Nut and Berries

In the 1960’s Yogi bear used to complain to Booboo that he did not want to live on nuts and berries that was why he wanted to take human’s food.  I can only imagine what kind of Velveeta on Wonder bread sandwich and cheese doodles Yogi was getting in the 1960’s picnic hampers.  Today all I want is nuts and berries.  There is no greater treat than a handful of pecans or cashews.  And I think I could live on raspberries, black berries and blueberries if I had an unlimited budget.

Nuts, not peanuts, which are really legumes, and berries, are now in the super food category, meaning that they are the healthiest things you can eat.  My problem is that they are hard not to eat.  Once a nut has passes my lips I naturally want another.

How is it that the idea that living off only “Nuts and berries” was ever a bad thing.  Perhaps it is because if we had to actually forage for our own food you would expend quite a lot of energy just to find, gather and shell those nuts and berries.  It was less about the actual food and more about the amount.

As a child visiting Hom-a-gen, my grandparent’s farm, I spent many hours picking blackberries and cracking black walnuts.  It was a lot of work for a little bit of food. Doing all the work gave me a great appreciation for the small cup of blackberry cobbler after dinner.  Learning to break open the tough walnut shell carefully so that you did not smash the meat was a studied art at the farm.  Children would bore of this job long before they were full from eating nuts.  Eventually the hammers and the burlap bag of dried black walnuts would be abandoned at the old store we used to crack them on in favor of going on the swing that hung from the walnut tree.

Finding, gathering and preparing the food is probably the best diet ever. Having so much food at our fingertips takes away our appreciation of the labor it took to produce it. I have never seen a wheel of Brie in the wild.  It takes an incredible amount of milk and or cream, expertise and time to make a good cheese.  I think that I would cherish it and eat a lot less of it if I had to make it myself.

Next time you want to enjoy some nuts consider eating pistachios in the shell.  Having to do a little shelling will make you appreciate the bounty you are eating just that much more.  And strawberry season is almost upon us.  Picking your own warm berries on a sunny afternoon makes your after dinner berries that much sweeter.