Anthony Bourdain would sneer, I’m sure, but it’s quite economical.

You might want to reconsider that, Amanda

And if there’s a regular feature, a common thread wherever you go in this world, it’s that the best cooks and often the best chefs come from the poorest or most challenging regions.  And it is without doubt that the greatest , most beloved and iconic dishes in the pantheon of gastronomy—in any of the world’s mother cuisines—French, Italian or Chinese–originated with poor, hard-pressed, hard working farmers and laborers with no time, little money and no refrigeration.

Pot au Feu , Coq au Vin, Sup Tulang, Cassoulet, pasta, polenta, confit, —all of them began with the urgent need to make something good and reasonably sustaining out of very little.  So many of the French classics began with the need to throw a bunch of stuff into a single pot over the coals, leave it simmering unattended all day while the family worked the fields, hopefully to return to something tasty and filling that would get them through the next day.  French cooking, we tend to forget now, was rarely (for the majority of Frenchmen) about the best or the priciest or even the freshest ingredients. It was about taking what little you had or could afford and turning it into something delicious without interfering with the grim necessities of work and survival.  The people I’m talking about here didn’t have money—or time to cook.  And yet along with similarly pressed Italians, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Indians and other hungry innovators around the world, they created many of the enduring great dishes of history.

So the notion that hard working, hard pressed families with little time and slim budgetshave to eat crappy, processed food –or that unspeakably, proudly unhealthy “novelty dishes” that come from nowhere but the fevered imaginations of marketing departments are—or should be—the lot of the working poor is nonsense.

Southern Comfort

Today was so odd, it was like early June’s box instead of an October: 2 heads of lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, and radishes (and potatoes, peppers and a pumpkin, so kind of autumn-feeling!) - and there’s only two more weeks left! :( Last week I got a spaghetti squash and have been so enjoying traditional pasta dishes with it, wish they’d give me more of them.
I think next year I might go with a different CSA that has a fruit share - this one was cheaper but out of the way, and I wasn’t overly fond of the produce picks anyway (more green beans than any human ever needs, but only two 1/2 bunches of kale all season? bleh).

Here’s an interesting thought for progressives who are (rightly) concerned about our increasingly trashy, junk-filled diet of processed garbage: do you think there might, just possibly be a connection between the decline of the traditional married two-parent household and the rise of the junk/fast food diet?

Unpaid domestic servitude by women did contribute to the ability of (middle class) families to have time for home cooking, but it is an inadequate solution not only for the obvious reason that home-cooked mashed potatoes are hardly a justification for oppressing an entire group of people, but also because it fails to address a number of other societal changes. For instance, agricultural subsidies that reduce the price of processed crap, food deserts, urbanization, advertising, wage stagnation combined with longer hours and increasing job responsibilities for those who are still employed, etc.

Rather than forcing women back into the home, I support reform of agricultural subsidies, free and healthy school lunch and breakfast programs, efforts to increase food access, urban agriculture (like Amanda’s garden), expansion of domestic food aid programs, better labor regulations which provide support for those with stressful jobs or long hours (such as longer breaks, especially lunches), scholarships for working students so that we can reduce the number of hours we have to work, perhaps reinstating cooking class requirements for high school students (including the boys - no, you can’t take shop class to get out of it) or offering them to adults for free/reduced price/a tax write-off, further regulation of fast food advertising to children, etc. If you’re really into coercive solutions (like oppressing women) we could always just ban junk food or tax it into irrelevance

Am I wrong or is Occupy Wall Street being ignored?

I can eat an apple to keep myself from getting faint and crabby, as is my unfortunate habit when I’m hungry. (Always has been. I don’t know what that means, if anything.)

I think what you’re experiencing there is low blood sugar, Amanda.

I have this theory that the decline of slave labor was somehow linked to the profitability drop in the American cotton industry. I wonder what progressives think of that.

re: traditional married two-parent household:

So many other changes happened when pre-packaged mass-marketed foods started making the scene way before said ‘decline’ - what I think you’re imagining is that unhealthy, mass-marketed food came along with the sexual revolution. However, think about around the 1890s to 1910s, when factory-produced everything was becoming huge, before regulations - the lower and middle classes especially in cities weren’t canning their own produce, slaughtering their own meat, or doing their own baking - and the replacements, although less scientifically engineered than today, were really no less awful for their health. The time that a family either produced their own food or hired a cook (or several other servants) to make sure they had fresh produce, meat and home-cooked meals every day was already winding down long before we got to the TV-dinners and McDonalds, and I still doubt that was the result of an increased number of single-parent households.

So, no, I see where you’re going and I don’t think you can throw this one on the shoulders of women daring to raise their kids in single parent households rather than I suppose stayed in unhappy marriages just to preserve some home cooked meals or I guess if they weren’t married to begin with give us their kids for adoption because those home cooked meals are more important than being raised by your mother? I guess?

Not to mention that intact families were not ubiquitous, ever.  Most of the really poor have never been horribly big on marriage.  What was the point when you have nothing to offer long term?

2nding the likely low blood sugar idea from Maureen.  That’s what it is in my case and many others I know of.

Maybe, Paleo, but not as much as suburban sprawl and increasingly heavy workloads that make the average American worker work overtime. If your average woman was able to spend as much time at home as the average breadwinning husband did in 1955, they would be able to get all the cooking done by themselves, no problem. But what’s nice about feminism is they would have another pair of hands to help! Really, feminism means double the the people working at home, so it should more than even it out. But the increasing demands on individual workers plus longer commute times are the real issue here.

Also, working for women is non-optional. Few households can subsist on one income.

I work full time and cook often-elaborate meals. Because I don’t commute. When I lived alone and commuted to work, I cooked often-elaborate meals. Because my commute was short and I almost never worked overtime. Take those privileges away, and it becomes harder. Gender has nothing to do with it.

Also, there’s no real evidence, is there, that housewives make more nutritious and better food than women who work and cook? When I was in high school and taking home ec, the housewife-y 50s-era recipes we learned to make were so bad for you. Just a bunch of sugar-heavy processed foods. I learned to cook from my two working and divorced parents, both who worked full time and both who had a more whole foods ingredient-heavy approach to cooking. My mother worked full time all through my high school years and would often prepare individual quail for dinner with an elaborate salad and two side dishes. Of course, we had a kitchen that was built in the 20s and perfect for elaborate cooking, and—-more importantly—-my mother literally worked half a mile from our house and got off work every day at 5 no matter what.

I know it’s low blood sugar, Maureen. What I meant was that I don’t know why I tend to get low blood sugar faster than a lot of people. I also have low blood pressure, which compounds my problem. When I delay meals, I get crabby and I get cold hands from the lack of salt in my system. I assume this means I have a high metabolism, but I always assumed that meant you could eat more without gaining weight, which I really can’t. Maybe that part is just a myth, and a high metabolism is just how fast you process food.

What I meant was that I don’t know why I tend to get low blood sugar faster than a lot of people.

Have you ever been tested for hypoglycemia, Amanda?  Because that’s what it sounds like to me:

Signs and symptoms

Hypoglycemic symptoms and manifestations can be divided into those produced by the counterregulatory hormones (epinephrine/adrenaline and glucagon) triggered by the falling glucose, and the neuroglycopenic effects produced by the reduced brain sugar.

    Adrenergic manifestations

  Shakiness, anxiety, nervousness
  Palpitations, tachycardia
  Sweating, feeling of warmth (although sweat glands have muscarinic receptors,
  thus “adrenergic   manifestations” is not entirely accurate)
  Pallor, coldness, clamminess
  Dilated pupils (mydriasis)
  Feeling of numbness “pins and needles” (paresthesia)

    Glucagon manifestations

  Hunger, borborygmus(stomach growling:The word borborygmic has been
  used in literature to describe noisy plumbing. In Ada, Vladimir Nabokov wrote:
  “All the toilets and waterpipes in the house had been suddenly seized with
  borborygmic convulsions”.)
  Nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort
  Headache

    Neuroglycopenic manifestations

  Abnormal mentation, impaired judgment
  Nonspecific dysphoria, moodiness, depression, crying, exaggerated concerns
  Negativism, irritability, belligerence, combativeness, rage
  Personality change, emotional lability
  Fatigue, weakness, apathy, lethargy, daydreaming, sleep
  Confusion, amnesia, dizziness, delirium
  Staring, “glassy” look, blurred vision, double vision
  Flashes of light in the field of vision
  Automatic behavior, also known as automatism
  Difficulty speaking, slurred speech
  Ataxia, incoordination, sometimes mistaken for “drunkenness”
  Focal or general motor deficit, paralysis, hemiparesis
  Paresthesia, headache
  Stupor, coma, abnormal breathing
  Generalized or focal seizures

Not all of the above manifestations occur in every case of hypoglycemia. There is no consistent order to the appearance of the symptoms, if symptoms even occur. Specific manifestations may also vary by age, by severity of the hypoglycemia and the speed of the decline. In young children, vomiting can sometimes accompany morning hypoglycemia with ketosis. In older children and adults, moderately severe hypoglycemia can resemble mania, mental illness, drug intoxication, or drunkenness. In the elderly, hypoglycemia can produce focal stroke-like effects or a hard-to-define malaise. The symptoms of a single person may be similar from episode to episode, but are not necessarily so and may be influenced by the speed at which glucose levels are dropping, as well as previous incidence.

The definitive test, when I was tested for it nearly 30 years ago(and found not to be hypoglycemic) is a 36 hour fast, but from your symptoms I’m not sure that would be a good idea in your case.

I believe it would definitely be worth looking into.

I blame the real estate industry for the rise of processed crap. If people weren’t fighting ever-longer commutes and living in ever-more-expensive houses (building cost goes roughly as perimeter, price goes roughly as area) and living in places with ever fewer nearby food stores, they would have time to cook.

Oh, yeah, and if median wages had just risen in line with productivity, they’d be able to afford to.

Again, 2nding; DAGCM this time.  In my case it was borderline childhood hypoglycemia.

The cold hands aren’t from low salt in your blood, Amanda, you only get that(hyponatremia) when you have something else seriously wrong with you:

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of hyponatremia include nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, lethargy, fatigue, appetite loss, restlessness and irritability, muscle weakness, spasms, or cramps, seizures, and decreased consciousness or coma. The presence and severity of symptoms are associated with the level of serum sodium, with the lowest levels of serum sodium associated with the more prominent and serious symptoms. However, emerging data suggest that mild hyponatremia (serum sodium levels at 131 mEq/L or above) is associated with numerous complications and undiagnosed symptoms.[2]

Hyponatremia is know to occur when marathon runners drink more water than they should(overhydration), and I know you have a tough work-out, so you might try just drinking to your thirst instead of gulping it down because you’ve always been told to hydrate during your workout.

Thanks for the backup, helen w. h.

Btw, are you preparing the garden for winter, yet?  It’s gotten cooler over here and they expect rain on Tues/Weds, so I’ll be planting some snow peas, this will also involve starting some of them in with my blackberry vines as well, so the results should be interesting….......

I try to be sure and get some good vegetable protein - like nuts and seeds early in the day to prevent the low blood sugar. A fingerful of almond butter works well and everything tastes better that way. (Well, for me anyway).

I’ve just picked up a copy of “Radical Homemakers” which is very interesting. Seems like the back-to-the-land movement updated 40 years. For those of us who like to work outside the home its not feasible, but there are great ideas that can be incorporated part-ways (like cooking and raising food and not driving so much!).

Work has really picked up - I was traveling for 10 days as well.  I think we are going to concentrate on getting the outdoor home-improvement stuff done.  I did start the apricot pits my spouse brought back from a visit with his father this weekend though.  It’s a big old tree with fruit about golfball-sized, or smaller.  I also managed to start a tamarind tree.  I’m hesitant to think I can keep it alive through winter.
On the other hand, the young hens have suddenly started laying and anything I have to trim from the store bought stuff at least goes to a good place - it’s not waste if the birds will eat it.  They like fruit, greens, onions, peels of most vegetables.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like an ass.

The cold hands/low blood pressure/low blood sugar/faint and crabby thing is actually a pretty common combo, I think. For me it set in at puberty and has more or less persisted since. Back when I had a regular doc who was monitoring shit like that he was like, “you’re not sick per se, you are what we might call a delicate type.” Which, knowing my personality, we both thought was pretty funny.

Cutting down on caffeine overall helps the faint part but *certainly* not the crabby part, IME.

Good luck with the apricot seedlings.  Our tree is in the southeast corner of the backyard, and one year produced so much fruit that I ended up with a gallon of dried apricots. 

My noble spouse will be trimming some of the nectarine trees and that will mean next year we won’t have as much fruit, but, on the positive side, it won’t take a fire ladder to reach some of them.

The lemon and orange trees will probably have ripe fruit in December, they’re always a little behind schedule.

I also managed to start a tamarind tree.  I’m hesitant to think I can keep it alive through winter.

According to the Wiki, it makes a good indoor bonsai plant in temperate climates, so perhaps the seedling will be a new addition to your indoor plant collection.

DA, how cold can it get to plant snow peas as a winter crop, do you know?  I’m guessing zone 7 is too cold.  I plant in containers on a rooftop deck, so that makes it even colder in winter, though it makes summer growing hotter.

oldfeminist, the determining factor is that the soil must be at least between 40 to 60 degrees to start them out in, you might want to use aluminum foil over cardboard, or the large foam trays that fresh meat is often sold in, to catch the sunlight and direct it at the containers to increase their temps if it starts to get too cold.

Here’s a few suggestions:

Getting The Most From the Fall Home Garden

By using container planting and planning to utilize row cover techniques you can extend the harvest into the colder months. If frost is forecast cover your plants with clear plastic to trap heat that comes from the ground. You can use plastic thrown over a lawn chair that covers the plant, or even a cardboard box. Using lots of compost and mulch will help with maintaining warm soil conditions as well. Be sure that your plants are well watered and protected from cold winds.

Here’s one heat conserving method using plastic jugs:

Make a Wall-o-Water
Fill jugs with water and arrange them in a ring around plants. Cover the ring at night to preserve heat absorbed during the day. When the danger of frost and cold has passed, use the warmed water to water your plants. For warmer water, paint the containers black before filling them. This is a good way to regulate heat in cold frames and greenhouses.

I think this will really help you out

Peas grow best in cool and humid weather, which is why, where I live in Delaware (USDA Hardiness Zone 7), peas are considered early-spring crops only. Summer rapidly becomes too hot, and fall crops are impossible because we’d need to start the plants during unfavorably hot weather, or so the thinking goes.

My experience proves fall crops of peas are not only possible, but that their flavor is often superior. I believe the techniques I’ve developed will work for gardeners who live in zones 5 through 8. Farther north than zone 5, the growing season isn’t long enough for two crops. Farther south (and west) than zone 8, gardeners primarily plant fall crops because spring fades too quickly into summer.

The fall crop in my Delaware garden is lighter than my spring crop, but because the late peas mature in cool temperatures, they generally taste sweeter than spring peas. Production is a gamble. An early hard frost, particularly when the plants are in blossom, can ruin the crop. But, as with any gamble, if you make sure the odds are in your favor, you’re more likely to hit the jackpot. With careful variety selection and some simple precautions, I’ve had good luck.

......................................

SNOW PEAS

  ‘Oregon Giant’ and ‘Oregon Sugar Pod II’ are the same, except the latter grows nearly twice as tall as 2-1/2-foot ‘Oregon Giant’. Both are high-sugar snow peas and both are resistant to wilt, bean yellow mosaic virus, and powdery mildew.

I didn’t use any inoculant when I started my peas, but I did include a little bit of bat guano fertilizer(which is basically phosphorus) when I started them, and I think it made a difference.

Snow peas can stand a little frost, so you probably only have to use heat-conserving methods if you’re getting down to 28 degrees F or lower.

I’m in zone 9, and the only reason I’m starting this week is that this seems to be the week when we have what I call fractal fall weather,  last week we had 99 degree weather, today was 82, and they expect it to be 62 with rain by Wednesday, so you can see that we don’t just have boring California sunshine all the time.

Good luck with your fall/winter gardening efforts, and thanks for asking.

I use my koi pond water to soak for an hour or so before planting, if I remember; then water with it for the first watering.  A manure tea would have about the same effect.
If you stake high enough with crossing stakes and are willing to/have time to bother, they can be tented at night to last longer.  I actually missed the window for starting the peas here in Boston for a second crop.  They should have been planted in early September.  I was switching projects and getting ready to travel for work, so no joy on that activity then.

yes, absolutely too late for to start anything.  We are supposed to have a light freeze before the end of the weekend.

You do have next spring, when the soil temp gets to 40 degrees day and night, and there isn’t a lot of snow to scrap away

We just started winter early here on the Best Coast, about the same as last year:

A strong storm dropping out of the gulf of Alaska will bring unseasonably cold weather to the Central California interior today and Thursday. Snow accumulations could be as high as 20 inches over the high country…with 6 to 12 inches down to the 7000 foot level. The storm is forecast to move east of the region late tonight…however snow showers could linger into Thursday. WINTER STORM WARNING remains in effect until 5 AM PDT Thursday above 7000 feet.

Yeah, a co-worker just got back from Lompoc and complained about how cold it was there.

The weather Lompoc experienced was typical of the Central California Coast, and if you’ve been having 99 degree weather last week, it comes with a relief that one can experience it without driving to the coast itself, which from the foothills of the Sierra takes about 4 hours.

I’ve lived where there is snow on the ground for some part of the year, so to me,  Lompoc isn’t and wasn’t cold unless you’re a California native exercising your inherent right to wear shorts on any day of the year.