "shopping trip" to purchase this year's worth of food seems more reasonable.  I often wonder why it should take an entire "season" to can everything you need.  Why can't we just all jam it into a couple of days and be done with it all?  

Canning weekend of 2015

     Spoiler: Don't do this.  Once a year I get this brilliant idea and jam peaches, apples and tomato products into one weekend in August just to get them all over with.  Every year I come up for air exhausted and swear I'll never do it again.  This year, I've bypassed most of that stage and am making plans for a "relaxing" canning weekend containing all these products again from the fiery depths of my kitchen in August...

     This early summer has been the year of pickles for me.  The cucumber plants are (for once) doing what they are supposed to do, even though we have an outbreak of striped cucumber beetles to deal with.

Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
fermenting to make Sauerkraut

     So far we have a batch of Sweet Pickles done, with another batch fermenting.  There's Sweet Pickle Relish canned (recipe here), and also a batch of the simplest pickle I can find: Bread & Butter Pickles.  To top it all off, Sauerkraut is also fermenting alongside the Sweet Pickles right now, and I'm about to have to thoroughly rearrange the kitchen for canning season soon as from here on out, it is expected that I will be canning (at bare minimum) one recipe each week until October.  That's at least twelve weeks of canning (and a lot more than twelve recipes worth of things that will need canned)!

     I'm not quite sure how many more cucumbers we'll need this year, so our chickens might get lucky and have some extra cucumbers to pick at instead of just cabbage heads, broccoli, cauliflower, beet tops and radishes.  I'm sure they won't mind.

The Plymouth Barred Rock also pecking at some Watermelon rinds.

In Other News

Did you say food?  Our Delawares are the least picky
chickens I have ever seen when it comes to food.  

     To complete the cycle of chaos around here, the Delawares are begging for their own pasture (and three escaped their run in search of grass when I went to change out their water the other day, so we really need to get their pasture done).  Chicken chasing is not all that it is cracked up to be.  

    With temperatures climbing into the 90s for almost a whole week now, they and the Plymouth Barred Rocks have been getting mud puddle filled runs to help keep them cool, and they are loving it!  They have also been keeping us on our toes as we change out their water multiple times throughout the day and keep an eye on whether or not they are getting heat stressed.  In all the twenty-two chickens seem to be doing fairly well considering the temperatures.

Baling Straw on July 4th before the rains came.  The Mr. is
sitting out there in the tractor, waiting to get a wagon.

     The Mr. has been helping out our landlord occasionally with the hay and straw harvests this year, and my cousin who was visiting from North Carolina and I got to watch everyone try to get the straw bales in before the rains came on the Fourth of July.  The rains, which were supposed to only arrive in the evening, came early (around 2 p.m.), and sent everyone, along with their wagons, running for cover.   Fortunately, we live in the country, and the July Fourth weekend also gave us 18 different fireworks displays, which we watched from the sand mound.

We will also be working on replacing the greenhouse roof
before winter as a windstorm late last week ripped it to shreds.

     As we started to harvest our summertime produce, we planted a late season crop of Incredible Sweet Corn, and are now planning for our fall crops in the garden.  Just this past week our seed starter trays were filled with Winter Dream Cauliflower, Sun King Broccoli, Red Acre Cabbage, Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage and Blue Curled Scotch Kale seeds.   The seeds are currently waiting out the weather on the porch, where I can keep them easily watered, and will hopefully be moved to the greenhouse once needed adjustments are made to it.  Soon we'll harvest the rest of the cabbage and begin planting some of our fall season seeds.

Crops Being Harvested

July: Black Raspberries, Blackberries, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cucumbers, Herbs (various), Hull Peas, Lettuce, Mint, Mulberries, Peppers, Radishes, Sugar Beets, Tomatoes, Yellow Squash and Zucchini

Upcoming in August: Blackberries, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cucumbers, Herbs (various) Lettuce, Lima Beans, Mint, Oats, Patty Pan Squash, Peppers, Radishes, Sugar Beets, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, Wineberries, Yellow Squash and Zucchini

Until next time, Happy Harvesting!

Seasoning Your Cooking From The Garden

"Herbs should be gathered while in blossom. If left till they have gone to seed, the strength goes into the seed. Those who have a little patch of ground, will do well to raise the most important herbs; and those who have not, will do well to get them in quantities from some friend in the country; for apothecaries make very great profit upon them."

– Lydia M. Child, The American Frugal Housewife (1832)

      I feel like I am swimming lost in a sea of garden updates as that seems to be the trend on the blogs that I follow this time of year (it probably also helps that I follow a lot of gardening blogs.)  What I find strange is that most of those blogs are not updating you on one of my favorite things to plant (now that I don’t kill them) – herbs! 

      Herbs can grow just about anywhere as you will quickly find: from sunny windowsills to sunny patios to sunny gardens.  The key is SUN!  They love lots and lots of sun and will do best with a large amount of it on a daily basis. 

      No matter where my husband (and later I) lived we needed to have an herb garden.  We both adore cooking, and cooking and canning with fresh herbs is an amazing experience.  Mrs. Child never really told us what the most important herbs should be in the garden, although she did tell us how to tend and harvest some of the most dependable herbs for housewives in the mid-nineteenth century.  Below are my favorite herbs to grow in the garden and just why you might do well to have them in your own gardens as well! 

      BASIL is probably the most utilized fresh herb at our house.  This year we have three different varieties planted Sweet Basil, Blue African Basil and Purple Basil.  Each of these varieties serves a slightly different purpose for us.   Sweet Basil is used in pesto and canned spaghetti sauce, and Purple Basil I use in pasta salads and cooking (which gives them a beautiful purple coloration).  This is the first year that Blue African Basil (which has subtle flecks of navy blue in the leaves) is in the garden and we’ve already used it in pasta salads and cooking.

      CHIVES have a wonderful flavor for baked potatoes, but can also be used in other dishes as well.  We really enjoy them in omelets, pasta salads and also to top soups.  If you get an over abundance of chives, they can be cut and stored in a damp paper towel in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.  Additionally, they can be cut or diced and stored in the freezer for a couple of months to be used as you would fresh chives in recipes. 

      CILANTRO / CORRAINDER is a dual-purpose herb.  While the herb is leafy green it’s used as cilantro, which we can in fresh salsa and use for omelets (add some salsa on top of the omelet with cilantro cooked inside the omelet and you have a tasty treat).  Once the cilantro goes to seed, the seed is coriander and can also be used in cooking.  The only problem that I’ve found with cilantro is it’s quick to bolt and seed.  I find that if you start cilantro in stages, it ends up extending your harvest.  Also, the coriander seeds will seed themselves, and we have some baby cilantro coming up in our herb wheelbarrow from last year’s seeds. 

        LAVENDER is one of our experimental herbs, and we first planted it last year in containers on our corn crib (which is now nothing more than a foundation that we use as a patio).  I’m hoping to use the lavender to make sachets, and use it to scent soap and candle wax.  Since the lavender did not overwinter (even though it was taken inside), we are replacing it this year and also thinking about getting a few more plants to place by the upcoming chicken coop.  I’ve read that you can use lavender to help freshen up the chicken coop, which from what I can smell from the large chicken houses around our parts, would be an amazing thing.

      MINT, oh how much mint we have.  Meadow mint, which is planted in a flower bed alongside the house before we got here, comes up in abundance.  Spearmint was added to the upper garden the first year we came, to grow wild alongside the overabundance of catnip that lived there.  Our farm cats love the catnip.  The spearmint and meadow mint we harvest, dry and store in our dry goods downstairs, awaiting for an idea on just how to use it.  Both the mints make wonderful tea (if you have the taste for it), and they can be used in cooking and scented oils.  Unfortunately since neither my husband or I like the taste of it (with the recipes we have), most of it is in storage downstairs.  Fortunately, like lavender, mint is supposed to be good for scenting chicken coops, so our stock downstairs may get a use after all!

      Mrs. Child did find a use for the catnip, aside for making our farm cats go crazy, in the mid-nineteenth century: “Catnip, particularly the blossoms, made into tea, is good to prevent a threatened fever. It produces a fine perspiration. It should be taken in bed, and the patient kept warm.”

      OREGANO comes in two varieties in our garden this year as well.  Greek oregano has almost fuzzy leaves, which might not be to everyone’s texture palette, and Italian oregano has smoother leaves.  I personal prefer the texture of the Italian oregano, but we utilize both in cooking and especially in canning pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce. 

      Sweet marjoram, which is similar to oregano, was also used in abundance in the mid-nineteenth century according to Mrs. Child: “Few people know how to keep the flavor of sweet-marjoram; the best of all herbs for broth and stuffing. It should be gathered in bud or blossom, and dried in a tin-kitchen at a moderate distance from the fire; when dry, it should be immediately rubbed, sifted, and corked up in a bottle carefully.”

      PARSLEY, sage, rosemary and thyme… I can hear Simon and Garfunkel singing it now.  Although we only have three of those herbs in our garden, the parsley is used so much in canning and pasta salads, we actually have five plants planted this year, and I can only hope we have enough for everything we use it in (and I hope the rabbits don’t eat it all, especially since two of the plants are looking a little heat beat in this weather.  I should be just as concerned about our farm cat Purrball who had an overly interest sniffing session with it the day I planted the herbs outdoors this week). 

      Parsley is actually a bi-annual, which means it will come back for a second year, but not a third season. 

      Speaking of things you have to do to keep overly eager farm cats away from your plants.  The ROSEMARY, which overwintered rather well unlike the lavender, had a metal cage around it as the farm cats were enjoying it before we even had the chance to. 

      We really love to have fresh rosemary around for cooking; although, for a few years we haven’t had the possibility since the plants that are not contained inside 24/7 haven’t been doing very well.  Rosemary is exceptionally good on roasted garlic-rosemary chicken with red potatoes and onions, along with other chicken-based recipes. 

      SOAPWORT is an herb that is hardly found in gardens today, and up until two years ago, I had never heard of it either.  Soapwort can be lathered and hence it’s name, although most people will probably know it better by its other name of Bouncing Bet, a cascading plant that blooms beautifully in red, pink and white along roadside banks.  In hard times soapwort was used in place of soap in homes in both England and America, and is still used in cleaning historical textiles due to its gentle cleaning abilities.  This heirloom plant managed to overwinter in a pot in the shed rather well.  I’ve been waiting until it gets a little larger to try to lather it up, myself. 

      To find out more about how to use soapwort, head over to The Herb Gardner’s blog.

      THYME, the one thing you can never have enough of (with either spelling).  Thyme can be used for just about any meat from chicken to beef to pork, and is particularly good when making soups, stews and casseroles to give the dish an extra kick.  I personally like to use it in my homemade cream of chicken soup.  Thyme comes in many varieties (mine is French Thyme) and works great as a ground cover as well.

Lowering Your Grocery Bill (Part 2): Before You Go To The Store

“It is wise to keep an exact account of all you expend —even of a paper of pins.  This answers two purposes; it makes you more careful in spending money, and it enables your husband to judge precisely whether his family live within his income.”

– Lydia M. Child, The American Frugal Housewife (1832)

      You will probably hear this Mrs. Child advice used so many times in this blog that you will start repeating it in your sleep (along with my absolutely favorite piece of her advice you’ll be introduced to in another post).  Some of the first lines of Mrs. Child’s introduction to her manual on being a good housewife are certainly among my favorites, and it’s not hard to find a place these can easily adapt to your own lifestyle.  One of the biggest places her advice fits neatly into our lifestyle is the dreaded chore of grocery shopping (on a budget)! 

      From the time I was a small child, I can vividly remember my trips to the grocery store with my mother.  She had spent the evening before or the early morning at home pouring over sales ads and clipping coupons from her in-law’s Sunday paper, carefully outlining what we would eat on that week’s menu.  Next came the compiling of the grocery list, and at last, a trip to the grocery store!  I do not remember my mother purchasing anything that was not on that grocery list when I was younger even though the ice cream on a hot summer’s day probably tempted her as much then as it does me now.  As a single-income family, I can understand now why the grocery list was strictly followed, and just why she added the price of each item off to the side of the paper, carefully keeping track of the money they had to spend.  Apparently her ideas rubbed off on me as I created our monthly grocery budget a few months after we married and set to work stocking our own kitchen.

      In our household two adults are provided for in “groceries” for $225.00 a month (and our ten friendly farm cats will add another $50 to our bill each month if no one has a doctor’s appointment, but honestly it’s fairly cheap entertainment, comradery and pest control), which even with the farm cats is less than a family of two could receive from the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP benefits each month.  (The maximum potential allotment for a family of two per month is $357 for 2015.  In case anyone was wondering, a family of four can receive up to $649 a month.  These allotments amounts will definitely help put your grocery bill in perspective!)  Our grocery category is likewise far-reaching encompassing all groceries, toiletries, medications, eating out, gardening seeds and basic necessities, canning and food preservation, and fishing and hunting licenses and supplies.  Before you presume we’re nuts and starving, living on Raman noodles and PB&J, rest assured that we eat pretty well! 

      Before I continue, I’m going to answer the already burning question in everyone’s mind.  Does this mean we always stick to our budget?  Unfortunately, no.  Some months we slide a little, as there’s around $20 of wiggle-room, especially if you need to do a massive stock-up.  We are human, and therefore imperfect, so quite obviously we will end up spending more some months, and perhaps less others.  In the end though, each month balances out the other, and therefore we spend approximately $225.00 a month on groceries.  

      So how does one live so frugally and not feel poor?  Although the latter part might not always be easy when you see your friends and family eating out weekly or daily in some cases, there are a few simple solutions we employ to lower our grocery bill on a regular basis.  This week, we’re focusing on three big things you can do before you even get to the grocery store.  

Plan your meals in advance.  Not everyone has the luxury of planning a month’s worth of meals like we do, but by planning your meals in advance, you’re less likely to just run down to the pizza joint or make a dozen trips to the grocery store each week.  When you plan your meals, take into account what you are likely going to be doing each day of the week to determine how many quick meals you will need.  Each week we have a few meals that take less than 30 minutes to prep and cook (our yard work day meals), a crock pot meal (if I plan to be busy all day), and at least one “big meal” (often on a Sunday or Saturday night) that takes longer than an hour to prep and cook.  The meals themselves are based off of four things: what is already in the pantry and freezer, what is available fresh from the garden, what’s on sale, and what there are coupons for.  Simply put, if I have more rice than potatoes, there will be more rice dishes then potato dishes, although those specific ingredients might not be used the same way each night and therefore would not become tiring as quickly.  (Tip: We've been adding some of our favorite recipes to our Healthy Homestyle page on Pinterest.  Remember to check back periodically, as we continue adding more!) 

Click image to enlarge.

Make a list and check it twice.  Once you’ve figured out your meals, start making your grocery list.  I like to categorize my grocery list into six sections – produce, meat and dairy, frozen foods, bulk goods, dry goods, and non-food items – as I will be shopping at more than one store, and not every store is laid out the same way.  For the above two week sample menus, our grocery list would look something like this:  

Please keep in mind that we already have some staples at home such as baking supplies, canned goods, onions and potatoes from the garden, and frozen meat and vegetables.  To help keep our budget in check, if I know I am going to run out of bulk items like bread flour, all-purpose flour or rolled oats in the next two months, I will decide which is the most important to get sooner rather than later instead of buying all three in the same month (and breaking the bank). 

Check the circulars!  I cannot stress this enough.  Some people like to do this step first, as this could amend your first two steps when you do it last, but personally this is last on my list.  I find that if I do this earlier, I’ll end up adding more to my grocery list because “that would taste good” rather than using up what is in my pantry and freezer first.  By comparing the prices in multiple circulars, you can easily figure out just where you plan to buy your groceries when your shopping trip comes.  

Checking the circulars online, saves the cost of a Sunday paper, and you can easily see multiple circulars at the same time.  (You can also print your coupons offline too.)  I find it actually takes less time then clipping coupons each week to check the circulars, and soon you'll notice that certain stores almost always have better prices then other ones.  The best way to figure out where exactly you want to shop, and therefore what circulars to check, is what stores are closest to you.  Our weekly grocery shopping is done in a 20 minute radius from our home, but for larger purchases that may only need to be made once or twice a year, we might travel an hour away. 

For example, the produce I need is on sale at quite a few stores in the area this week: 

Store 1: apples are $1.28 per lb., romaine lettuce hearts are $3.98 for a 3-pack

Store 2: apples are $1.99 per lb., celery is 2 for $4, strawberries are BOGO

Store 3: romaine lettuce hearts are $1.99 for a 3-pack

Store 4: apples are $4.99 for a 3-lb. bag, broccoli crowns are $0.99 per lb.

Consider if the sale prices are really sales.  Obviously, I’d rather pay $1.99 for romaine hearts than $3.98, but what if the sale prices aren’t really the cheapest you can get your produce?   As the early days of spring are upon us in Pennsylvania, I won’t be heading to the garden to get any fresh produce we may need, nor will the farm markets be open (or have amazing deals on fresh in-season local produce).  So I have to get a little creative, which is where the discount outlet comes in.  At discount stores like ALDI’s, Amelia’s Grocery Outlet or Sharp Shopper, you just might be able to find even cheaper produce.  We happen to go to a store similar to these in the area, so I know there is no way I am paying $1.28 per lb. for apples!  The discount store has them the whole “season” for $0.49 per lb.  Celery is rather expensive at 2 for $4.  I’d much rather pay the discount store’s $1.49 for the exact same item.   (And in most cases, they really are the exact same item you would find in the regular grocery store, just always make sure to check dates on canned goods and boxed items before you put them in the cart.)  Therefore our Store 5 (the discount store) is going to have some better deals:

Store 5: apples are $0.49 per lb., bananas are $0.39 per lb., broccoli is $2.15 per head, cauliflower is $3.25 per head, celery is $1.49, romaine lettuce is $1.19 per head, and strawberries are $1.98 per quart

      So the next time you start to make your grocery list try some of these early budgeting tips before you even leave your house, and see just how low you can go with the grocery bill!  Check in with us again to see our next installment, and if you missed the first part, you can find it here.  

Lowering Your Grocery Bill (Part 1)

      Scrolling through my Facebook feed, I tend to always pause when I see mention of lowering my grocery bill.  The one that caught my eye this morning was living on $30 a week for groceries.  How can this be done?!  I had to read on.  Then I found my answer… oatmeal for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly for lunch, and I’ll stop there as I can already tell you, I’m not eating their suggested dinner options.  Though it’s a good idea, their $30 a week meals are not to my palette, so next! 

      Hmmm… maybe I should head over to Pinterest.  Pinterest always has helpful suggestions (and not ones that make you pull out your hair because really, just who can do that project!?  Yup, you know the one I’m talking about.  Your personal Pinterest fail you bought all this stuff for, tried… and tried… and tried again, yet it all ended up in the trash, and your vowing to never mention it again.)  So let’s just click on a few more ideas to get us depressed about how we aren’t saving money on groceries, shall we? 

      Oh, look there!  The average family spends over $500 on groceries a month according to the USDA estimates.  (Yikes!  Glad I don’t spend that much.)  And, various blogs suggest:

• Lower your bill with extreme couponing and a massive pantry stockpile.  (Yeah, because we need 96 rolls of toilet paper, and baby diapers for children you plan to have another ten years down the road, and so many jars of mayonnaise there is no way any human can eat it all before it expires.) 
• Become vegetarian because beans are cheaper then meat.  (That won’t fly in this house!  Even Meatless Mondays might be pushing it around here.)
• Avoid buying processed foods.  (Sorry, but can you pass the Velveeta because that just made some awesome queso the other night?  I know, your wagging your finger at me, but sometimes you just have to splurge because a knockoff won’t do it.  It’s like my husband’s grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies.  Don’t try to make them any other way because they just won’t be as good.)
• Shop for bulk at health food stores. (Uh, wherever they live, apparently they have really cheap health food stores nearby because I sure don’t!) 
• Don’t go out to eat at restaurants or eat fast food on the go.  (Sigh.  We were looking forward to not having to do the dishes at least once in the next month.)
• Starve (or at least that’s what it feels like in the end). 

      These are certainly some of the more drastic ideas that are out there.  I know not everyone’s blog post about saving money on the grocery bill reads like this, but they’re the stereotypical common themes I keep seeing post, after post, after post.  I’m not ready to go vegetarian, or give up all processed foods (or that breakfast sandwich from the drive-thru every now and then), but I do want to lower our grocery bill. 

      How this was going to happen was the dilemma that I went through last year, and I am still constantly looking for new ways to lower that bill!  Throughout the next few months I’ll be sharing with you some of the ideas that we employ to help us eat well and watch our wallets. 

There's WHAT In That?

      I once heard a child say that food comes from the grocery store, but she didn’t know how it got to the shelf.  Ignorance is sometimes bliss, especially when it comes to what we’re putting in our bodies. 

      It seems everywhere I turn, someone is talking about GMOs.  This morning I glanced through my Facebook feed to see that a “new” herbicide-resistant corn and “new” herbicide-resistant soybean are just about ready to be unleashed on the Mid-Atlantic market, which the local farming journal was reporting with vigor.  While just the other week, my sister-in-law had a school project on them.  She had to record everything she ate in a week’s time and see how many foods had GMOs in.  (Hint: Everything had GMOs in.)  Then after studying whether or not they are harmful or beneficial, she had to make up her mind on whether she was for or against labeling GMOs on food packaging.  During all this I got a text message from her and begun to think of our own household: We garden, freeze fresh produce, can for the winter, make our own bread products and baked goods; we can’t eat that many GMOs.  Right?  

A nearby cornfield – 2014

      Ugh.  My digestive tract is strongly protesting my ignorance right now.  Everything we thought we were doing right could be wrong? 

      You see, we don’t plant GMO fruits and vegetables in the garden.  There are no GMO soy beans or field corn in our diet intentionally.  We try to eat as healthy as possible, but also cost effectively so we don’t shop organic (and even if we did we wouldn’t be 100% safe from GMOs and their effects).  So where’s the problem? 

      Think about your diet for a minute.  Do you raise chickens?  Are they eating commercial feed potentially laden with GMOs or free-ranging?  Do you can your own fresh fruits and vegetables using sugar and pectin (two high GMO-probable products)?  Perhaps you prefer to hunt during the season for fresh game, but what if the deer you kill during hunting season has been snacking on fields planted with GMO field corn and soy beans? 

Gobbler walking through corn stubble – 2014

      You see the problem?  It’s a sickening thought that we don’t know exactly what we are putting into our bodies anymore, and with many arguments on both sides of the fence of the “harmful” or “beneficial” aspects of GMOs, it’s not an easy decision to make on whether or not to cut them entirely from one’s diet. 

      This year we are going to try to cut even more GMOs from our diet because we, personally, do not see the need for them to be in there.  GMOs in the grand scheme of human history are still rather young and no one truly knows what side effects, if any, will be caused by them.  Will we cut all the GMOs from our diet in one year’s time?  Probably not, but each step we take in what we feel is the right direction is one step closer towards a healthier us. 

Image from Healthy-Holistic-Living.com

      Should you cut GMOs from your diet?  That’s a decision that you need to make on your own, so today, I’d like to challenge you to get informed about your food.  Look in your cupboards, refrigerator and freezer.  Read labels in the grocery store aisles before products go into your cart.  Find out what GMOs really are from trusted and reliable sources and how they could affect you.  Plant seeds and harvest from your garden, or even a pot on a sunny windowsill.  Learn what’s in your food and where it comes from, and teach the next generation that food doesn’t come from the grocery store shelf.