In the days of yore, those ancient times when I was growing up in Albuquerque, the food we savored on a day-to-day basis was seasonal. Since our state has never been the agricultural powerhouse that California was and is, the fresh food we consumed was dictated by items, truth be told, that were able to survive the shipping process. Now called non-perishable veggies - cabbage, root crops, celebrity, and iceberg lettuce and the like - were staples. In the case of fruit, storage was a factor, so although apples, oranges, and for some odd reason bananas were available all winter, we would only begin to see strawberries in the supermarkets around Easter, when the crop was coming in from California. And you couldn't get a decent tomato until the hot midwest summer months. You had to wait until August for local corn from the north valley in Albuquerque, and it was a joyful experience to eat, lathered with butter, salt, and pepper. Since freezers were dinky things inside a refrigerator, if you did own a stand-alone freezer, (many on farms and ranches already did) your family was special. Some in New Mexico roasted and then dried green chile, along with red chile hung in ristras, but freezers weren't commonplace, I am guessing until the 1960s. It was then that green chile could be roasted and frozen for later use, along with berries, corn, peas, and other vegetables. All of this background is wrapped in my reaction to food in American stores in 2022. I never cease to be amazed at the availability and variety of fresh food in any given grocery store on any given day. Abundance hardly covers it. We are extremely lucky and very grateful. With Thanksgiving approaching on Thursday and the groaning board of food that will be on many tables, I thought some food photography might be appropriate.
corn images-2
Victoria's apples
New World order 2
50th anniversary gathering tapas 1
Lush greens like these were grown in home gardens, in-season.
Lettuce
Harvest set up 2
fingerling potatoes
turkey and dressingKONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am thankful for Victoria, Melissa, Char, Pauli, Steve, Catherine, Donna K., Robert, Dianne, Fred, and Ingrid, and all of you for following this blog and keeping in touch throughout the year.
until next Monday,
DB
a passion for the image©