I am very proud of my family. They didn’t join this venture willingly. Gerard made it through an entire year, only ‘cheating’ when he left town. The kids joined in to the best of their abilities – respecting the ban on all grocery store food from our house, including salt. Adapting to strange new foods, not all of which have been palatable! T
he family is ecstatic to have ‘normal’ food, previously considered contraband, back in the house again. Tess is throwing a party for her friends – complete with junk food. Kate is looking forward “to being able to cook again”. Sam can once again indulge in instantly grab-able late night calories. Gerard is looking forward to his first beer.
For myself, the grocery store food holds no allure. I remember the taste of an orange out of season and grocery store bread. Even chocolate does not beckon. Give me a Saskatoon berry plucked from the bush or a cherry tomato fresh off the vine any day! For the past year I have known where every single ingredient on my plate has come from. It has been both an amazing and a humbling experience to be so connected with my food and with the people and the land that helped put it on my plate. Check out some of the many, many people who helped make this year so successful:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it takes a community to feed a family. If I had to choose the place in the world where I would want to be if a major disaster struck, it would be Dawson City. We have food, we have water, we have wood for heat and cooking. And, most importantly, we have resourcefulness, knowledge and ingenuity in spades!
For tens of thousands of years prior to colonization, the land was both the grocery store and the pharmacy for indigenous people of the North. Since colonization, we have gradually moved away from sourcing and producing our food locally. In 2018 we find ourselves dependent on one road to truck 97% of our food from thousands of kilometers away. With this dependence, comes vulnerability.
So, in 2018, it is reassuring to know that there is a bounty of food that the land and the people of the North can provide. Thank you Dawson City – I am so fortunate to call this remarkable community my home!
Congratulations! Well done!
Congratulations and thanks for the inspiration. We are trying to bring more food security awareness to Juneau. Fun and challenging.
There is so many plants that grow in our climates and it grows here for a reason. Here in Labrador it is certainly a challenge to eat local. My family certainly try our best to eat local as much as possible and it is an even more a challenge trying to get kids who want to eat the store bought foods.
You are a great inspiration and really encourages me to get my green house built as our growing season is very short and cool. I find when you grow your own food or you can get your food locally creates a sense of security.
Thank you for sharing your story on this website/blog.
INcredible Suzanne (and incredibly amazing family for sticking to the house rules!)! We are all so proud, amazed and in awe of your commitment to eating local for the year (and by the sounds of it, beyond). Congratulations and kudos to all!
xoxo
The Sherrards