Farm to table is a relatively new trend in healthier eating. As a child I experienced farm-to- table food every time we visited my grandparents on their farm in western Kentucky. Only what could not be raised or grown on the farm was purchased. I still treasure those memories and the lessons I learned.

The daily hard work was immediately rewarded by gathering eggs and milking the cows, but raising livestock and crops required perseverance. Living from paycheck to paycheck had a different meaning, as did saving for a rainy day (or a very dry season). Calling in sick wasn’t an option with cows to milk, pigs to feed, eggs to gather, and hay to cut, bale, and put in the barn.

I started this blog after thinking about faith and individual responsibility. Both were a matter of everyday life on my grandparents’ farm. I could see God’s handiwork at every turn, and I also saw the curse that Adam’s sin brought on mankind. My grandfather watered the cursed, rocky ground by the sweat of his brow. The only real choice he had was to work hard. Failure wasn’t an option.

Sadly, our society seems to be losing faith in just about everything and everybody, including the Creator. Individual responsibility is still rewarded, but that also seems to be under assault. I don’t see our society returning to the good ole days I remember from my childhood visits to rural Kentucky. My grandparents are long gone, as is the lifestyle I loved. Although I buy my groceries at Wal-Mart, I have never forgotten the hard work and sacrifice that brought the food I ate at my grandparent’s farm to their table.

Our present upper senior population—adults and children of the Great Depression and WWII—lived through some very tough times. Spend some time with a senior and get a firsthand, face-to-face education that is, perhaps, needed more today than then.

Stan Means
Elder Source Senior Ministries
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