thinking green

It's funny how the meaning of words change over time. New meanings for old words are often just a new way of looking at an old idea. My Dad rescued things from the local dump and we "made over" second hand items, often completely changing their original use. This was before "handcrafted" was a compliment and "home made" implied less than the best. Recycling and upcycling have many passionate devotees these days.
Thinking "lite" is another new concept that's the old, redressed. The Great Depression, followed by war time rationing had a lightening affect on many old family recipes. My mother developed a taste for tartness because sugar was in short supply in her growing up years. It served her well because my father developed diabetes and she spent the rest of her cooking life seeing how much fat and sugar she could remove from a dish and have it still be edible. This culinary experimenting had its spectacular successes and ghastly failures; soups with the kaleidoscope flavours of the summer garden and cookies that offended even the dog's taste buds. My own philosophy toward food was forged on this anvil and I have often thought, " I'd rather have a little bit of wonderful, than a whole lot of mediocre." I'm thankful though that baking bread and canning and cooking from scratch without recipes were presented as the norm, an easy rhythm, caretaking both body and soul. It's good to see society recognizing the urgency and value in being guardians of the earth and its resources. But that's not a new idea. Thinking green was mentioned when time as we know it, began. It was Adam and Eve's mandate when they lived in the garden of Eden.