Roots

So that’s the journey. Some highlights from the food I’ve joyfully played with and tastily tried out. But, the journey has barely begun (no, I won’t break out into a fucking enya song). There are tons of things I want to learn how to do (seed saving, bee keeping, butchering, hunting, dairying, etc, etc). And there are so many things I want to do with those skills: 1) make more of everything; 2) try more hard cheeses; 3) start an herb farm; 4) send out e-vites to my commune (just kidding. About the e-vite thing, not about the commune thing); 5) make miso paste; 6) store enough food for the winter (or learn to get really fat at the end of the fall and hibernate); 7) be really,really good to the soil. I’d also like to do really huge things like prepare to transition from the current system to one that is reliant upon sustainable systems and methods of energy, economy, food, and overall mode of lifestyle, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself (though all that stuff probably isn’t too far ahead. The current system is kinda fucked. And hallelujah for that!). At times it is totally astounding to me how little I know about how to live. The basis of my lifestyle is so far removed from my nourishment. I want to close that gap.
Learning these skills has been messy, delicious, rich, demanding, fun, and deeply personal. It has allowed me the opportunity to recreate a narrative for my life. I can deviate from the 1 acre of privately owned lawn, the grocery bags of packaged food in the trunk, the vinyl sided house, and the culture that said all these things are simply to be expected. When a skill becomes a practice it allows me to make a new way of life, birthing a culture with a different kind of history. My choices are not simply a rebellion against the lifestyle of my generation and how we were raised. My actions seek to understand my earthy origins. I am beginning to develop a sense of place, a relationship to the many entangled living things of this world. I am reaching far into the deep, black earth and am searching for that rich, mineral nourishment to ease into my encircling fibers. Extending my roots down deep.





If you’d read this and want to tell me something cool, feel free to email me at sakauffman@yahoo.com – I’d love to hear from you!