Food for Survival

Food is ‘everyday’‐it has to be, or we would not survive for long.  But food is never just something to eat. It is something to find or hunt or cultivate first of all; for most of human history we have spent a much longer portion of our lives worrying about food, and plotting, working, and fighting to obtain it, than we have in any other pursuit (Visser, 1986, p.12).
Obviously we have to eat daily to live. However, as said in the above quote, this is not the only reason we eat.
My Grandparents have a huge, beautiful, garden. And a large part of this garden is a vegie garden. They have a huge variety of vegies, silverbeet, carrots, potatoes, peas, brocolli, the list goes on, and this has always been a delight for my older sister and myself growing up. Grandie would always let us help him in the garden (although our idea of helping probably wasn't necessarily that helpful), and we would have great fun watering the gardens and digging up the vegetables. We would then take the vegies into the kitchen to Grandma, and continue to help her to prepare and cook them. Although these were simple tasks we were doing, they provided my sister and I with a great opportunity to learn some basic life skills. We were able to name a numerous amount of vegetables that some classmates had probably never heard of, and whats more, we new how to cook them! Helping get dinner on the table was always a great feeling, it was good to be given a sense of responsibility and we always felt proud that we were able to help. Looking back on our adventures in the garden, I believe it really did shape the way I feel about cooking now, trying to use fresh ingredients where possible, and enjoying the feeling of using things from your own garden.

I find that now, in tertiary education, I never have as much time to see friends as much as I would have done when we were all at school. Therefore, the time we all have to meet up is greatly reduced. As a way of staying in touch, me and a few of my closest friends make a point of catching up for a night during the first week of each month. During these monthly meetings, whenever we meet there is food involved. Either we all meet at a cafe, for coffee and cake, or we go to one another's houses, where they have usually gone to the effort of putting out a spread of fresh baking or cheese and crackers. The food brings us all together, and allows us to connect with one another.

Although food is essential for survival, I have identified two large aspects of my life that revolve around food being used for purposes other than survival. These have both shaped how I feel about cooking at present.


Visser M. (1986). Much depends on dinner. New York: Grove Press.