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| Making Apple-Butter |
Well, considering that we are working with a smaller house, and budget, I am trying to rearrange some things and get some of the bills either streamlined, or off our backs altogether. We have a much smaller need for things right now, but there are the inevitable services, and things like heat in the winter, that we still have to shell it out for.
It's interesting, because in my prayer each morning the Lord has really been pointing to the humility and the simplicity of the Holy Family, and the way that He Himself would have grown up. Obviously they would have done a lot more with a lot less. They would have made the few items of clothing that they did have last for years. They would have been careful about wasting food, and Mary would have had all sorts of tricks for stretching ingredients to make things go further. People would have been very important in daily life. If you needed something, you would approach the person who made or grew it. There would be farmers, and weavers, and potters, right there in town, and when you needed a new bowl or cup you would go find them and ask them to make it for you. There wouldn't be shelves and shelves of goods in one place, because there weren't enough people that needed the stuff.
When we shop, do we go to the people that do the work and interact with them? I guess we might have a conversation about something with the stock-boy, or checker, but they aren't really connected to the goods that they are selling. They are just bringing in boxes, and collecting money. I mean, that's definitely worthwhile work, but it doesn't inform us of the meaning of the things that we are purchasing to the people who provided them. And sadly most of those things probably don't mean anything even to those people. It's so disconnected! Does a feedlot worker take any pride in the cattle that go through the process? Does a person standing on a assembly line get to appreciate the meaning of the item that is being produced to the people who use it?
I have had rare experiences where I was either part of, or just the next person in the chain of goods that were provided. Raising animals, vegetables, and making bread or other things from scratch is truly satisfying, and more than satisfying, it is being part of something very close to God's heart. He made all that we consume, for us! When we are part of the process of growing or making, we touch something that is part of Him. The times that we have spent with family and friends, making good food, and then eating it are priceless. The apple-butter party at Bob and Dean's is one example.
The family kettle, over 100 years old, and the many hands that come together to make this amazing food, are a part of our lives now too.
God made the plants, and animals and the sun and rain and wind that sustain them. He wants us to introduce ourselves to His providence. It's not canned or frozen, it's not produced by a machine. The real thing is the true, the good and the beautiful, even if it isn't always tasty or appealing to the eye. The art of creation is God's art first, and He gifts us with it. Looking at and participating in creation is one of the ways that we worship the Creator, and it is also profoundly humbling. We learn things about Him that we can only learn when we are that close to the earth.
And no, we aren't in a position to go buy a farm, but we know a lot of people who do, and maybe it is going to be a part of 2023 to participate in a closer way with the local people who provide, rather than participating in that vast, faceless "market".
