My warp is tied up! Now is the time I should be weaving, but I’m here – (as I keep saying, you can blog, or weave…not both).
Well, my cold is worser and worser and it now resides in my bronchial passages, and I’m writing to you now under the influence of some serious drugs. But sitting at my loom requires a wee bit more energy than even the drugs can muster.
However, a quick minor curiousity…I read something I partly agree with, and partly think is rubbish – i.e., “Only eat what your great-grandparents would recognize”. The idea being, to eat healthy wholesome foods, that are fresh, natural and nutricious.
A great concept – and in principle, to be followed. Sitting on the sofa, drugged up to the eyeballs, I had time to ponder this – Imagining myself on Fathom, 100 years ago – What would my diet be if I followed this concept?
On the “Excellent” plus side: Seasonal= gooseberries, raspberries, wild strawberries (a few bushes, but exist), blueberries (by the ton!), blackberries (also by the ton), cob/ hazelnuts. Lamb, eggs, fish & shelfish (salmon, mackrel, trout, herrings – fresh and smoked/salted- and maybe perch, oysters, muscles, cockles, winkles), chicken, pork and rarely, beef. Apples and pears infrequently (they don’t grow on Fathom mountain, but they do grow in N. Ireland)
On the “Good” side: Fresh milk, buttermilk, butter, some cheeses, porridge, potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, leeks, rubarb, wheaten bread, soda bread, “brack” (kind of sweet bread) …honey maybe
On the “inevitable” side: Whiskey, stout / porter (i.e., Guinness, Murphys), Poteen, Navy Rum.
On the “realistic” side: The daily fare would have been potatoes, porridge, carrots, buttermilk, onions and cabbage. An irish strew, made from mutton a few times a week. Fish, probably on a Friday. Everything else would have been very dependent on season and availability. And in hard times, availability might have been very low.
All sounds very healthy, right? (I think so too), but see what is missing?
tomatoes, oranges, grapes, brocolli, cauliflower, green beans, kiwis, avocadoes, pomegranite, peppers, yogurt, asparagus, ….GARLIC, CHILLI – ANY KIND OF SEASONING??
And a lot of other things my drugged-up brain can’t think of now.
When I read the list I wrote of what my great-grandparents might have eaten (and I’ve spent longer than I should have done recently, thinking about great-grandparents!), I was impressed, and realised why these “Fathom-ites” were so long lived. But it doesn’t change the fact that they would have run screaming from an avocado and thought a pomegranite was the spawn of the devil. Seasoning would have been rare and potatoes, carrots & porridge would have made up about 80% of their daily foods.
Thanks, although I love my irish foods, I’m also glad of new flavours
Even so, my healthy diet didn’t save me from this crappy cold, did it? So much for, garlic, organic pomegranites and cherries…(moan moan)
Just Weaving 