abundance & excess

(Black) Friday thoughts & snacks

Welcome to The Apéritif! Friday Thoughts & Snacks is a weekly round up of, quite literally, my thoughts and my snacks. I use the term “weekly” in the loose and vague sense of the word.

Thoughts this week: abundance & excess

I’ve been to a few Friendsgiving dinners over the last few weeks - I wrote about it previously, but despite not being American, I now have a fair few American friends in Paris and I’ve grown to really love celebrating this time of year. There is something about the gathering darkness and the rising cold that makes me want to draw into my friends and community; to break bread together, to share the dishes we’ve each made, to sit cheek by jowl and share in our thankfulness. To pass the mashed potatoes and the pie and the foods that stick to your ribs because they’re hearty and sugary and they were made by people you have grown to love. To wonder at the chances of being here, in this life, in this city, in this moment, with these people. To remember that beneath the daily irritations of commuting and dealing with your boss, and even the major ones, in these moments lie the true wealth and abundance of life.

Abundance is a word that gets banded around at this time of the year: of the natural world and community. The problem is that when things are abundant, i.e. readily available in excess of actual need, we do not value them in the same way, or feel the requisite amount of thankfulness for them.

Food waste is an example of this. It is estimated now that a third of all food produced globally is thrown away - in the UK alone 9.52 million tonnes is thrown away each year, almost 70% of which could have been eaten. That amount is enough to feed upwards of 30 million people a year, yet 8.4 million in the UK live in food poverty. Even in a cost of living crisis, we apparently don’t value food enough to purchase or consume it wisely - because it is so readily available for most of us. We haven’t poured our own sweat into the soil, wrought the food from the earth by our labour; the only value to us is in what we paid for it, which often does not represent the true cost of its production.

And of course, today is Black Friday, that beacon of excess incarnate - somewhat ironic, and indeed indicative of modern culture, that a celebration of thanksgiving for abundance is followed by a consumerist drive for further acquisition in excess of that abundance. I’m not against sales, or making long-planned purchases when the prices are down, but I am weary of consumption for its own sake.

It’s an appropriate time to be reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s new book, The Serviceberry, on gift economies and reciprocity in the natural world. I don’t quite share her optimism on what is possible for humanity, but it is an interesting insight into a different way of thinking, and a timely reminder that at least to some degree all flourishing is mutual: it requires care for the collective. For people to take only what they need, and share what they have. Otherwise we are trapped forever in a societal and ecological race to the bottom, an arms race of the acquisition of excess to the detriment of people, planet, and ultimately ourselves.

I am thankful that we have all that we need, but I hope that never lessens its value to us. May giving thanks for abundance never lead to the accumulation of excess becoming an end in itself.

What I’m cooking and eating this week

• Friendsgiving #1! Vegan dishes included: mashed potatoes, garlicky green beans, fennel and orange salad, roasted butternut squash, bread etc.

• Friendsgiving #2! This had a lot of Mediteranean dishes since it was co-hosted by a Turkish friend and a Greek-Cypriot friend. Vegan dishes were in the majority: pasta salad, bulghar wheat salad, hummus, bread, red lentil bites, green bean salad.

• Big warming bowls of porridge, since the temperature has dropped dramatically.

• Kale, quinoa, chickpea and sun-dried tomato salad. Loosely based on this recipe, an old favourite that is a go-to because it’s so quick and easy to make and very adaptable to what I have on hand. The local farm shop is overflowing with kale currently and I’m making the most of it.

• Mashed potatoes. Just so warming and comforting in cold weather, and easy to make in bulk.

• Mushroom stroganoff. The mushrooms in the farm shop are abundant currently - I’m not sure how much longer they’ll be around so I’m making the most of it.

• Cinnamon rolls. It’s just cinnamon roll weather and they are my favourite thing to make for weekend breakfasts / brunches. It takes a bit of time and effort but it’s not difficult. I’ve been using this recipe for years and it has never failed me, highly recommend.