Food

We have arrived at Blog Action Day, time to blog about Food. Food and eating are always rich topics for writers' groups. The subject is so primal, so tied up with survival and therefore, as nature arranges things, with pleasure ... and with our earliest childhood memories, too.

Here are some of WordsFlow's writings on that subject. We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for it this year. Bron's opening poem has been worked on; luckily she had already dealt with this topic recently. The others are stream-of-consciousness writings created specifically for this occasion. They are five-minute timed writings, which is why they may appear to stop abruptly. (They did!) They illustrate a few of the various possible off-the-cuff responses to the topic, even amongst a small group of very similar people: ageing, middle-class, educated white Australians from one small area of the country.


Food

Gives health
expresses culture
makes friends
excites senses
satiates desires
unites countries
sustains comfort
builds strength
exudes pleasure.

Food is life

— Bron Trathen

Food, glorious food

Poor little Oliver, bad enough to have to eat that watery gruel, but to be hungry enough to ask for more? Pitiful. Children were treated badly in those days in a so-called civilised country, but now in our world children are still starving and dying of malnutrition.  We in Australia have been rather spoilt over the years. We do live in the land of milk and honey and other delicious nutrients. When all else fails we have Vegemite, which provides vitamins and niacin. I don't know what niacin means. but it must be good for you.

— Nan Doyle

Food 

Food – good grief.

There are so many rules about it – what we should eat, what we shouldn’t eat – do you know anyone who doesn’t have some sort of food restrictions – even children? And if they don’t, well there is sure to be someone out there who will advise them about that:  they should – and for free.  And in total conflict with what they’ve already been advised by any number of others.

Food – why can’t we just eat it??  Why count the calories, or the carbs, or the GI, or the protein, or the additives, or the sugar, or the portion size?

Food – remember what it used to be like?  We just ate it.  Recipes – well there were a few – your Mum wrote out her butter cake recipe, or tomato relish …


— Christine Maddock




Food

I sat and watched the old man set up his stall.

From the back of his truck, he took plain cupboard boxes and sat them on a trestle table under a shade area. 

Then he started opening the lids of the boxes. The transformation was magical. Deep ruby colours of large capsicums adjacent to lime green lettuces, bright orange mangoes nestled next to old granny smith apples. 

At the back he set up the deep purple bulbs of beetroot still with their bright green hairy heads, and around the box he placed the dense orange of fresh crisp carrots. 

It was not only the colours, but the smell of fresh fruit and vegetables that was so overpowering.

— Bron Trathen



Food in the Western World 

Food. I love it. I am what is called a foodie, and all my life I have tried not to get too fat. I was a fat baby. In those days it was considered healthy for babies to be fat, and my Mum was proud of me. There are still countries where fat is a sign of wealth and status. And as we know, there have been eras in history when large women were regarded as beautiful. Even Marilyn Monroe would be considered a bit plump by today’s standards.

How lucky we are in the Western world — most of us anyway — to have the luxury of over-eating and then trying to lose weight. There are other places in the world where there is famine and starvation; people die of hunger. Here, we say that as an expression, not meaning it literally. And yet there are hungry people in Western countries too. My friend Thom in Texas feeds the homeless, taking food from a restaurant in his van, left-over food which would otherwise be thrown away. 

I saw incredible waste when I was there in 2006, stores full of many van-loads of food, all of which would be chucked out that night. No wonder people are occupying Wall Stret right now; and no wonder there were riots in Britain not long ago. Inequity is becoming so entrenched! It must be so here too. We just don’t always see it. Even in this small town, my friends Maureen and Alan are part of a charity to feed the homeless. It is needed.

— Rosemary Nissen-Wade