Does Our Food Taste How It Used To?

Summer is coming. With it comes the sweet nostalgic juice and flavor from a garden-fresh tomato, the refreshing crisp crunch from a just-picked cucumber, and the deep, rich aroma from freshly harvested basil. Have you ever had the pleasure of experiencing the difference in truly fresh produce? It simply doesn’t compare to the grocery store version.

If you shop for your household, it’s likely you spend most of your time making a list for your local grocery store. Maybe you wish you had time to enjoy the slow morning at the farmer’s market, but the weekends are just too busy. The reality is that most of us simply don’t have the luxury of time to worry about where our food comes from, let alone how long ago it may have been harvested, transported, and then sat on the shelf after leaving the back warehouse to hit the shelf. This long process isn’t the grocery store’s fault, it’s just the way things are today.

In our great-grandparents and grandparents eras, industrialization of our food supply was only beginning. The backyard garden was once still alive and well. Local, in-season produce was the only option we had to choose from. These older generations shared hand-written recipes and cooked from scratch with real ingredients. The supermarket wasn’t as heavily relied upon.

Once upon a time, real cream rose to the top of every gallon of milk after the milk man dropped it off on your doorstep. Pasteurization and homogenization didn’t exist yet, and neither did artificial nutrients. The top-soil in America was rich with nutrients and produced wondrous, nourishing greens and fruits. Our food used to be different.

Pay attention the next time you bite into a freshly sliced tomato. Watch how quickly your potatoes and apples from the store are sprouting and going soft. There should be a richness in each bite of truly fresh produce that we don’t even know we’re missing.

 Make a note to ask that neighbor with the flourishing garden this summer if you can compare her fresh tomatoes this summer to store-bought. she’s probably already planning on dropping some off from her surplus anyways.

Our food was different, what happened?