Food for Thought - Part 3

To round out my thoughts on food and my relationship to it I have gone back to the basics, as one might say. In the museums we have been to, there were exhibits showcasing the Maori ancestors' hunting and gathering culture. Collecting mussels. Hunting giant ostrich-like birds. The skill with which they were able to dress and shape stone tools were all on display and although I have read about hunter-gatherers it is always impressive to see their skill.

Can you imagine how much intuition it must have took to be the first stone shaper? But I digress. When we camped at Robin Hood Bay a few weeks ago we found a sign at the beach entrance that posted size and daily catch regulations for fish and shellfish. At the bottom of that list I found that you could harvest up to 50 mussels of any size per day:

I didn't come close to reaching my limit but I did add these specimens to the curry we ate that night. It reminded me of my childhood: the vegetable patch in the backyard, picking blackberries in the fall, pan frying fish we caught ourselves. These were all times we closed the gap between us and the food we ate.