OK, it doesn’t happen often but you have caught me in a philosophical mood, so I thought I would put some words down about our experience of being what I call urban peasants and what it has meant for us. If you are after the more “nuts and bolts” type articles I can’t say I blame you, give this one a miss, but it might start you thinking!
Just so we all understand the terminology, our friend Wikipedia says “A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally owns or rents only a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district”. He also says “an urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets”.
So although I do occasional work outside the home, I consider that seeing as we work to produce our own food (and other stuff) on our own land, and we live in the suburbs of Sydney that the term urban peasant can apply not only to us but others who are setting themselves up and working towards doing what we do. “So what?” I hear you ask. Good question, but this is my website and I reserve the right to prattle on to my hearts content!
Peasant Eating Vs Supermarket Eating
One of the differences between our peasant approach to food and the dominant “supermarket” culture of food in our country is that rather than ask “what do I feel like eating?”, the question is more one of “What do we have to eat and how best can I utilise it”? We as a culture have gotten very use to having whatever sort of food we want whenever we want it, but when you produce as much of your own food as you are able you learn pretty early that life isn’t really like that. There are seasonal gluts and shortages and no matter where you live there will be stuff that grows well in your locality and stuff that grows poorly or not at all. Growing your own stuff points out the huge and complex oil-fed machine that ensures this cornucopia called a supermarket is restocked, and without this machine the supermarket culture is in deep doo doo.
It can actually be a wonderful thing to eat more locally, more seasonally and more sustainably and to rediscover some of the knowledge that our ancestors (both Australian and European) had of how to make the best of what they had. To do this requires creativity and knowledge that is missing from the supermarket culture, but the reward is satisfaction in being able to say that the food on your table was not only prepared but also grown by your own fair hand. While talking about the knowledge required, this leads nicely into the next section, part of it is also being willing to give it a go and try new foods, new ways of preparing foods and growing stuff you might not have thought of trying before.
Having the Knowledge.
We have become a nation of specialists, we trade our labour in whatever specialty we are trained for in cash and then use that cash to provide for all our needs, from putting food on the table to putting a big screen TV in the lounge room, that is the way the world works. For many years I also did this, but alongside selling my labour like everyone else, I spent time not only reading to develop new skills but trying them out in practice to see what worked for us and what didn’t. The original idea was to hone our skills so we could head bush but due to a whole stack of things from elderly parents to looking after kids meant the break for the bush never happened. In some respects this has been a good thing because the challenge is greater when you only have a small amount of land, to be as creative as you can in getting the most out of it.
Can we do more to satisfy our own needs in an urban environment? The answer that comes through to us very clearly time and again is “yes”, but you have to know stuff. Anyone with the cash can buy food, water, electricity, clothing etc but to produce any of these things ourselves, to a greater or lesser extent, we have to know how to do it. The good news is that this is the age of information and there is lots of stuff out there in books, magazines, documentaries on TV and on the internet. The bad news is that although some skills can be picked up in minutes others may take a lifetime to master. The results of our journey are here on our website for anyone to see and use but the big hint is that the time to start developing some of the urban peasant skills is now. If we had put off gaining those skills until we” made the break”, well, we would have missed out on lots of good information and a huge amount of fun.
Not being fussy about food
This is something that has come home to me personally. While not being a hugely fussy eater There has been stuff that I could grow but didn’t because I didn’t like it. I have never been a fan of green beans but grew them because the family ate them, and if I was going to grow them, then I was going to make sure that I ate ‘em. We are now growing stuff that is easy to grow and nutritious but years ago I would not have touched with a barge pole, leeks, broad beans and Japanese greens to name three. There are also “weeds” that are abundant in our area like mallow and fat hen that we eat now and others that I want to try even though I would not have considered them edible let alone tasty not so long back. You can’t count out a potential food source if you are an urban peasant just because your initial encounter did not prove promising.
Sometimes you need to be creative to make these new foods palatable and to this end I urge you to become familiar with the concepts of “stir fry” and “curry”. You can throw all manner of ingredients into either of these dishes and have them come out tasty at the end. We like Thai style curries and even in Sydney we can grow a surprising amount of the ingredients, but coconut palms do not do well here unfortunately.
The urban peasant lifestyle is not for everyone but it makes sense to us and to a growing number of others although they might not call themselves by that title. It is a lifestyle that allows us to tread lighter on the planet, it is a lifestyle which focuses less on possessions and more on experience and doing for yourself and it is a lifestyle that we find is immensely satisfying.
