I'm a skinflint. I admit it. Truth is, I'm not even as strict as I'd like to be; my natural inclination is to starve and save every dime (or at least pay off my college loans), as I did my first year after college. (Though looking back I should have at least bought some better food, for heaven's sake.) So it's a surprise to no one that I live for magazines like Real Simple, read blogs like Home Ec 101, and search the internet for cheap recipes regularly.
So I was charmed at first when I came across the food blog posted on Gourmet's website, Extreme Frugality by W. Harding Carter. Ah, supermiling, a little vegetable garden, no more expensive goodies. I nodded rather amused at each of his discoveries, nodding along with each wise decision he made to cut back on expenses and live within his means.
Then he went nuts.
Okay, so that's a little harsh. But seriously: I love my little vegetable garden - but I am aware it is elitist. I can afford a house with a garden where I can grow expensive vegetables like Black Krim tomatoes and Shishito peppers because I find it fun and these are otherwise almost impossible to find vegetables. I think it was when he described his wife's daily efforts - "backbreaking" is how he described it - I began to cringe. Then there was the cut-rate 90% off supermarket; sure, glad you have one, but how many of us do? Same goes with his maple syrup-gathering efforts. Then he decided he had to get a cow. And as he began to describe more and more the excruciating labor he demanded from himself, his children, and his wife, all I could think was: are you kidding me?
Farming is a serious, great, and difficult profession. It requires an understanding of complex agricultural science. If you want to be a farmer, that's fine. But to tell me in one sentence you're a writer and your wife is a lawyer, and the next to be talking about the hours wasted on beetles on your plants, without which you won't be eating tomatoes, and baking bread and selling eggs and never turning on the dryer for your poor overworked wife - this is a serious waste of resources. And completely unrealistic for 99% of the population.
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rinue notes I'm thinking of comparative advantage. And she's right, but I also think it's something else. On thinking on it, I think it may be a certain amount of sexism or ageism here. He decided this was the course for the family, and suddenly they all suffer. At times it seemed downright cruel.]
Maybe I'm foolish to think the author in any way means to say this is a workable solution for most people. But I find on reading this for the first time I'm leaning towardsrinue's side. Division of labor is a good thing, people. Mass farming is a good thing (though I still think they could do a better job of crop rotation/integration/variation). Realism, i.e., not everyone lives in a farmable area with plenty of land available is also good. And frankly, not everyone wants to BE a farmer.
So Carter, I wish you the best. But I hope you take it a little easier on your family soon. And go buy your kids some mozzarella, okay? They deserve it.
So I was charmed at first when I came across the food blog posted on Gourmet's website, Extreme Frugality by W. Harding Carter. Ah, supermiling, a little vegetable garden, no more expensive goodies. I nodded rather amused at each of his discoveries, nodding along with each wise decision he made to cut back on expenses and live within his means.
Then he went nuts.
Okay, so that's a little harsh. But seriously: I love my little vegetable garden - but I am aware it is elitist. I can afford a house with a garden where I can grow expensive vegetables like Black Krim tomatoes and Shishito peppers because I find it fun and these are otherwise almost impossible to find vegetables. I think it was when he described his wife's daily efforts - "backbreaking" is how he described it - I began to cringe. Then there was the cut-rate 90% off supermarket; sure, glad you have one, but how many of us do? Same goes with his maple syrup-gathering efforts. Then he decided he had to get a cow. And as he began to describe more and more the excruciating labor he demanded from himself, his children, and his wife, all I could think was: are you kidding me?
Farming is a serious, great, and difficult profession. It requires an understanding of complex agricultural science. If you want to be a farmer, that's fine. But to tell me in one sentence you're a writer and your wife is a lawyer, and the next to be talking about the hours wasted on beetles on your plants, without which you won't be eating tomatoes, and baking bread and selling eggs and never turning on the dryer for your poor overworked wife - this is a serious waste of resources. And completely unrealistic for 99% of the population.
[Edit:
rinue notes I'm thinking of comparative advantage. And she's right, but I also think it's something else. On thinking on it, I think it may be a certain amount of sexism or ageism here. He decided this was the course for the family, and suddenly they all suffer. At times it seemed downright cruel.]Maybe I'm foolish to think the author in any way means to say this is a workable solution for most people. But I find on reading this for the first time I'm leaning towards
rinue's side. Division of labor is a good thing, people. Mass farming is a good thing (though I still think they could do a better job of crop rotation/integration/variation). Realism, i.e., not everyone lives in a farmable area with plenty of land available is also good. And frankly, not everyone wants to BE a farmer.So Carter, I wish you the best. But I hope you take it a little easier on your family soon. And go buy your kids some mozzarella, okay? They deserve it.