Eating Well

This weekend, I planted my garden. Mother's day weekend is the traditional weekend when freezes are over and planting can begin. It hasn't been freezing now for weeks.

I have had a garden just about every year that I can remember. And since moving to Michigan I have begun to can my produce after the end of the season. I am now thinking of extending the season some by getting a greenhouse.

I really do not like that our food comes such long distances and find that so many things just don't taste right any more. It began with tomatoes, but now so much "fresh" food travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches our homes that I cannot help but know that something is wrong. How much nutrition can our food have when it is picked still unripe and sprayed with compounds to ripen according to the transportation time? So I grow vegetables and fruits, and try to buy locally, but it is a problem in Michigan where 6 months of the year is downtime. Part of the way I get around it is to not use anything but my canned tomatoes during the rest of the year, and use Michigan grown cherries (yum) on my salads.

I have always made my food from scratch — slow food. It tastes better and is a far higher quality than what I can buy for an equivalent price. I almost never eat fast or processed foods. I always felt something was wrong with them, that the calories were empty, the nutrition vacant. Turns out I was right. Processed foods tend to have many ingredients that are unpronounceable, too much sugar, too much salt and fat. Who needs it?

Yet at EMU there are few, if any, healthy places to eat, just a lot of fast food emporiums, and school catering that is anything but healthy. So, I seldom eat at school, but wonder about the students who must eat there, and the many others who choose to eat there. Can't help but believe that eating such unhealthy food is part of the reason that health care costs have escalated as much as they have. People just don't eat food that is good for them, and sometimes, when they think they are eating healthy, they are not because the nutrition has been stripped from the food by processing.

Though I save money by cooking from scratch, the fact is that I eat well, very well. I can cook almost anything enjoy good foods, and know that what I serve will only be found in the healthiest of restaurants, and therefore will be expensive to buy eating out. It is expensive to eat well, but much cheaper than doctor bills later in life.

So, I grow my garden, and eat as healthy as I can, and I go to farmer's markets though they are small and for only a short period in Michigan. But at least now there is Trader Joes here in Michigan, and most of their food is preservative and additive free.