A Murder in The Kitchen- Based on a True Story

In a hot kitchen in the middle of summer a woman stood at the counter. She had been in the kitchen for hours, diligently working while her husband was out. She was exhausted, and sweat beaded on her forehead as she thought about what she was going to do. She had been angry for a long time, a quiet anger that no one knew was there, but deep in the pit of her stomach she knew that she could no longer endure anymore abuse.  After years of hoping it was going to somehow get better on its own, she had started to plot her course to take matters into her own hand. This wasn’t a choice she took lightly, and it certainly wasn’t going to make her life any easier but she knew it was something that had to be done and today was the day she was going to do it!

She could hear her husband put his key into the door, that familiar click of the deadbolt retracting. The knob turned and the door was shut gently behind him. She heard the clank of the keys fall onto the entry way table and his shoes drop to the floor as he moved through.   She could tell by the way he stepped that he was in a good mood, as he came towards the kitchen. He obviously didn’t know what was waiting for him just around the corner. She smiled with satisfaction knowing he was in for a surprise. One more step and he would be there.  And then he was there! With a look of shock and disbelief he stood frozen in his steps.

She pulled the hammer back and the kitchen echoed BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!  Deep red splattered across the kitchen counter, spraying in little droplets across her face and apron.  She could hear small drips as they ran down the cutting board and onto the floor. She picked up a bit of deep red flesh and examined it, satisfied with her work, and again she pulled the hammer back BAM! BAM! BAM! She inspected her hands as red streamed down her fingers. She enjoyed the sticky feeling on her hands, the deep inner parts of something now exposed. She smiled knowing that it was done! She has finally stood up to an evil that had distressed her for far too long and breathed a sigh of relief.  It wasn’t as hard as she thought it was going to be.  

She began to clean up the mess as she heard a voice calling from behind her.

 “Wow!” He exclaimed. “That is a lot of cherries honey! Let me help you clean up!”

 She took her hand off the cherry pitter and moved away as he started to dismantle it. It was time to start canning the sweet juicy fruit that started her journey away from the modern food chain.

Oh…You thought there was going to be a murder didn’t you?  In your mind you imagined a woman, taken for granted as she suffered through an abusive and destructive relationship ready to put an end to her abuser. But what you imagined was right! She is a woman who was in a destructive relationship, a destructive relationship with her food supply. A relationship where day after day she consumed food from distant toxic farms and factories, filled with science more than food. And although consumers have made it clear they would prefer their food to just be food, it has not phased the food science industry from inventing, and concealing this frankenfood in our food supply. And in a way there is a murder. In every person who removes even part of their families food out of the modern food supply chain a little bit of this system of abuse is put to death.  

I am happy to be part of this death, contributing every time I am able to pick up real food from local farms, and placing money and jobs back into my local economy. Every time I put food up on my shelves in glistening glass jars of fresh fruit and pickled vegetables my heart is warm with the knowledge of exactly what my daughter is eating. A movement of people that is no more political than it was 100 years ago when our grandparents and great grandparents did it. So today I write with cherry stained hands as I move forward in hopes that someday the memories of store bought jam, and vegetables swimming around in BPA liners will be a distant memory for our family.  So tonight I’m not just making a dish for the night, or an interesting recipe I found, but something much more important. Tonight I’m making food for my family, pure real food that I will store away for the entire year and keep my family fed on fresh real food far after the season has come and gone.

This is 40lbs of cherries canned