Instant Happiness: Cheese, Bacon, Eggs, Honey, Cakes, Sausages, Biscuits, Vegetables, Mushrooms, Pies, etc. etc.
“If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world”
J.R.R. Tolkien
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If happiness was a person, I think it would be a hobbit cooking a hearty meal. With a casual, rustic and slow approach to life, such hobbit embodies many of the key elements of happiness -- and also seems to understand the value of good, homegrown food in the company of good folk. The hobbit pantry is certainly well-stocked. It contains vegetables and fruits, preserves, meats, sausages, cakes and scones, pastries and pies, tea, coffee, beer, and occasionally wine. Hobbit food is extraordinarily simple, no heavy seasonings and rich sauces, just herbs, lots of love and a pinch of salt. The food hobbits consume is grown, raised, collected, brewed, processed, and baked in the Shire, a feat which inspires great pride among the halflings. As Rufus Proudmore once wrote : “ A happy hobbit life is a combination of magic and pie.” and “ We must have a pie. Sadness cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”
Preparing ‘happy food’ is about enjoying the slow process of it, and about the appreciation of the time spent and the joy of cooking something of value. It is about our relationship with home-made meals. hobbit-made jam on hobbit-baked bread tastes better, every bite takes you back to that summer day, when you picked the fruit, and your entire kitchen smelled like strawberries. Because of their practice of eating locally, growing their own food, and consuming it together, hobbits are tied to their land in an unbreakable bond. “Something hot out of the pot, with taters and carrots…” is a reminder of happy times, civilization, and goodness. It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating homegrown food.
For hobbits eating is a communal act: food and eating connect hobbits with one another, with strangers they encounter, and with the earth itself, and also a means towards peace. People of the Shire are fond of eating together. There are no quarrels or wars in the Four Farthings, hobbits will never kill anything for ‘sport’, we just love to grow and eat our food at least six times a day. People who love to eat are often said to be the best people, and that is certainly true for when it comes to Shire folk. If you really want to make a hobbit friend, go to their house and eat with them...the hobbit who gives you their food gives you their heart, and soon you will find out that laughter and happiness are brightest where food is best.
Hobbits won’t eat anything before first savoring it. Smelling the aromas, and talking about how good the food in front of them will taste. The meal is not ‘just a meal’ it is an event. A pleasure to share with friends and loved ones, wish will certainly lead to happiness, great conversation, and unbridled singing. Cooking and eating hearty food is hobbit love made visible, and a vision of the good life. We care about what we eat and how we eat it, about how and where we grow it, and about the people with whom we eat it.
“ What I say is that, if a person really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow “ - Rufus Proudmore
Photo taken by me in Hobbiton, New Zealand - edited and painted in Photoshop
