Where Does Your Food Come From?

It's a frenzy of manure spreading, plowing, harrowing and  seeding going on around here.  We're having a freakishly long warm dry spell and everyone is working night and day to get the crops in.  The giant manure tanker trucks are hauling pig and cattle manure, spraying the fields and the smell is almost physical.

I heard an interview with Dr. David Suzuki on the radio yesterday, where he spoke about the dangerous disconnect that many people have with the environment.  I really agree with what he said as so many have no concept of where their food comes from or how much money and effort is involved with its production.  So many children and adults spend no time outdoors and the only reality that exists for them is what they see on the screens in front of them.

I find great joy in the cycle of local foods.  I don't mean that I'm a locavore, because in winter it's unrealistic, but starting now, I will eat what is in season and eat it to excess, knowing that I won't get it fresh for another year.  I know you can get "fresh" vegetables all year long, but they come from so far away and have so little taste.  Right now it's fiddlehead season, so every afternoon the dog and I go to the woods and find the fiddlehead patch and pick a whole bunch.

Once you get them home you have to pick out all the brown papery covers, but once that's done, it's pure eating pleasure!  It's amazing how quickly they open out and within a day, turn into a sea of ferns.

Once the spring work is done I hope to get back into the sewing room, but I'm still knitting in the evenings and have another sock to show for it!