why can i not empty my freezer?

Seriously, try as I might, I cannot run down the contents of my freezer, or my two fridges, or my cold room. As I cycle food out, I am putting it back in just as quickly. I will go shopping with the wife or alone and it will be decided, just the bare essentials: some fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy and we will run down what is in the freezer and the cold room and the fridges. But no. Just have to get a few more things.

I am sure it has become obvious from some of my posts that I am frugal. I often look for deals and bargains. Who does not want the best bang for their buck? However, in order to run down the foodstuffs, I try not to look at flyers for sales. The last time I checked out the grocery store flyers was just before Christmas and New Years and it was weeks longer before that. That was because we were entertaining various people over the holidays and I did not want to go out several times for the groceries and wanted the best deals too. In fact, I had everything purchased and put away for the holidays the Monday before Christmas. That includes meats, dairy, veg, fruits, nuts, various beverages, delicacies from the Dutch grocers. Everything except bread, as I saved that for the baker in Kemptville on the Friday before Christmas and I gassed up there too as it is usually cheaper. When I got home, I beached the truck and did not drive anywhere until after New Years. The fridges, cupboards, counters, cold room, and freezer were stuffed.

In the end, no grocery shopping for three weeks. Woo-hoo! Sure, we bought a lot of food, and too much as is to be expected. Still, after three weeks, I could see the back of the freezer on one of the shelves. Then, I could not. What happened? It is like the cosmos cannot allow any space in my food storage system. Or it could be genetics.

My parents were from Central Europe. My father went through a circuitous route to end up in Canada and meet and marry my mother and he endured great hardships during those times. My mother fled the false utopia of communism. Growing up, my parents had a huge freezer chest, bigger than the one I have now. It was always full. They had two fridges as well. They were always full. The cupboards were always full. The cold room was always full. My parents made their own preserves and smoked their own sausage, my dad made cold-cuts from time to time. The old man even made beer before it was easy and popular. They would grow their own vegetables and had a plum tree. There were always bushels of various fruits and vegetables, purchased directly from farmers, waiting to be canned. I was eating my mother's pickles two years after she passed away. Man, I miss those pickles, they were the best.

Why did they have all this food? Probably because they could and it let them feel secure. Why? They had no worries about waiting in line for dubious quality foods. No worries about if there was food to buy. No worries about mass shortages for anything. Because: they had become so conditioned by life to be ready for the worst. They obviously were afraid of not having access to food. They would have grown up with their own parents growing and raising what they could and preserving and stockpiling. As their parents' parents would have, and so on and so on.

My brother and I would have been the first of our family to be born with true food security and the growing  ease of access to foodstuffs. So, why do I keep filling the larder? Genetic predisposition and psychological conditioning. What else could it be?

Today, what did we need? Some fruit and veg, bread, and some pepperettes for the boy's lunch. What did we buy? A whole peck of vegetables, two cottage rolls, seven packs of pepperettes, pasta, pickled peppers, four boxes of wagon wheels.... Why? Well everything was a deal. Most of it will be put away in the freezer or has a long shelf life; the fruit and veg will be gone by the end of the week.

I even bought various vegetable seeds today and I am going to be buying more through one of the boy's fundraisers for his Scout Troop's trip to the Canada Jamboree. What the hell is wrong with me? It is not like I cannot go and get what I need from a grocery store or even from a vegetable stand or farm. My town even has a farmers' market from May to October. Of course the deals are great and growing and eating your own veggies is always a treat. I even dabble in cold pickling to preserve some of the bounty for later consumption.

I am not even going to talk about Y2K or solar flares. Obviously, it is more than paranoia as my friend Colin keeps telling me. Centuries of my ancestors being overrun and being ruled by various nations has led to me and my stuffed freezer and ever growing vegetable garden (I even want to build a greenhouse to raise veggies in the winter). So, next time you realise you are doing something inexplicable look to your past, I bet you can find someone else to blame. blbbl