Pre-Thanksgiving

This is what I notice about preparing to eat a local Thanksgiving meal; it's quieter. The holiday dinner is the food we eat every day. Well, except for the turkey. Okay, and the pumpkin pie.

The food is real food, no sugar added, no labels of nutritious this or that. The food is regular red onions tossed in my purse like loose change at the Tuesday market. It's persimmons and pears to eat when the mashed potatoes are gone and to enjoy as art before then.

The food is potatoes and yams bought with a smile and a few dollar bills. It's a Canvas Ranch pumpkin still sitting on the table, a bunch of celery too beautiful to have ever been removed from it roots. The food is wild leggy parsley, brussel sprouts, walnuts, brown eggs, butter, sage and ranch cured olives in a mason jar.

There is barely any packaging, no advertising, no sale items, specials or add ons. There are no lists of ingredients, no nutrient claims, or warnings. There is only naked food.

And the stories and smiles of all the farmers who grew it.