Last week I moved out of my rental. While emptying the pantry we found one of those shameful, sad hamburger buns. You know the type: you have 3 hamburgers and 4 buns, so one of those gets forgotten and shoved to the depths of your pantry, getting all smashed in the process. It had expired over a month earlier but you probably couldn't have told by the looks of it. It smelled good, looked good and didn't have any mold at all which didn't come as a shock to me but I still find quite strange.
You see, when I was a kid any food that got past its expiration date would spoil. Buns and any kind of bread, as well as yogurts would go moldy usually one or two weeks tops after the date printed on the package. It occurs to me that something must have changed for food to not get spoiled and I honestly don't think I want to know. It's probably one of those things that would make me anxious. Something along the lines of companies and health organizations/law enforcement competing against each other to see if the latest advances are healthy enough on the long term or whatever...
I do know that along my life I've noticed a couple of changes in some food's taste and qualities but as a consumer I don't feel like there are a lot of options. Even when changing brands, most things are just the same. Many packaged goods are made in the same factories with ever so slight changes in their recipes so brands can differ a little from each other and avoid legal problems.
One of the things I like most about being back home is that we're lucky about our fresh foods options. Here every major and little city has a local market, I think maybe similar to what farmers markets are in the USA. There are different stands and most vegetables and fruits are produced by the vendors themselves or their families. The butcher receives whole pieces and the separates the parts so our proteins are also quite fresh and not as processed as their counterparts from the supermarket and trust me when I say there's a difference. While studying this year I've had to buy absolutely everything from the super and meat would always shrink a lot when cooking because it was inflated with water to reduce costs. Vegetables wouldn't rot or show no signs of being spoiled but when cutting them they weren't good, no matter how fresh they looked. I've never had these issues with the food we buy from our local market. Another pro of buying at the market is that vendors will always let you try seasonal products. By tasting them before buying and being able to choose between different options (maybe you like something more sour, or sweeter, because you'll use it for a specific purpose) you can reduce waste by a lot whereas buying fruit at the supermarket feels like buying a lottery ticket.
In other news, today we visited some friends. It's actually my childhood's best friend family. They have some land and they've always grown vegetables and fruits and even had some small animals.
Around a year and a half ago his sister started an ecological orchard from their home. She has now all her permits and even delivers to a good chunk of stores around the region. While chatting today I let them know that I'm free (remember my forced vacation because I quit my course?) so she invited me to go help her a bit during this week. She'll also take her time and explain me how everything works, best methods and times for planting and collecting, etc. I'm honestly over the moon with this as I'm quite interested. Last year I grew my own bell pepper from my balcony and I've been looking for ways to plant something else when I returned. It'll also be interested to see the difference in procedure and results between this method and the more commercial approach. I may even get some ideas to run by my boyfriend, as some of his family in the agriculture business as well.
Regarding my weight, I've managed to maintain it through two movings in the last two weeks and a couple of different diets. Even though I haven't kept loosing weight I haven't been gaining it either and, as things are, that's a win. I already have my exercise routine lined up as I have a lot of time now and tomorrow we'll do our grocery shopping so I'll buy what I need to keep dieting.
As always, thanks for reading.
