Do you know the percentage of food wasted in affluent societies? According to some reports, up to 20%, or one fifth of food, is thrown out or consumed beyond caloric requirements. This is when we eat more than what our bodies need to maintain a healthy weight. So, to reduce waste, it’s very simple, we buy less…
Over the past few months, since I got the inspiration to found GentleWays, I have been buying less food and my fridge has been, most of the time, half empty. More trips to the store during the week but fresher produce and, more mindfulness of what I buy and what I eat. This is only one message of GentleWays…
GentleWays for our Planet is a call for us to be more attuned to what the Earth gives us at various times of the year. GentleWays reminds us to wait for the harvest, for the right ripening point when, well… when strawberries taste like strawberries and not like sour water…
Do we need watermelon year round? And those tasteless sad peaches and apricots in January…How many thousand miles have they travelled to reach our stores?
I consider myself fortunate to be aware of the produce of each season. Having spent the first eighteen years of my life in a Mediterranean country, with fruit orchards and vegetable gardens around our home, I ate most fresh fruits and vegetables only in season. I remember the immense joy I felt when I spotted and picked the first ripe fig (my favorite fruit) from the tree. And how grateful and in awe I was when a vegetable like spinach was available in winter; and the delicious stuffed artichokes that my mother made was a special festive meal we had only in the fall, once or twice, when artichokes were harvested.
Seeing the same heaps of fruits and vegetables all year round in large grocery stores is dizzying to me. It’s like there is no magic left and no celebration. Everything Anytime is Always there. Blah…I look the other way and wait for things to ripen in my mind and heart. My body knows when watermelon is ripe – usually in July – and when cherries are at their best…once a year.