I was thinking more “You don’t get real days off, labor is sunup to sundown, you live in constant terror of slight fluctuations in weather driving you into literal starvation, any creature comforts you have are inevitably temporary” sort of thing. And that’s subsistence farming in 2024 AD. Not even getting into how it worked historically, to which we could add all sorts of… lovely modifiers.
Oh yeah, absolutely, all of that, especially creature comforts like variety. You farm all day, every day, because if you don’t you starve. And that’s why potatoes… because they’re the lowest effort, and most reliable, and you can store them for awhile without refrigeration, and if you’re managing to produce other stuff you either eat it before it spoils, or you’re selling it to make a little money so you can get your farm tools fixed, and you’re just surviving on the potatoes (with some salt, if you can afford it).
I think a lot of people don’t realize what a luxury refrigeration is. Being able to walk into a grocery store to get fresh fruits and vegetables in mid-winter requires a crazy amount of infrastructure.
hash browns for breakfast
baked potato for lunch
mashed potatoes for dinner
potato latkes for breakfast
potato soup for lunch
scalloped potatoes for dinner
potatoes O’Brien for breakfast - but without the peppers and onions
potato salad for lunch
potatoes au gratin for dinner
potatoes…
potatoes again…
more potatoes…
…at least there is vodka.
I was thinking more “You don’t get real days off, labor is sunup to sundown, you live in constant terror of slight fluctuations in weather driving you into literal starvation, any creature comforts you have are inevitably temporary” sort of thing. And that’s subsistence farming in 2024 AD. Not even getting into how it worked historically, to which we could add all sorts of… lovely modifiers.
Oh yeah, absolutely, all of that, especially creature comforts like variety. You farm all day, every day, because if you don’t you starve. And that’s why potatoes… because they’re the lowest effort, and most reliable, and you can store them for awhile without refrigeration, and if you’re managing to produce other stuff you either eat it before it spoils, or you’re selling it to make a little money so you can get your farm tools fixed, and you’re just surviving on the potatoes (with some salt, if you can afford it).
I think a lot of people don’t realize what a luxury refrigeration is. Being able to walk into a grocery store to get fresh fruits and vegetables in mid-winter requires a crazy amount of infrastructure.