Sure it was, although my family wasn't "big" on them
But you are right about the point........we grew and ate our own and lots of "spuds," garden vegetables, and had some fruit trees, some of them at the aunts/ uncles/ "grammas" house. We ate LOTS of (our own) beef, and even had chickens for a little while. At one time my Momside Gramma had rabbits and we ate them. One thing I miss and thought of typing this is rhubarb pie. There was some of it growing around the place, here and there. I never got an explanation for "how it came to be."
For a few years, my Dad side Gramps had crabapples by the ton. He bought an old cider press, and ('lectric) motorized the chopper. It had been hand crank. So we had LOTS of cider for awhile. Milk cow for years, and a steer "on the hoof." Usually butchered sometime around now, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Always a big doin's both Grandparents helped butcher for a share of the beef. Back then you could rent freezer lockers, we had no big freezer.