Food Memories : Connecting to Rural Roots through Food in Life Writings by Finnish Women Born in the 1950s

Abstract

The article explores the role of food in mediating memories and creating a sense of belonging. The article is based on autobiographical writings depicting rural life in Finland, collected during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020–2021) through a nationwide thematic campaign entitled “My Countryside”. Based on our material, food memories and repeated practices associated with food were in the very heart of the authors’ identification with rural life; affective memories of childhood tastes associated with safety and security, bodily memories of working in the fields and cowsheds for food, and finally descriptions of how the authors sought to maintain their belonging through repetition of food-related traditions in their families, for example with their grand children. For many, food-related memories of childhood and youth had been a lifetime resource. However, there were also narratives where expressions of non-belonging in the countryside were grounded in (negative) food-related memories.