Working hard for your food

This week our class’s adventures have included seeing how one local man farms using horses, how to milk a goat and make cheese from that milk, watching Big Night, a movie essentially about good food, and planting various veggies in a garden.  After doing all these activities, it makes me really want to appreciate my food more, but I have found that, for the most part I don’t.  There have been a few things, though, that I’ve eaten recently that seem to taste richer and be much more enjoyable and fun to eat.  For example, the other day I was able to learn how to milk a goat, and then made cheese from that fresh milk.  Eating the cheese we had seasoned and the ricotta cheese we had made was probably the best meal I have had in a long time, and it was just cheese and bread.   Putting in that work and knowing that I had contributed to the creation of that meal made it that much better.  Usually to eat some cheese all I have to do is go down two flights of stairs, into the kitchen, and take a slice out of the refrigerator.  And the most work I ever have to do is to get in my car and drive a few minutes to pick some up.  The simple act of actually interacting with your food makes you enjoy it and appreciate it that much more.  Similarly, when my roommate and I cooked and ate fresh asparagus from my garden at home, it was exceptionally delicious.  While I did not cut these actual asparagus, I knew exactly where they came from, and I had had the experience of cutting them before, so I understood the process behind getting them.  After experiences like that, I understood Primo’s attitude toward food in the movie Big Night.  Finding a quicker and cheaper way of making something is not worth sacrificing the quality of the food.  Having something that you (or someone else) put that much effort into makes a meal special and meaningful.