Size Does Matter

It’s seems crazy to think that things you’ve done all your life may make little to no sense at all. Its all customs and traditions handed down from generation to generation. We follow them because,.. well just because. Mayo and I were discussing dinner and how we would prepare and shop for food while traveling. I remembered as a child, my mom would shop for the week and sometimes for the month. We would get so excited to unpack the bags of grocery and stock the cupboards with food. When I moved out on my own, I would shop for a week at a time. I’d buy canned goods, boxed goods and pack my freezer with meat and frozen veggies. Hey, its my upbringing. You’ve got to be prepared and plan ahead.
For the past 30 or more years, Mayo, not only had to shop and prepare wonderful meal for weeks at a time. She also had to shop for a family of four or more. This means bigger packages, bigger storage spaces and a big supermarket for that one stop shopping.. Our way of life teaches us that this is the normal way to live and the normal way to shop for food. Its all well and fine, if you have a 12 by 12 feet kitchen with plenty of cabinets, a huge refrigerator and a chest freezer. But we are downsizing to a 3 by 6 feet kitchen with a refrigerator no bigger than the cooler I use when I’d go fishing. At first we thought of ways to store more, and how to create more space. Maybe we could steal space from the closet or maybe we can store some in the truck.
Then it hit me,.. why do we need to store food anyway? Again, it’s our upbringing. In many countries in Europe and around the world, people shop daily for the food they plan to eat that day. Its their custom to stop at the farmers market to get fresh veggies and bread on their way home. This not only ensures them that their food is fresh, but it also helps the local farmers and businesses. Mayo and I realized that not only do we need to downsize our home, we needed to downsize our way of thinking. Because, as we are finding out, size does matter.
We began to look into our cupboards to see what we had that we really didn’t need in there. Man, were we ever surprised. Not only did we have enough food for the month, we still had some canned goods and frozen meat from last month. We also found that some of that food had a shelf life of up to 6 or more months. Some of these foods, you could fix in under two minutes. I don’t know why they would need a 6 month shelf life if you can cook them in under two minutes. I also don’t know how it can be label fresh if it is stored for weeks. We began to wonder if any of our store bought food was really fresh. Its label fresh, even if its shipped from South America by boat and then by truck. The time it takes to pick it, inspected it, package it and ship it across the country, is a matter of weeks. Not to mention the unpronounceable and unhealthy ingredients in it to keep it from rotting for 6 months.
We discovered that not having space was going to be a gift, not a curse. That we had to shop small and shopping small would mean shopping fresh. We plan to visit local farmers markets, buy only local and organic veggies. We will shop at Co-Ops and local small businesses buying only what we can eat fresh in a day or two. We plan to pick fresh veggies from small local community gardens and stop by local farms for fresh eggs, honey and milk. We also plan to help folks plant their gardens as we travel. We love the idea of bartering and hope to trade our labor, farming experience and gardening knowledge for a place to park our camper for a few days.
Who knew living small would have the added benefits of eating well and living healthy. Its true size does matter and this time,.. small is a good thing.