How we discovered the meaning of real food on a Smallholding in the middle of nowhere: Part One

A true story of stepping outside our comfort zone, a passion for food and raising our children in the middle of nowhere. Part one is about how it happened, why it happened and what happened next.

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s

If you grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, you’d almost certainly have eaten home-cooked food every day — real food, cooked from scratch and sometimes delicious (Mum’s food could be best described as good in parts, though her baking was excellent).

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

Then, ultra-processed food was limited to breakfast cereals, supermarket bread, Findus Crispy Pancakes, and Vesta boil-in-the-bag curries.

Okay, there was probably more than that, but it wasn’t really on our radar.

Fast food was fish and chips or a Wimpy, and though KFC came to the UK in 1965 and McDonalds in 1974, they were only universal in the UK in the 1990s.

What you ate was largely cooked at home by your parents, and you loved it or went hungry.