0
0

The Simple Story of Food


 invite response                
2021 Feb 11, 1:39pm   427 views  13 comments

by NuttBoxer   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

Comments 1 - 13 of 13        Search these comments

1   richwicks   2021 Feb 11, 7:35pm  

Having grown up in the asscrack of nowhere, and being forced to plow and weed gardens, and pick vegetables and fruits, what you see above is a tremendous exaggeration.

The only thing I miss about that time was we legitimately made better pickles than you can buy at a store, and it's not that hard to make them yourself anyhow. The problem is basically for some goddamned reason a bunch of assholes decided to put sugar in nearly every damned thing imaginable.
2   🎂 Tenpoundbass   2021 Feb 11, 7:43pm  

richwicks says
and being forced to plow


My dad made me plow up weeds for the weeds on a 2 acre plot with a Garden Tiller. Not the kinds with motorized wheels that help you along. And if you don't pull it back while it digs in. Then the tiller legs, would just come up out of the dirt and walk across the ground. He wouldn't even spurge for a bush hog to come cut the brush. So we had to use a sling blade. Some folks call it a Keiser blade I call it a sling blade, mmmmhmm.

I think that's why I'm healthy, never been to the Doctor for anything but the clap and stitches. The old man toughened us up, I was mostly gristle by time I was 17 years old.
3   NuttBoxer   2021 Feb 15, 10:42am  

richwicks says
Having grown up in the asscrack of nowhere, and being forced to plow and weed gardens, and pick vegetables and fruits, what you see above is a tremendous exaggeration.


What, a guy thinking he can house cows in his backyard an exaggeration!?

Seriously though, everyone needs an introduction to what has happened to food, and this is an easy one that hits on all the important points. Taste, quality, and treatment of animals.
4   NuttBoxer   2021 Feb 15, 10:47am  

I've dug my own gardens before. Go for the natural approach, so shovel, and my hands are all I use to dig, mix, and weed. Biggest effort was a 4x4 and 2x6 one year, and digging down to the harder ground in Southern California clay is not easy. But I grew the biggest cannabis plants I've ever seen that year. The juiciest tomato's, and strawberries so sweet and soft I'll never forget them.

There is something about getting in the dirt with your hands that is so peaceful, balancing. Now I have to use pots, and it's just not the same.
5   FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden   2021 Feb 15, 11:58am  

NuttBoxer says
I've dug my own gardens before. Go for the natural approach, so shovel, and my hands are all I use to dig, mix, and weed. Biggest effort was a 4x4 and 2x6 one year, and digging down to the harder ground in Southern California clay is not easy. But I grew the biggest cannabis plants I've ever seen that year. The juiciest tomato's, and strawberries so sweet and soft I'll never forget them.

There is something about getting in the dirt with your hands that is so peaceful, balancing. Now I have to use pots, and it's just not the same.


Pro tip... get fertilizer from cow or horse shit, makes things really grow. Local horse ranches practically give it away.
6   NuttBoxer   2021 Feb 15, 6:51pm  

Fortwaynemobile says
Pro tip... get fertilizer from cow or horse shit, makes things really grow. Local horse ranches practically give it away.


I use chicken, but that stuff is really strong, has to be mixed in well.
7   richwicks   2021 Feb 15, 8:01pm  

NuttBoxer says
What, a guy thinking he can house cows in his backyard an exaggeration!?


No, the idea that food tastes significantly different when you buy it from a store versus buying it directly from a farm is a tremendous exaggeration.

Exceptions are fruits - they are often picked green so they aren't spoiled by the time the market receives them.

Carrots, potatoes, corn (in most cases), peas (in most cases), cucumbers, tomatoes - there's little if any difference. Don't know much about steak, but I doubt it. I've had venison, that's Bambi. The carcass is left on a hook for a week (at least) to let the meat tenderize in a shed - as the cells break down the meat becomes less tough, because a deer can absolutely beat the living absolute shit out of any human being. Meat has to be aged. So the idea of fresh meat, is a new one.

The current fad of "organic food" drives me nuts too. Sure, it's fine to use natural fertilizer, if you can get it - but you can't. The idea of not using pesticides is fine, but unrealistic. Modern farming techniques has made our lives possible. The idea that it's all poison is ridiculous. If it wasn't for the Haber process, Paul Ehrlich might have been right. Every lefty dumb fuck idea that is ceaselessly promoted is designed to make life more cumbersome and more difficult and more expensive. Talk to an actual producer and they hate them, but they have no problem taking advantage of them. People who run organic farms don't do it for the good of society, they do it because rich dumbfucks are willing to pay a premium - for nothing.
8   Patrick   2021 Feb 15, 9:30pm  

We had a few years of backyard eggs from chickens we raised. They were good, but not much different except the shell was harder and the eggs only golf-ball sized because they were bantam chickens.

Chickens will eat pretty much anything. All the vegetation and bugs from your back yard, and front too, if you let them.

Pretty easy as food goes, except that you have to put them in the coop every night or the raccoons will massacre them. They never wanted to go in on their own.
9   mell   2021 Feb 15, 10:12pm  

richwicks says
NuttBoxer says
What, a guy thinking he can house cows in his backyard an exaggeration!?


No, the idea that food tastes significantly different when you buy it from a store versus buying it directly from a farm is a tremendous exaggeration.

Exceptions are fruits - they are often picked green so they aren't spoiled by the time the market receives them.

Carrots, potatoes, corn (in most cases), peas (in most cases), cucumbers, tomatoes - there's little if any difference. Don't know much about steak, but I doubt it. I've had venison, that's Bambi. The carcass is left on a hook for a week (at least) to let the meat tenderize in a shed - as the cells break down the meat becomes less tough, because a deer can absolutely beat the living absolute shit out of any human being. Meat has to be aged. So the idea of fresh meat, is a new one.

The current fad of "organic food" drives me nu...


Most farms grow most of their food for stores and mass consumption so their food has to be in line taste wise. But if you let food grow mostly untreated it certainly tastes different. There are certain types of tastes in "wild" fruits and vegetables you won't get in a store, for example extremely tart and juicy oranges, which simply don't taste well to the typical processed food palate and thus don't sell. Also mass farming vs free range farming makes a big difference in health and taste. It's not so much necessarily being certified organic though it helps, but the smaller the production the better the quality usually. Ever tasted a (usually smaller and dinged up) "cosmetically challenged" apple which either fell from the tree or had some other minor issue? So good.
10   richwicks   2021 Feb 15, 10:56pm  

mell says
Most farms grow most of their food for stores and mass consumption so their food has to be in line taste wise. But if you let food grow mostly untreated it certainly tastes different.


Not in my experience. I had to farm a garden. I'm no more impressed with fresh peas than I am with frozen ones, and frozen ones are a hell of a lot less prep. Ever shell peas for 20 minutes? I have. No wonder the Chinese eat them whole while they are young.

mell says
There are certain types of tastes in "wild" fruits and vegetables you won't get in a store, for example extremely tart and juicy oranges, which simply don't taste well to the typical processed food palate and thus don't sell.


Wild foods are entirely different. I bet few of you have actually had a real blueberry. They are about the size of a ball bearing - not the size of a marble. They are very sweet, very flavorful, and exist on no farm anywhere on the planet. Wild strawberries are similar to farmed ones, raspberries taste nearly identical everywhere. Wild onions are unique. Ever had leeks? You will STINK the next day, but they are delicious - kind of like scallions if you made them significantly stronger in flavor.

Wild food is small, extremely intense in flavor generally, and a pain in the ass to recover.

mell says
Ever tasted a (usually smaller and dinged up) "cosmetically challenged" apple which either fell from the tree or had some other minor issue? So good.


We had apple trees. I don't find them to be much different than what you get in the store. There's a wide variety of apples though, so I think that's where you are observing the difference. We had McIntosh trees. If you get them out of season in the United States, they are harvested well before maturity and are often grainy and disgusting.

One thing I had as a kid which I cannot find today is maple syrup. It's like wine, the flavor is unique to the area it's produced because of not only how it is made, but the soil the sap is produced from. I had it so much as a kid though, I really don't miss it, but I could never put Aunt Jemima (or whatever the fuck they call it now) on pancakes. That's nothing but corn syrup with a small amount of the worst quality maple syrup made. In spring, you tap the trees and get very light syrup, as the season progresses it gets darker, partially because of bacteria growing in the trees (all is killed as it's boiled) and late in the season you get DARK SYRUP and we never bothered to harvest that junk, but that's what goes into anything you buy as a syrup unless it's labelled "pure".

There's an art to farming. I had many great uncles that did it and my father dabbled in it. People that think they can live off grid and "off the land" have no clue. It's a lot of work. People I knew that farmed professionally worked from sunup to sundown, every day of the week. Many of them weren't wealthy in that they didn't have money, but they had a ton of land and they really enjoyed the work. I live off from one, sometimes two meals a day. The men I knew as a kid had 3 squares and they needed it.
11   theoakman   2021 Feb 16, 5:10am  

mell says


No, the idea that food tastes significantly different when you buy it from a store versus buying it directly from a farm is a tremendous exaggeration.

Exceptions are fruits - they are often picked green so they aren't spoiled by the time the market receives them.

Carrots, potatoes, corn (in most cases), peas (in most cases), cucumbers, tomatoes - there's little if any difference. Don't know much about steak, but I doubt it. I've had venison, that's Bambi. The carcass is left on a hook for a week (at least) to let the meat tenderize in a shed - as the cells break down the meat becomes less tough, because a deer can absolutely beat the living absolute shit out of any human being. Meat has to be aged. So the idea of fresh meat, is a new one.

The current fad of "organic food" drives me nu...



When you have it in the garden, there actually is a difference. First off, you can grow better varieties that are not usually sold by the stores because their shelf life is much less and they are likely more susceptible to disease. Fruits naturally because you let them get to maximum ripeness. But even carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and other things as well. These foods have a lot of volatile compounds which are given off over the course of a day from being picked. While still part of the plant, they continuously produce them. These things enhance your sense of smell/taste and definitely make the food taste better. If you've ever clipped cilantro fresh off the plant, you know the smell because it permeates the room. Even things like carrots. The second you rip it out of the ground and slice it, it is incredibly fragrant. I think cucumbers are an extreme example. I find that they are different a mere 15 minutes after being picked.

Buying from a farm is not the same thing. You may be able to get varieties that are not normally found at the store, but they've been sitting around for a while.
12   NuttBoxer   2021 Feb 16, 9:04am  

richwicks says
No, the idea that food tastes significantly different when you buy it from a store versus buying it directly from a farm is a tremendous exaggeration.


Maybe you've never had real local, organic food. We buy most of our meat and product from local farms. And when we go to the store, we almost exclusively buy organic. It's gotten to the point where I don't even enjoy eating out that much anymore, because our food just tastes so much better. And we're not very good cooks.

It's not just when produce is picked. Apples are covered in wax to make them look shiny. Meat is injected with antibiotics and growth hormones, and fed a mostly grain diet. Think you're keto? Not if you buy CAFO meat.

Apart from the quality, which is significantly better(and this is from me and my families personal experience over 10 years), the health benefits are innumerable. My kids don't have allergies, any, ever. We almost never get sick, none of us are on any medication, and we've almost never used health insurance. And it's not genetics. Myself and my wife had plenty of health issues as kids, and our families have histories of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

We ate at my wife's cousin's house the other night. They made steaks(FDA Choice), potatoes, etc. The steaks were almost flavorless, had bits of something that was harder, but chewable. It's probably the best they eat, but for us, it was very sub-par.

So organic food has given us better quality of life, better quality of meals, less disease, and a lower cost of living. And this is backed by 10 years of experience.
13   NuttBoxer   2021 Feb 16, 9:08am  

theoakman says
I find that they are different a mere 15 minutes after being picked.


This is exactly why you should buy from a local farm, and don't let it sit in your fridge. But if you can grow it yourself, even better.

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions