Reality Check. Home Cooking in Mexico and Burundi

I’ve had some wonderful comments on my earlier post, Your Friend the Kitchen, Really? And I’ve been mulling over some books I’ve been reading about food security, global food supplies, etc. One thing that always really bugs me about these books, many of which are quite excellent and which I’ll be commenting on shortly, is that they always assume that once enough crops are grown, then the job is done.

Well, it’s not, not until women don’t have to spend all day processing those crops. Mexico was pretty lucky. In the 1940s and 50s, crop productivity went way up, largely thanks to Norm Borlaug and his team funded by the Rockefeller Foundation with Mexican co-operation. (Not everyone agrees with that statement today but I’ll be happy to defend it).

At the same time, and for different reasons, the simple grindstone (metate) was replaced by the mechanized tortilla mill. Lots to say about this transition but that’s for another time. The key thing is that women were freed up from grinding about an hour a day for every adult to be fed (that is about five hours a day for a family).

The tortillas weren’t as good. The life was infinitely improved. I had a friend who worked for DIF (Desarollo Integral de la Familia, the main government agency dealing with family development) in the late 80s, early 90s. She told me that when they went into a village the first and most effective thing they could do to reduce child abuse was to put in a tortilla mill.

It was a casual statement but I’ve checked back with her and I am not misremembering. I just think of that mother. No grinding, no food for the family. Along comes her child. She just has to shove that child out of the way so she can feed her later.

And then along comes this from Diana Buja about home cooking in Burundi. It speaks for itself.

“A reality check on ‘real’ home cooking / sloooow food: On my most recent trip upcountry; we were working with women in a pretty remote area to help them organize basket-making, in which Burundian women excel. Problems in basket-making and sales include inputs and market access – problems also found in food production. In the colline [‘hill’] where we were working, an extended family was preparing for a wedding ceremony and of course food preparation was central. Everything, except the tomato paste, salt and palm oil, is grown – harvested – processed – cooked by the family:

– Rice [dryland], which had been harvested and dried in the sun, was being de-hulled by being pounded by two girls in large wooden pestle / mortars [there’s no near-by rice-processing available]. It will then be sifted and the chaff saved for feeding to livestock.

– Manioc had been soaked / dried in the sun / pounded into flour, which was being made into thick pate to eat with the sauces and meat.

– Manioc leaves were being chopped and then pounded in a mortar to make sombe, to which garden eggs [indigenous eggplants] and wild amaranthus and onions and red peppers would be added, making a tasty vegetable.

– A family goat had been slaughtered; meat was being chopped into chunks, for making into a thick stew laced with onions, tomatoes [from the homestead] and wild greens. Innards all were being prepared for use of one kind or another and the hide was being scraped by some boys, to be stretched and dried for sale in the local market. The feet and lower legs would be used by very poor to make meat broth.

– Plantains were being peeled and then fried in palm oil and then salted. Plantain peels go to the goats.

– Banana juice had been made from sweet bananas, and we were offered cups to sip on, while we talked about baskets. Banana peels go to the goats.

– Sorghum beer had alread been made by women in the family, from their own sorghum [of course!] and was read for serving.

Back to baskets: All grasses are locally collected and only the coloring is purchased. But market access is lacking. Same with crops and livestock – market access both for goods and services [milling; etc] are just too far away for people who must carry everything on their heads; the closest rural market being about a 2 hour walk one way. And the head woman in the family is crippled and so must rely on other family members for crop and meal preparation. But, being crippled, she’s become an excellent basket-weaver by way of gaining income for the family…

Oh, and water for the homestead is about an hour round-trip.

Bucolic notions of returning to simpler times? Ask these folks: they would LOVE to have their food-preparation even minimally improved!”

OK, you may say we have overshot the mark in the modern Western kitchen, not doing enough cooking.  Perhaps.  But let’s tread very carefully when we wax nostalgic.

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