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gandle

We didn't buy any

gandle
12 years ago

Followed Leone in the dollar store. Her beloved cheerios are cheaper there. I just wandered while she was shopping and found canned green cabbage, canned yellow summer squash. Both were a dollar. WHY would anyone buy canned green cabbage or for that matter yellow squash? You'd think you would have a can full of green glop or yellow glop.

It was in the late 40's or early 50's and broccoli was an unknown vegetable in western Nebraska. Leone had never seen or eaten it. I had eaten it in some large city when I was in the navy

. We were grocery shopping and spotted canned broccoli. It was Libby's brand and we bought a can. You can guess how good that was

Remembering, about the only vegetables available back in that time period were potatoes, carrots, head lettuce, cabbage and in season local produce. We thought mushrooms, broccoli and brussel sprouts were exotic. Fruit was oranges, bananas, apples, lemons and sometimes limes. The apples were predictably red delicious and golden delicious.

There were a couple of potato farmers west of North Platte a few miles. I always went there to buy the over size potatoes. A 100 pound burlap bag for $1:00. 10 cents deposit on the burlap bag. The tubers were quite large, too large to be graded #1's but they were cheap and we ate lots of them. Hard to remember when food was that cheap. Carried away as usual. Enough.

Comments (6)

  • lilosophie
    12 years ago

    I remember when the only vegetables off season were canned, and fresh were carrots. potatoes, celery and iceberg lettuce.
    My DH likes canned spinach, I called it cow-patties.
    We certainty have come a long way, haven't we?

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    12 years ago

    Canned iceberg lettuce?

  • meldy_nva
    12 years ago

    DH likes all the canned greens (I think ugh!). But he's a bit more careful to read labels ever since he took a big bite from a can of 'turnip greens' that was seasoned heavily, very heavily, with hot peppers. MIL loved canned asparagus and refused to eat it fresh, no matter how long the fresh spears were cooked.

    To show what a difference 20 years makes (I think that's about how much older Gandle is), I grew up with a freezer. Greens (and a good many other vegs) were frozen for future meals, never canned.

    I recently discovered that cabbage freezes very nicely. Chop or shred, and blanch for about a minute before packing into meal-sized portions. It retains crispness and is great in stir-frys and most other recipes. Since DH has a habit of buying a 10-pound head of cabbage while not wanting more than a serving of cole slaw, etc. in any one week, it's nice to have the other 9 pounds in the freezer for future use.

  • west_gardener
    12 years ago

    I like most fresh greens and living in CA is great for me, but DH only likes a couple of canned greens, like spinach
    and green beans. It's been a two family greens for 50 years.

    LOL, lilosophie, when my Tante Marit came to visit from Norway the first time, I fixed a lovely fresh salad the first day and a baby spinach salad the next day. She looked at me and asked (very politely) why I fixed "ku mat", meaning cow food. I explained that it was what we eat here in CA, she just shook her head. I never fixed her a salad again. It is interesting how people think about food.
    meldy, thanks for the tip about freezing cabbage. I'm the only one in the family that eats cabbage, so a big ole head will go a long way if I can freeze it.

  • lindac
    12 years ago

    I think I am pretty close in age to George and Leone.....well maybe just a little younger...;-Q
    I remember seeing the first Birds-eye frozen vegetables. We had a refrigerator with a freezing compartment large enough for 2 trays of ice. If one was to have frozen corn in storage, one would have to forgo one tray of ice cubes. But the first frozen veggies were marketed as "for dinner tonight."
    Not in season....we ate carrots and anything canned....peas, green beans, tomatoes, asparagus, ( I still love it) and winter keepers like cabbage and winter squash.
    My mother loved fresh broccoli and cauliflower....me not so much....then. And I still remember her pushing the boiled yellow summer squash, saying it tastes "nutty?"...NOT!!

  • anneliese_32
    12 years ago

    When I came as exchange student to the US I was surprised about the limited availability of vegetables. OK, I was new to corn and squash, but all the different cabbage varieties and other greens, as well as salsify, asparagus, mache and most other lettuce varieties were a given where I grew up and most of them were not known where I lived at the time, MA out in the boonies.
    I don't grow much anymore and use mostly frozen vegies, since I don't have access to a farmers market, and let's face it "fresh" in a supermarket is not exactly that. I have to have canned yellow and green beans at hand for my husband, one of the few vegetables he likes.

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