Fans give Jill Duggar a pretty hard time for constantly using canned ingredients instead of fresh food in her recipes. But as it turns out, it might not actually be her fault. We always figured the habit was one left over from the Duggar family’s thriftier days, when they needed to buy in bulk to get cheaper prices, and that the mom of two just never thought much more about it once she and her family could afford the good stuff. But actually, we’ve got a new theory now. In an old clip from 19 Kids And Counting, Jill’s younger sister Jessa Duggar gives fans of the TLC show a mini-tour through the family’s pantry — and it’s not a pretty site.

Well, actually, it kind of is a pretty site, because the shelves are all stocked up like a grocery store aisle. But do you know what aisle is missing? The produce section, because it seems like the family is subsisting entirely off of canned and frozen goods. And Jessa explains in the video that yeah, they stock up for pretty much exactly the reasons that you think. “This is the vegetables, we have canned fruit,” she explains as she points out all their ingredients. But she says something else interesting, too.

“We start off cooking at a very young age,” Jessa continues. “My mom always has us in the kitchen as little boys and girls just helping her out, and then as we get older we actually take on the responsibility of doing whole meals ourselves.”

Did you hear what we heard? The family’s been buying all canned goods since the kids were little because it was what they could afford — and Jill, like the other kids, started cooking with mom Michelle Duggar around that same time. Translation: Jill’s been cooking with canned goods — and it seems only with canned goods — for pretty much her whole life. It’s not just that the 27-year-old former reality star is still trying to live on a budget; it’s that she just never learned how to cook any differently. We can imagine that not only did she exclusively learn how to cook with canned ingredients instead of fresh ones, but that all the recipes she knows include canned ingredients, too. After all, if they were passed down from her family, it looks like those were the raw materials they were working with.

And sure, that’s not really an excuse for why she always ends up adding so much butter and salt to all of her dishes. It definitely explains a lot, though, don’t you think? But Jill, if you’re looking to branch out a little, we bet any one of those delivery meal kit services would be more than happy to hook you up. Heck, you could probably even make an extra buck or two promoting them to your followers so that you could afford the trip to the farmer’s market on your own. Just think about it, okay?

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