A is for Absolute Freedom.
Time to start an A to Z series again of all that is on the happs - travel/food/thoughts/booze. Really just the things that matter.
One place I adore is Nick's Cove. I trekked up north earlier this summer looking for oysters. Looking to get away from all FLOBO madness, looking to just be back on the road again - living out of my truck. I wanted to see the floating home community in San Francisco, I wanted to see what all the hype about wine country was about, bust mostly I wanted oysters and local food. The belly altering kind.
Guess I was stunned at just how damn local everything was. Really?! Can it really be? Like - around the corner the cheese is made. Oh! This winemaker lives down that dirt road. Mushrooms come from the yard. The soap is made with local goats milk. Stuff like that. It really does make a difference. I don't know how people don't understand the importance of eating local. Maybe cause it costs more? That's no joke - it does. But, at the same time - the taste is beyond. It's sensation like you've never had when you experience fresh things for the first time. Like the time I had red snapper from Gulf of Mexico- just caught, just cooked. I was blown away.
Anyhow - back to Nick's. I'd been reading about the place forever and there I finally was. Down a windy road on a blustery day. Ready to eat. Local wine. Lots of it. Everything on the menu. Clam chowder that would make you toss most you've ever had. Seafood so ridiculously fresh you have to stop mid-bit to comprehend what is happening in your mouth. And oysters that were harvested right outside in the bay. Once you start to eat like this, you can never really go back. It's next to impossible. Like the dif between the farmers market and mass grocery stores. Can't happen.
That's what proper food does to me - it makes me feel free. Like - I have worked hard and earned the money that is able to purchase food of this level. I deserve this quality. I appreciate trying to understand where items were sourced and why it makes such a difference to eat locally. It just makes me and my mind and my body feel free like nothing else I know. It's a FREE obsession. A FREE spin on life that makes me happy beyond belief. Oh, for sure I overeat. I indulge beyond comparison. But, I'm never ever sick from good honest food. I'm free from it. It's a daily thing for me that some would call a special madness...but once people taste. Well...enough said.
Freedom - Absolute Freedom - should mean waking up in the morning. Checking in with the mind and bod. Assessing what is really needed to make it/yourself work at capacity and then making that happen. Could be a walk to get a capp, a hike in the woods, or tracking down some fresh oysters. As long as it's the very stuff you can find, I think we should just be absolutely free to have it all.
love your blog MST. Reading Big Sweet Tooth makes me dream of Mexico.
Posted by: Ash | November 29, 2012 at 04:23 PM