Standing Up

Over the years, standing up for truth has gotten me in alot of interesting situations.
But I would'nt change anything about it. I have no regrets. Only a further desire to be part of something real and true.

Fundamentally, I believe that this is what has gone astray in our eating ethos. We have lost sight of the truth. This morning when I held my daughter in my arms, I was overcome with joy. I felt a huge amount of privilege to be her father. But when I looked deeper, I felt the same for myself. I was reminded that I was honored to be the steward of this body, soul, and mind, and what an amazing opportunity mortality really is.

So many things get unintentionally disregarded or lost in the inertia of modernization, its hard to keep track. I have been charged with reminding people of their culinary heritage, and that they are part of it's living legacy. This is my part, a job that I have been offered, and I have accepted. But cookbooks can be a time machine, a way to travel back. Lately I have been cooking out of a Fannie Farmer book, called "The Boston Cooking School Cookbook". It is dated 1941. In 1941, my Grandfather Edward was in boot camp, on his way to one of the largest wars the world theater has ever seen. Meanwhile, back in America, homemakers like my Grandmother Leda Belle were cooking for their children, waiting for their husbands to return. Both my Father and my Uncle were born while Edward wore a uniform and carried a gun through Europe, chasing one of the greatest evils the world has seen to date. Within these recipes, I can find her, over a stove, trying to cope with raising a family with practically nothing. This is reflected in the Fannie Farmer cookbook-getting a lot of results from very little ingredients.

Take for instance the ginger-snap recipe. I read it's yield-50-70 cookies-and was like, "There is no way that many cookies are coming out of that size batch". But I actually got more. My modern mind was thinking about a different cookie. We rolled the dough into logs about the width of a 50 cent piece, chilled and sliced them. This part was not in the recipe. I figured it out. Out of necessity.

Out of necessity we feed ourselves. Next comes our families. It is the highest form of dishonor to impede or take advantage of people's necessities. Unfortunately, this is where the highest margins exist within the commercial world of supply and demand.

We have a choice to honor the privilege we have been given in feeding ourselves and our families by seeking out the best foods for them. The best foods should not be more expensive, or difficult to get. Food, in and of itself, should not be a commodity. Its a necessity. Like air, or water. We all have a common vestige in the fall of food to what it has become.

The time to replace food to it's proper home has come. Let us not allow commercialism to dictate it's path. We alone each have the power to make food beautiful again. The power of our dollar is more than attaining goods and services. Its a choice, its a vote, and a representation of our efforts and time.

Find a farm, Find it now. Call the farm. Talk to the farmer. Get involved. Give them your money. Learn how to make this whole food that they offer an ally in your home. Feel the satisfaction that comes from honoring the fruits of someone's labor with the fruits of your own.

My intention is to become more of a resource for those who seek to learn the old ways, the correct ways of keeping a household and one's self healthy and whole, with hardly as much dollar as one is spending now. The excess percentage that is applied to prepared and processed food due to this lack of know how on the part of the American consumer is appalling. It is also killing our people. Slowly. They are working too hard just to be able to afford food that makes them unhealthy, developing illnesses that require further unnecessary expenditure towards remedy.

What remedy? For what illness? The atrocious nature of this deceit defiles us. But we can each find a part to play in the remediation of this grand illusion. It's not about activism, or stopping any giant capitalistic monster. Its about realizing one thing.

That the power of world change lay in the heart of the individual.

Cheers.

Love,

Tenzo