If you have been wondering what I have been doing since the last post you are about to make a shocking discovery. We have been conducting a VERY foolish experiment, that has had remarkable results.
For the month of April, our little household decided to stop buying food. No groceries. No eating out. Nada. Why would we do such a crazy thing? Well, that is another whole blog post. Let’s say it was, at least in part, a ‘faith experiment’ inspired by George Muller - a man who believed that God could be trusted completely to provide everything he needed and started several large orphanages in the Bristol area of England solely on the basis of unsolicited gifts and donations.
We thought it seemed like a good idea at the time. In retrospect, it was a great idea. Mid-experiment, I did wonder if we’d gone mad. It was really worth doing, though. We kept it a secret from all our friends and family, which is why I’m only blogging about it now.
Here’s what a discovered. We had well in excess of a month’s worth of food in our fridge, freezer and cupboards. Not a month of gourmet dining, but definitely enough nutrition to ensure that we didn’t starve to death. At the end of our experiment, we still have a few kilograms of different varieties of flour (spelt, rice, chickpea, etc), a large quantity of rice, some dried pulses and a bit of pasta and quite a few packets of noodles. Not to mention our full spice rack and an obscene quantity of herbal teas. The meals were getting a bit ropey by the end of week, but my toddler never seemed phased. In fact, he didn’t seem to notice any particular change in our eating habits.
We did cheat a little bit – my husband sometimes brought home food from work, but it was not substantial. A bit of fruit here, some cheese there. My friend slipped a five pound note into my pocket one day, and I decided to use it to buy some vegetables, of which we had almost none left – only a very sad carrot and a bit of frozen spinach and broccoli. I discovered that five pounds can go a VERY long way.
We ran out of bread. Then we ran out of yeast. Then we ran out of baking powder, and wheat flour. Our breakfast options were reduced to oats or some form of pancake or scone that could be made without any eggs or milk, and with a minimum quantity of butter or oil.
We were given food, completely out of the blue. Invitations to other people’s homes for meals were not refused. Food was definitely not wasted. I split up bottles of milk and froze small portions so that we could use it more slowly and ensure that it did not go off. I felt more grateful for what we did have.
I wondered what the rest of the world eats. You know – the majority of the world – those that do not enjoy the luxury of supermarkets and a regular paycheck deposited electronically into their bank account. Those that live on no more than a couple of dollars a day. I thought about some of the luxury food ingredients that I have, up until now, considered essential. Butter and sugar for example. How many people cook most of their food without these ingredients, I thought?
I realised how much I depend on the availability of a few key ingredients in the food I prepare – notably, wheat flour, milk, butter, eggs and rice. I thought about what would happen if we had to produce our own food. What would our diet look like then?
And in the middle of all this, I stumbled across the Transition movement, and started thinking about how our eating habits might have to change, in light of growing evidence of the peak oil phenomenon. It is caused me to start asking all manner of interesting questions about our lifestyle, and, in particular, the food we eat.
More to follow, but for now – do you think you could survive for a month without groceries?
