What does traditional mean to you?

bathsheba_c

I want to hear people's views on what "traditional" means to them, especially since tradition is strongly related to time and place and is not always healthy.

So what does traditional mean to you? How does it relate to health?

Kara_xxx

That's a really interesting question.

I grew up in Germany and traditional in my mind means "how my mum and grandma used to cook". I remember being a child and listening to my grandma's stories of post-war poverty and the things they used to eat. I think she instilled in me something about food being something very valuable. Also she was a nifty lady who knew how to feed a family on a budget. I still have some of her old recipes for stews and soups which I love making.

At home we had a big garden with fruit trees, berries... Mum & dad grew potatos, carrots, cabbages, swede, beans... allsorts! We also had a green house with tomatos, cucumbers etc. Grandma made jams and chutneys from our fruit.

Dad also kept chickens, rabbits, ducks and geese. All for consumption. We lived very rurally and there was much food swapping. :happy:

Looking at kids today I think I realise I was lucky to have had that experience of watching adults grow food and cook, learn about foods, learn to cook from someone else. I think it's something many kids don't get today.

"Traditional" I think today for me also means, wherever possible, to shop so as to support local business, e.g your local butcher, farmers markets etc.

I am craving to live somewhere more rurally. We often drive into the countryside and I love all the signs for "fresh eggs here" etc. I would love to go back to living the way I did when I was a kid. That for me would be "traditional". :flowerforyou:

bathsheba_c

Whereas my traditional cuisine involves boiling vegetables to death and a daily dose of potatoes.

For me, traditional means made from scratch. No chicken soup from a can, no TV dinners, and packaged foods with a minimum of preservatives and artificial chemicals. It also means that, for food that naturally grows locally, I prefer to eat it in season and skip it the rest of the year than to eat it out of season imported. But that's mostly a taste issue.

That said, I don't believe in getting extreme about it. I do believe in getting extreme on anyone who tries to take away my beloved Oreos from me. :devil:

TotalTiger

I thik it's something made from scratch - like our grandparents ate.

Kara_xxx

Agree with bathsheba on the eating what's in season.

We've become so spoiled haven't we. :embarassed:

You can just pop into Sainsburys and as long as you're happy to pay four quid for a punnet, you can have raspberries or blueberries in the middle of winter.

I try to remind myself of what sort of carbon footprint raspberries imported from Puerto Rico or God knows where in January have... but sometimes I cave in, cos I'm a sucker for raspberries... :embarassed:

bathsheba_c

I probably should have asterisked my local comment. It can be more damaging to grow an unsuitable crop locally to meet the demand for "local" food than it is to have it flown in from somewhere where it can be grown more efficiently. But generally there's no reason to eat apples from New Zealand if you live in New York State.

Kathrynha77

Traditional for me means different things, but generally by cooking and eating traditionally I mean
- Cooking from scratch whenever possible
- Eating locally grown season stuff where possible
- Growing what food I can
- Minimal chemicals and artificial things in my food as possible. My mum always says "If it aint something I'd put in the dish I don't want it".
- Foof like my mum cooks. Lucky my mum is adventerous, and I was brought up on curries and stuff before they became popular.
- Home every day food, not necessarily British food, but normal food, not fancy posh rich and creamy food too often.