El Rancho Market, 1959

While I was looking through a file box of recipes that my Grandma saved, I found this advertisement folded up and placed in with the recipes. There is a food related article written on the other side that I'm sure was the reason she saved this paper. I was actually more intrigued by the ad. It's from her favorite market in Arcadia, El Rancho. I remember shopping there with her, before it was bought by a national grocery store chain. She had two favorite places to shop, the El Rancho and the Pantry. And many years later, Trader Joe's. Boy, they loved that place. They ended up doing 90% of their food shopping at Trader Joe's. She said many times that she wished her mother could have seen that store. She would have loved it. Especially all of the convenience food. Back when my Grandma was a little girl in the 20's, women prepared almost all of their family's food from scratch. There were very few convenience items like today. Wouldn't it be fun to walk through the store that this ad came from? See the items on the shelves, and check the prices. I can guarantee that there would not be an entire aisle devoted to soda and chips and cookies like today.  Check the date on this ad and you'll understand the incredibly low prices....1959!
I would love to go back in time and spend a week just watching my Grandma plan meals, grocery shop, organize and prepare food. What fun that would be. I learned this skill from her. And since she grew up during the depression, I also learned to be as thrifty as possible. When making up a menu for the week, she would take into consideration the items she already had on hand, plus any crop from the garden that was ready to harvest. If there were zucchini or tomatoes that were ready, she'd plan to add those to some of the meals. My Grandpa was incredibly good at growing peas. And we had an avocado tree as well as several fruit trees...fig, apricot, peach, persimmon and orange. As a child, I never had a problem eating fresh fruits and vegetables. They were always on our table in one way or another. And she came from the generation that was expected to eat what was prepared without putting up a fuss. This was passed down to me as well. We dined on oysters, frog legs (which she told me were chicken, until after I finished eating!), lima beans, acorn squash, and many other foods that kids nowadays would turn their noses up at. Now that I'm all grown up, I'm so thankful that they raised me to appreciate real, honest to goodness food. I'm willing to try new things because they always encouraged that in our house. I can remember both of them saying, "How do you know you don't like it until you try? It could be one of your favorite foods and you would never know!"  Maybe I should make this a new goal. At least once a month, I need to try a new food. I have a friend that regularly will post her new food finds on Facebook. Sometimes the results are favorable. Others, a dismal failure. But, you don't know until you try.