Reminiscing about childhood and thinking about life in India!

            One of the things that I’ve always liked and been in awe of here in India is the way food is prepared.  Except for cookies and sweets, nothing is commercially prepared or instant. My sister-in-law uses no frozen or canned vegetables. Everything is fresh! Also, there are no leftovers. She cooks enough for the meal that we are eating, and it is gone.

            Growing up in a very southern rural country area, this is alien to me.  As a child, I remember having fresh vegetables in the summer! I loved the summer when school was out and the days were long and filled with playing outside, Bible school and fresh vegetables in the garden.

            The day would begin with waking up, and having breakfast. Breakfast was not a big meal at our house unless there was company visiting. We would have toast or cereal and then the day would begin. As a small child, I would play all morning until lunch time (we called this dinner), then I would take a nap, wake up and play some more until Daddy came home and then eat supper and go to bed at 8pm. This was my life. Looking back it was a wonderful life with nothing bigger to worry about than hoping that if it rained, there would not be lightening and we could stay outside and play.

            As an older child and teenager, things changed somewhat. The day began, as always but instead of being able to play all day, there were vegetables to deal with. My Grandfather had a huge family garden that we all participated in and there were massive amounts of food to be processed.  We did not visit much in the summer but if we did go to someone else’s home, the process was the same all over the countryside. The only difference was whether the mother of the house canned or froze her vegetables. My mother put everything in the freezer. The day would begin with the vegetable that was ripe and ready to pick that day. Usually, one vegetable would ripen and we would work that vegetable for several days or a week. Sometimes, however, we would be dealing with multiple vegetables at the same time. We would shell peas or beans for days on end. When we would have a large dishpan shelled, my mother and as I got older, myself, would begin the process of putting them in the freezer.

            My mother or I would fill up the sink with water and dump the peas or beans into the water. Then we would begin the job of picking out the trash and the bad peas. The majority of the trash would float to the top and could be scooped off with your hand. After this was done, each pea was looked at by scooping up a handful of peas at a time, holding them under running water and discarding any bad peas. The peas were then placed in huge pans with water and brought to a boil on the stove, the heat turned off and the peas bagged in freezer bags, sealed and put into the freezer.

This process was then repeated until the plants stopped producing peas and then it was on to the next vegetable. The process was the same with only small variations for tomatoes and corn. My mother also put up “soup mix” which consisted of combining all of the vegetables that she used in home made soup into one bag. This saved freezer bags and space in the freezer.

We had vegetables all year until the next summer. We did not buy vegetables from the grocery. We also did the same with meats. My grandfather raised hogs and my father, brothers and uncles hunted deer and fished.  My grandfather had a meat processing plant and a smoke house. We had fresh and smoked meat and sausage all year! We bought chicken and the occasional Sunday beef roast at the store.

            The ladies in the community worked very hard, especially in the summer. For that reason, they usually only cooked once a day. We would have a HUGE meal in the middle of the day that we called dinner. Afterwards, the leftover food would be put up and pulled out for supper. I remember as a small child, before microwaves, we would often eat the food cold depending on how tired my mother or grandmother was and how hot it was outside. Anything that wasn’t finished at that meal went into the fridge and usually ended up in a soup of stew for Saturday.

            I’ve been wondering why the two cultures in my life are so very different from each other. India is fortunate to have a yearlong growing season. I’ve come to the conclusion that life in India while being optimal is not possible for most people unless they live in a large city where they are in walking distance of an organic farmers market.  Also, I’ve spent quite a bit of time this trip reminiscing on the lost days of my childhood and wondering what I can do to incorporate some of my knowledge into healthier eating. I think that I am going to concentrate on eating less processed foods and strive this summer, to put up my own vegetables instead of having to rely on the poor quality vegetables in the stores during the winter.

I’m going to leave you with a picture of the local vegetables available along almost every street in Mumbai! Have a great week!