sarah in nyc

Growing up while there were some foods that were made from scratch, there were some foods that we only ate in their packaged form. Pie crust was always bought frozen. Noodles were always purchased from a package, pudding too was Mi-Ti –Fine.   I probably have spent far too much of my time thinking about and reading about the development of the packaged food industry in the United States.   One of the things that has gradually dawned on me is that factory made food is made less because of the difficulty of making that particular item but more because of how easy it is to manufacture the food. Every time I go into Whole Foods I see packages of “Coffee Spice rub for meat”. Perhaps it is good. I don’t know. But how hard is it to put a little ground coffee in a bowl and add spices that you like, a mix of earthy and hot and mix them up with a fork? If you are timid you can read the ingredients on the store bought version and recreate it at home leaving out the flavors ...