Food, once a hard earned necessity has evolved into a cultural phenomenon on one hand and a completely fabricated artifice on the other. Over the past 50 years science has genetically altered fresh produce to the sacrifice of half (or worse) of its vitamins and minerals. It takes more than twice the amount of vegetables to equal the nutritional value of the 1950's. Going to the grocery store to purchase today's bland, stale, wilting and often colorless produce is a chore and we can't wait to get out of the over lit maze like warehouses. Because we consumers naturally gravitate to the right when we enter the market, fresh produce is deliberately placed at the left of the store while the aisles of junk food and unnecessary plastic items are placed to the right. Often dairy is at the farthest back of the store so we have to pass candy, chips, packaged goods to get to the eggs and milk. This is well calculated placement.
We don't talk to strangers in the super markets nor do clerks interact with us except in rare self conscious greetings or inquiries about our needing assistance. Just once I'd welcome someone walking up to me and asking me if I'd like to try a new apple the store just got in but even then I might not trust the intent.
Switch the scene to a European market and you'll find people spending half of their Saturday strolling from stall to stall happy to taste, sample and smell fare being offered by individual vendors. These vendors offer an extra ounce or a large sample because they are proud of their produce and want to share it with their customers. Children love accompanying their parents because vendors are happy to see them. This experience in shopping for food is immersion into the culture. We are just beginning to get back to this kind of experience through our local farmer's markets and with luck the trend will grow and change our relationship to food.
I don't know if I will be able to manifest this kind of purchasing where I am going. Much of my food by necessity will be delivered from giant warehouses 90 miles from my restaurant because the area I'm moving to has yet to discover any consistent, year round fresh produce. I won't live in Alice Waters' world. I don't know if I'll even have time for such luxurious shopping even if I do find the opportunity. My challenge will be to make the best dishes I can from what I am able to get. Fish once a week must be sold within a couple of days then it will be off the menu. Meat, delivered once a week must be kept very cold at all times to last the week and even then may be a scarcity the day before the new delivery. These are just a few of the challenges I face in the venture I am about to take on.
I have passed the dense rainy zone of this journey. Each mile brings dryer landscape but the river remains large and smooth. Reflected in its surface are craggy hills with evidence of giant slides of broken up basalt. Perfect mirrored images of columnar cliffs rest on the river's surface undisturbed by any evidence of movement. The river may as well be a lake it is so tame today. Tomorrow, it could be chopped up by waves as wind skims its surface from east to west. This is harsh country and getting harsher with each mile eastward. This is the stuff of pioneers and in a way in these modern times I feel like a pioneer to take this road less traveled. To establish a place far from convenient crowds to serve a smaller perhaps more appreciative population hungry for more than just food.
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