Whoever is involved in marketing Monster, they will be getting a rather large bonus I would say!
It is everywhere! A beverage of choice particularly for our teenagers I note the variety of colours and shelf space these products are taking up in the shops. Another ultra processed product displacing real food for us consumers. Clearly the profit is worth it. But at what cost to our health?? Considering up to 60% of our food choices is now ultra processed is it any wonder we struggle with health issues. I’m back at the graveyard for my thoughts on real food for living… what you say? Where is the relevance? Fascinating places to visit especially when you remember the individuals and families concerned. Sometimes their character comes through in how they are remembered. Nick names, previous names, ages, memorabilia all help to piece together the stories of their lives. More recently I note the headstones with the photos attached. A visual prompt to remember them as they were in happier healthier days. It did come as a surprise to find in recent days a memorial plaque to a recently deceased man featuring a large picture with a can of Diet Red Bull. Was this his beverage of choice I wondered? This icon sat among the family pictures smiling out at me. How far we have come with such ultra processed foods that they take pride of place at this time. Maybe it did just what it said it would.. it gave him wings… Anne Maher
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It’s that time of life when I am finally interested in genealogy. Looking through my family trees to trace back in time and elicit the stories of interest. Farmers feature a lot. Generation after generation. Irish history is echoed through the generations and it is quite surreal to recognise that my great-grandparents lived through the famine and beyond. How did they fare through it? Tenant farmers where the land must have provided vital nourishment and income in the midlands. My grandparents bought farming land through the land commission at the beginning of the last century. To be owners of land and not tenants must have been a proud time then after the long fight to gain independence and autonomy. How did it feel to plough that land with a growing sense of security? Wars and world events may have been secondary to the toil needed to sow and harvest raising a typical Irish family held tightly by religious traditions. The oldest son of a large family later, my father, reluctantly continued the farming tradition in the place he was born. He could not leave due to his place in the sibling hierarchy. An age-old tradition to ensure succession to protect that land. Siblings scattered to their destinies of emigration, religion, civil service, a step away from the land but they too kept a regular connection with the ground that nourished them. Cousins were regular visitors and memories were made. We heard stories as children of good old days of gatherings there on the farm, of music and dancing in the barns, of bicycle trips to Dublin after haymaking. The sun shining on the freshly made reeks. The corncrakes in the meadows and horses stopped work as the church bell rang out. The land did continue to yield forth a life and a living for us all with a wisdom gleaned from before but I know it was a challenge for my father to accept the modern techniques that were becoming popular in agriculture. He resisted silage for many years arguing he would wait until they fed this to horses. Meanwhile, I as one of nine children were mesmerized and seduced by the device called a Television. Learning about shiny new things that were far away from the land….yearning to leave and shake the dust off our feet. Three generations before me. All returned to the land where they rest now. No matter how far away from the land we do go there is no escaping the fact we will one day return.
Anne Maher The Urban Co-op is an interesting place. A microcosm of energy and ideas that keeps everything real and grounded for us. The complexity of conversations and interactions weaving a security blanket of comfort on cold days…
I had an interesting conversation with one customer who spoke about watching children's movies with her children and how farmers are being portrayed as often quite nasty characters. Fantastic Mr. Fox, for example, is hugely entertaining but yes the farmers do come across as being quite fearsome and unsavoury characters. It made me think that if children do not have direct exposure to farms they may never know anything but negative associations. Meanwhile, Jim Cronin is enjoying his retirement as I type and I am reminded of a conversation he had with us about how he was encouraged to consider supplying the Limerick Community Grocery when the concept started 10 years ago he spoke about a mother explaining why she wanted a place to get food that would not involve saying no to her child all the time when she was shopping. He agreed, and we are grateful he did. I am sure many children in the last decade have met many not so fearsome wonderful farmers as a result. Anne Maher One of the real joys with working at The Urban Co-op is seeing the progress of customers who learn that food can have healing properties. That slow awakening to the power of nature provides the answer we are looking for. Repeatedly the theme is the same. Food is usually the last chance saloon option after medical answers are pursued. But when there are positive results from food there is a period of disbelief followed by stages of awakening. It reminds me of the Kubler-Ross stages of grief. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance appear to be more subtle and possibly not in the same order. I could suggest it is in the following order Denial / Depression / Bargaining / Acceptance / Anger. It is worth discussing this because there is an energy that builds in this process and harnessing this energy is having an interesting impact!
Anne Maher Bacon and Cabbage is a national dish that is renowned worldwide. Love it or hate it is comfort food at its best. Aside from the nod to Pigtown bacon I do want to draw attention to the humble cabbage.
In season from large to small form, as we enjoy brussel sprouts lately, we can underestimate the impact of this vegetable. From its versatile use in the kitchen – salads, stews, ferments it is a robust vegetable to grow and regrow (let’s face it if I can grow it, it is a sure thing). It represents such good value, travels well, zero packaging. Therapeutic properties of restorative gut health via sauerkraut or soothing comfort for engorged new breastfeeders... there are many anti-inflammatory benefits as well as improving the digestive process. In our endless search for the magic pill, we could remind ourselves to look closer to home and recognise the answers that are right in front of us. Anne Maher The day was going to come and we dreaded it. When it happened though perhaps we were prepared for the inevitable. Sean was retiring as a raw milk farmer. Our source of sustenance stopped. The rich creamy nourishing goodness that has sustained so many of us customers at The Urban Co-op for many years now. It felt like we were just getting into our stride as more people were discovering the wonder of this local real food. The normality of raw milk now is a blessing and every day that goes by we are grateful for this fact. Succession is now the theme as we forge ahead with the sustainability of this food supply. Principles of farming and growing see us prune to achieve stronger growth and this metaphor is key. Sean may have ceased production but he continues to inspire more farmers to go the route of once-a-day organic raw milk. We are eternally grateful for his dedication through the last few years and indeed he is a major part of the story of The Urban Co-op both in the past and into the future. Who knows where this will go!
Anne Maher I used to teach people about food labels and once up a time thought it important enough to impart the “useful” information on. Remember when the book came out about E numbers and drove us all mad checking for MSG disguised as a coded number on the back of packets? Eircodes for chemicals…
Occasionally I will check a food label in a local supermarket (just because) and to be honest I shudder at the contents. Ultimately if you have to read the labels then its probably not food at all, but an ultra processed version of something resembling it. With all the information crammed in there the script has got smaller and smaller. Reading glasses needed for food shopping?! Such effort involved in the journey to acquire food! Shopping has become a forensic science. No wonder it is exhausting and stressful! The reward? A toxic soup of chemical formulations that hardly nourishes. It is local apple food season and the memories are evoked of childhood foraging from the neighbour’s orchard. Our primal instinct to judge the safety and palatability of food has now been eroded by plastic, barcodes and fine print. It’s like having to crack a code to eat nowadays. One of the positive consequences of exposure to real food is having a multi-sensory experience of smells and aromas to greet us. Real foods (unpackaged) delight the senses in ways we need to remind ourselves of again. Anne Maher Foraging is becoming popular again. Or at least I would like to think so. It’s blackberry season and on an evening walk we have been taking a few pitstops to reach into the brambles for some succulent treats. I wondered just before I picked the ripe juicy fruits, which were being visited by the insects at the time, was I eating more than I bargained for? Had those insects just come from the field next door and brought with them the traces of bovine excrement. (!) How sterile our diets have become to avoid any hint of micro organisms that may potentially harm us! This food sterility is having the opposite effect and autoimmune conditions are a by product of such careful processing of food.
Obtaining food as close as possible to the source is part of the solution. My appreciation for the foods in their natural environment has grown in recent years. Yes I savoured the sweet succulent taste of the seasonal berries there and then. At this stage of my life I am welcoming the extra diversity of fauna and flora. In a world reminding us to be inclusive this may be a good start. Anne Maher |
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March 2024
AuthorsRecipes from Katie Verling & Jacques |