What price convenience foods?

As a keen genealogist and budding social historian I’m often aghast at the stories of hardship that gently unfold as I sift through old census and parish records relating to my ancestors.

And now as I potter around the local supermarket picking and choosing this or that product I wonder what would Charles Ayley and his wife Eliza think if they were suddenly plonked down into a contemporary supermarket?

I’m sure they’d die of shock although it’s not a bad plot for a movie. (Hand’s off my intellectual property). Charles born 1815, a gardener, and Eliza had 11 children and only three died a very early death, not bad for the 19^th century really.

The census records reveal, in my opinion, a life of drudgery for ordinary women who frequently gave birth – how could they not? They often buried several children, cared for elderly relatives, a husband and a raft of children with no mod cons whatsoever. There was no electricity, so no electric washing machines, no convenience foods, water quality was suspect and the public health service hadn’t been invented. Toilet facilities were probably non-existent, or very crude, too. Many people died of typhoid and other ghastly diseases related to living in unsanitary conditions that have virtually been eradicated these days.

After a day toiling in the garden or fields for M’Lud Petrie, Charles and Eliza (if she had the time or energy to work) would have lived at night by candle light. I imagine there was little energy or time left over at the end of the day for fun, apart from begetting a few more children.

What did they eat? How much did it cost? How did they survive generally without the ‘benefits’ of modern society that we have? Did Charles steal the odd turnip or potato to eke out the family meal? Did they grow their own vegetables? How often did they eat meat?

I don’t have the resources readily available to answer the questions and for now have to leave the answers to the professional historians, although I suspect my Barnaby Ayley, a close relative, stole some deer and was imprisoned for his crime, possibly even deported to Australia – or was that his brother?

So as I ponder recent ‘convenient inventions’ such as frozen diced onions, vacuum packed rhubarb, pre-cut celery, diced apples and pre-washed lettuce I can’t help wondering whether we’re on the right track.

Convenience foods are just that – convenient and designed for ease of consumption. But what are we all doing that necessitates food to be so damned convenient? What are we so busy doing that we cannot/do not/can’t be bothered to prepare a healthy meal at the end of the day? It’s not like we’re living in the 1850s is it? What are we all so busy doing that prevents us from taking time out to enjoy a good (good being mainly fresh and wholesome)meal with our family once a day?

Not a lot. Women work and generally families are smaller thanks to the invention many decades ago of the contraceptive pill. Poor old Eliza might turn in her grave if she were still alive.

“Wot you mean I don’t have to keep popping out a child every 12 months? How bloody marvellous, how frightfully convenient.”

Actually she wasn’t posh and probably signed her wedding certificate with an X because she couldn’t read or write.

Society has a short memory.