I am watching an interesting show on PBS about sustainable foods. This
woman is in Alaska and she eats a lot of wild game and salmon. She visited
an Alaskan vegetarian place and had dinner with them.

When she got back home, she said that we are now eating more meat than ever.
And if we were to trap or hunt all of our own meat like she did, we would
soon run out of animals to kill.

Of course we don't do this. Yes, some people do, but I think they are in
the minority. I don't know too many people around here who do that at all.
SIL said her dad used to kill deer right out in their yard in Edmonds. Not
too many deer left now and not sure it is even legal to kill them now. We
did see a deer on our street once. Angela thought it was a giraffe.
*Snicker* Okay she was much younger then.

Fishing is quite popular here though and clamming used to be. We've had a
lot of red tides so not sure that can be done any more. I used to do it all
the time as a child. I loved digging them up. But we never ate them. Gave
them to the neighbors. Also catching crabs is a big thing here. Not sure
about lobsters...whether we have them or not.

Anyway... Collecting old cookbooks is a hobby of mine. I also like reading
old books about diet and nutrition. Was looking at an interesting one today
about healthy eating. Until I realized it wasn't as old as it looked. Was
put out in 1981 and was low sodium and low fat. Ick. I put it back.

But it seems to me in the past that they ate seasonally, mainly because they
had no choice. Yes, some wealthy people might have had imported food, but
most did not.

I think they ate meat mostly in the winter months when little else was
available. They would have things like potatoes, cabbages, carrots, turnips
and other root vegetables. But not much in the way of fresh greens. Apples
would probably keep through the winter, but most other fruits would not
unless they were canned or dried. And certainly they dried and canned some
vegetables.

But did they eat much meat in the spring and summer? I'm thinking not.
I've read stories of the farm life and often they had beans for lunch and
sometimes more beans for dinner. These were supplemented with fresh
vegetables from the garden as they became available.

Yes, chicken was eaten but often it was just for the Sunday supper, perhaps
with the leftovers being used in something like chicken and dumplings or a
pot pie.

I've also read stories about hog butchering so I know many families ate pork
products.

And I've read stories about people eating spring lamb.

Yes, I see recipes for beef and all sorts of wild game in the old cookbooks.
But just how often were these foods eaten? I wonder. I'm not inferring
anything one way or the other. Just curious.