Salt This Holiday Season

We eat a lot over the holidays because food is part of family love. You cannot refuse your aunt's invitation to lunch. She will blame your mother, for turning you against her. We feel the salt in other people's food because we use very little or none at all. We used to cause Mama pain when we ate a few spoons and stopped. Reason? We told her the food was not delicious. Why? No salt.

She used salt, but sparingly. That’s why we couldn’t taste it. She didn’t scorch meat and vegetables with salt, something I later realized when eating at someone’s house. Wedding and funeral food can also be very salty.

It never occurred to me that we seldom complained at grandma’s. We helped her harvest sweet potatoes, washed them thoroughly and boiled them. We never said they had no salt. Same with the corn harvest, straight into the pot, without shaking a salt cellar.

Cattle don’t use salt because they eat grass raw. Is grass vegan? Who knows! We are so used to adding salt, we use it in food that doesn’t need it. Carrots are carrots, very self sufficient. Peas also. When the doctor told me to slow down on the sodium, I discovered peas, very sweet. Come to think of it, all vegetables don’t need salt. It kills their uniqueness.

Food labels. The previous ‘me’ never read them. The new me does. That is how I realized that my favorite spice mix has some salt. Why add additional salt? I blame the bible, which came with the Queen’s navy. It says, you are the salt of the earth.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger