kaybee
11-28-2009, 08:54 AM
:eek::eek:
ok this post probably makes me sound crazy, and is fueled by my couchsurfers stealing one of my hard-to-get organic, ripe, avocados the other night, but this isnt the first time ive found myself becoming possessive about the food i have and need and i dont like this personality trait thats emerging in me!
i live somewhere where the availability of fresh organic stuff is not great, and im on a tight budget. the best way to get greens and stuff is to grow it yourself, as a lot of it grows well here but isnt commonly grown here and isnt grown or used in the amounts that i need to have it in. i grow what i can but at the moment lack a place to grow things, and even then i need to buy fruit as most isnt grown here. organic stuff is scarce and pretty pricey; the hfs only gets a delivery once a week and rarely has much for greens. i forage for greens when i can but its also a scarce time of year. I manage to live on fairly little money because i dont spend money on drink or cigs or take-away or processed food etc, so most of my money goes towards good, quality food. i buy the best quality i can afford, which doesnt always mean organic, but organic when its available and feasible.
Thing is, i find myself possessive about a lot of the food that i have at my house and dont really want to share it. i dont want to be uncharitable, but when i go out of my way or spend good money to buy this stuff, i dont really want to share with people who come over who dont care about their health. in the perfect world, i would love to feed EVERYONE super-high quality stuff so that they could ALL be healing their bodies. but realistically, i cant afford to do that and it frustrates me to let people have my good food when they are putting trash into their bodies the rest of the time (esp when they are smokers and drinkers etc). Last week i got 2 ripe organic avos for half price at the health shop. i cant usually afford these, i usually buy conventional, and its rare to find them ripe. My couchsurfers took it upon themselves to take one of them while i was sleeping and eat it. i discovered this when i went to make lunch the next day. i was FUMING. they think i overreacted, gave me a bad reference and thought i was being ridiculous. But this was food i was depending on having and they took without asking and without bothering to replace or even leave me money for, and its something that couldnt be easily replaced anyway. (they also took other fruit without permission, but the avo really made me angry).
Ive also found myself getting irritated when people are staying with me and ask to use my olive oil or something, which i buy the expensive organic kind and hate to see it used for frying and stuff, and have run into awkward situations where people want to share a meal but have brought something like non-organic potatoes and i have organic ones but i dont want to use all of mine to feed them but also dont want to mix theirs with mine and have to eat some of the non-organic ones when ive specifically made a choice to feed my body only the best quality stuff.... ARGH. i dont want to be so uptight about food choices that i seem uncharitable, but its just frustrating when im spending the energy and money to have only high-quality stuff around and then people who really arent dedicated to the quality of what they are using are asking to use it. :( this doesnt usually happen with friends who visit, usually just with couchsurfers and maybe i have to just find a better way of dealing with it (though i dont know what), though occasionally i have felt put out by even my friends using the high quality organic stuff even when they dont dedicate alot of energy to their own health; it puts me out because the stuff is expensive :(
Im not uptight about food when i go to others houses as far as eating organic, so i dont think ive developed disordered thinking or anything; ill eat nonorganic if thats what theyre having, but i dont like having to eat non-organic in my own house just to be able to share a meal with people and yet the availablity and cost of organic etc is such that i dont want to foot the bill for using only my stuff when a meal is shared. catch 22. i dont mind sharing stuff if it is free/cheap and/or abundant, such as salad from sea spinach i collect off the beach or edible flowers that grow in the greenhouse in abundance or whatever, or foraged salads if there is stuff available for them--in fact i DELIGHT in feeding people this cool stuff when it is available. and usually (but not always), im happy to try to feed my friends healthier food than they are used to eating (but i hate when they "waste" my oil by using it for frying etc). But to see these guys sludging my organic olive oil on their icky processed food, or frying it is really frustrating. i guess in that instance i could get a cheap bottle of cooking oil to keep around, but this still doesnt address my other "possessiveness" problems. the poor availability of the kind of stuff that i like to feed my body with makes it difficult to share meals when i have people (like couchsurfers) stay. i feel stuck here. can anyone suggest a "third" option, or have any other suggestions?
much appreciated
kaybee
ok this post probably makes me sound crazy, and is fueled by my couchsurfers stealing one of my hard-to-get organic, ripe, avocados the other night, but this isnt the first time ive found myself becoming possessive about the food i have and need and i dont like this personality trait thats emerging in me!
i live somewhere where the availability of fresh organic stuff is not great, and im on a tight budget. the best way to get greens and stuff is to grow it yourself, as a lot of it grows well here but isnt commonly grown here and isnt grown or used in the amounts that i need to have it in. i grow what i can but at the moment lack a place to grow things, and even then i need to buy fruit as most isnt grown here. organic stuff is scarce and pretty pricey; the hfs only gets a delivery once a week and rarely has much for greens. i forage for greens when i can but its also a scarce time of year. I manage to live on fairly little money because i dont spend money on drink or cigs or take-away or processed food etc, so most of my money goes towards good, quality food. i buy the best quality i can afford, which doesnt always mean organic, but organic when its available and feasible.
Thing is, i find myself possessive about a lot of the food that i have at my house and dont really want to share it. i dont want to be uncharitable, but when i go out of my way or spend good money to buy this stuff, i dont really want to share with people who come over who dont care about their health. in the perfect world, i would love to feed EVERYONE super-high quality stuff so that they could ALL be healing their bodies. but realistically, i cant afford to do that and it frustrates me to let people have my good food when they are putting trash into their bodies the rest of the time (esp when they are smokers and drinkers etc). Last week i got 2 ripe organic avos for half price at the health shop. i cant usually afford these, i usually buy conventional, and its rare to find them ripe. My couchsurfers took it upon themselves to take one of them while i was sleeping and eat it. i discovered this when i went to make lunch the next day. i was FUMING. they think i overreacted, gave me a bad reference and thought i was being ridiculous. But this was food i was depending on having and they took without asking and without bothering to replace or even leave me money for, and its something that couldnt be easily replaced anyway. (they also took other fruit without permission, but the avo really made me angry).
Ive also found myself getting irritated when people are staying with me and ask to use my olive oil or something, which i buy the expensive organic kind and hate to see it used for frying and stuff, and have run into awkward situations where people want to share a meal but have brought something like non-organic potatoes and i have organic ones but i dont want to use all of mine to feed them but also dont want to mix theirs with mine and have to eat some of the non-organic ones when ive specifically made a choice to feed my body only the best quality stuff.... ARGH. i dont want to be so uptight about food choices that i seem uncharitable, but its just frustrating when im spending the energy and money to have only high-quality stuff around and then people who really arent dedicated to the quality of what they are using are asking to use it. :( this doesnt usually happen with friends who visit, usually just with couchsurfers and maybe i have to just find a better way of dealing with it (though i dont know what), though occasionally i have felt put out by even my friends using the high quality organic stuff even when they dont dedicate alot of energy to their own health; it puts me out because the stuff is expensive :(
Im not uptight about food when i go to others houses as far as eating organic, so i dont think ive developed disordered thinking or anything; ill eat nonorganic if thats what theyre having, but i dont like having to eat non-organic in my own house just to be able to share a meal with people and yet the availablity and cost of organic etc is such that i dont want to foot the bill for using only my stuff when a meal is shared. catch 22. i dont mind sharing stuff if it is free/cheap and/or abundant, such as salad from sea spinach i collect off the beach or edible flowers that grow in the greenhouse in abundance or whatever, or foraged salads if there is stuff available for them--in fact i DELIGHT in feeding people this cool stuff when it is available. and usually (but not always), im happy to try to feed my friends healthier food than they are used to eating (but i hate when they "waste" my oil by using it for frying etc). But to see these guys sludging my organic olive oil on their icky processed food, or frying it is really frustrating. i guess in that instance i could get a cheap bottle of cooking oil to keep around, but this still doesnt address my other "possessiveness" problems. the poor availability of the kind of stuff that i like to feed my body with makes it difficult to share meals when i have people (like couchsurfers) stay. i feel stuck here. can anyone suggest a "third" option, or have any other suggestions?
much appreciated
kaybee