Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Food for thought, thought for food

I love living in a part of the country where people know how to live off the land and sea.

At low tide today, I watched these men pull their seining net through Ellis Creek, catching blue crabs and fish. They made it look so effortless and were able to work the net without saying a word to each other.

After dragging the net for a while, they would walk it up onto an exposed bank and collect the desirable crabs and fish from the net.

I've touched on the subject of self-sustainability before and it is a topic that I think about a lot. There is a gap between the farmer and the consumer- so much so that if you were to ask a young child where grapes or corn or peaches came from, they would probably answer "the grocery store". I enjoy the endless options of produce, bakery items, wines and other items that are at my fingertips and I would rather live in a time of feast rather than famine. But regardless of the cornucopia available at the market, I think it's wise to have the ability to be able to harvest a portion of your food- even if it's just a window box of herbs.

Gardening, fishing, seining, hunting....these activities keep us connected with the earth and with ourselves. There is a reason that it is a compliment to refer to someone as "grounded".

1 comment:

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin