For as long as I can remember I’ve always liked food. I was not a big eater though – when I was little I was a slow eater and would stop eating if everyone else was finished. I was just full and couldn’t get another bit down. This resulted in my mother always having to have seconds or match my very slow eating speed. But it made for a lovely dinner time with lots of talk and socialisation with the family.
Since then, food is something to gather around for. To share with friends and family, to heal, to nurture. To bring families together. To make memories. And to extend love, warmth and a welcoming hand when needed.
Mother had me helping with preparing food early in the kitchen. And I would always be on the lookout for tasty treats whenever she was making something. Later, we would run a small camping/coffee shop together where she would bake fresh bread and buns every morning. They always sold out! I would be heading the sweet/coffee section and she would take care of the food that we served.
Before I moved off to study at a university in a different country, I had the fortune to be able to run the kitchen for a local kindergarten for a year. I learned so much about nutrition and ‘real food’ and saw the effect it had on the kids as well. When the sugary, low-fat high carb, foods got swapped out for real homemade cooked food with the children in mind – their energy levels during the day soared! Gone were the cranky, tired, rowdy, fighting kids. The children were curious, got to try new foods, and loved the adventure!
The best part of that experience was when the parents started coming out to the kitchen to ask for recipes – especially for bread – as the children started to refuse to eat the store-bought things.
As I’ve found myself with food allergies throughout my adult years, I learned to read all the labels of the food I consumed. I found that a lot of unnecessary things were being put into the food we consume, and a lot of it I would be able to make from scratch at home – often much cheaper as well!
It made me delve deeper into nutrition, health and how to cook like in ‘the good old days’. To learn how to heal my body with food, rather than feed it things that it was never meant to consume. I also have a love of gardening, and one of the best feelings is to be able to cook wholesome meals for the ones you love with homegrown food that’s good and nutritious.
Thank you for reading!
