Of the things available to most of us, what are common and the oldest things we might find on a store shelf?

  • modeler@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I’m going to suggest food items that we still take from nature and eat with minimal preparation:

    • Honey
    • Fish like salmon, trout, grouper
    • Shellfish (eg oysters)

    We have evidence of shellfish and fish being eaten for a very long time - at least the middle stone age at 140kya - in middens which are 10s of thousands of years old.

    Honey is likely to have been a food source - a treat even - even before humans left Africa (so before 100kya) but sadly this would be invisible in the archeological record

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 months ago

      I was going to say oatmeal, but honey is actually a better answer, since it predates even agriculture as a major food.

      If you live somewhere with fresh seafood that’s also a great answer. I wonder if grocery stores somewhere sell fresh insects, although that wouldn’t be the West as per OP.