We all have one - even if we've never thought of it that way.
 Think of everything you ate yesterday, and everything you expect to eat today- where did the ingredients originate?

What do you eat? Not only likes and dislikes- but what cultural, religious or ethical issues shape your diet?
What about food allergies or sensitivities?
What do you eat when you are too tired or too busy to cook? How much a part of your daily diet is fast food, take-out, pizza or deli food, or convenience foods in cans, boxes or frozen?
What are your comfort foods?

Are you feeding kids? Seniors? Other family members? How often do you entertain? Who else do you feed on a regular bases- your children's friends? Tea with your neighbor?

How do you acquire your food?
Do you buy all your food from supermarkets? From farmers markets? From farm stands?
How do you get the food to your home?
What if your car broke down, or you were unable to buy gas? What if the transport trucks couldn't get through and the store shelves were empty?

Do you produce any of your food? Do you grow a garden? Hunt or fish?
Do you know/use any of the edible wild plants in the Valley?
How often do you cook from scratch?
Do you make bread, soup, grow sprouts?
Do you make jam, can or freeze in season?,

If the power went out, what would you eat?
What if the can opener broke?
What if the microwave broke?
What if the freezer defrosted?

 

 


Comments

Dianne
08/13/2010 10:44am

http://kwakwala.com/thoughts/annoying

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Dianne
08/13/2010 10:46am

Annoying
by Andy Everson on August 13, 2010

in thoughts

Well, it’s official…I’m annoying. We were up all last night canning salmon. When we do this, it’s a family effort. Not only do we get to reminisce about childhood stories, I also had the opportunity to ask my mom a lot of questions about Kwak̕wala. What’s this? How do you say this in Kwak̕wala? What about this? Say fish eggs…say fish head…pluralize it. I’m cutting fish, you’re cutting fish, I’m going to cut fish, I was cutting fish, I’m filling the jars, the water’s boiling, I’m tired, I’m sleepy, she’s stubborn, blood, bones…and on and on.

You could tell my mom would occasionally get annoyed. She was busy running around teaching and reminding everyone how to jar fish and here I was peppering her with questions. Once in a while, though, I could see in her eyes that she also valued these queries. She knew that this is the only way that the knowledge will be passed on.

The point of the piece is this: ask questions! If you are around a Kwak̕wala speaker, try speaking with them. Ask them how certain words fit with other words in different contexts. Ask them a lot of hypothetical questions. If you’re doing traditional things like food preparation, ask about everything related to it. Knowledge, including language, can die if it’s not passed on. You won’t learn if you can’t risk being annoying.

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