Food for the Soul

Visiting a different place is one of the best ways to gain perspective. Anyone who travels alot will tell you this. When I've been away from home for awhile, I think about how I have been doing things and how I may want to do them differently when I get home. For me, that thing is how I eat.

I've been much more aware of the food I put into my mouth after taking a detox class taught by Jaclyn Ramsier last year. I took the class again this spring and everything really connected for me. I work hard to stay away from processed foods at all costs, and I focus on eating healthier, fresher foods whenever possible.

Here, in Maine, that's very easy to do.

I love that the restaurants here proudly list the local suppliers they use. From organic farms to grass fed beef, the bulk of what they consume is grown/produced very close to home. That means fewer trucks on the road, hauling things in from other places, which cuts down on fuel consumption and pollution.

One of the local foods we have been hearing about here is fiddleheads. The little sprouts from the ostrich fern can be found on creek and river banks in the northeastern U.S. for about three weeks each May. Lucky for us, it's fiddlehead season in Maine! We tried them a few days ago in a quiche, which was really a round-about way of eating the little delicacies. Last night, we took a plunge and ordered a fiddlehead salad at a Japanese restaurant in Rockland.

I can't help but post food photos on facebook....especially when the food is so good, and so different from what I eat at home. Fiddleheads just aren't something you can find at Kroger!

When I told friends I was going to spend a month in Maine, almost everyone said "eat a lobster for me!"  It's no lie that lobster is as common here as hamburgers. You can just about get a lobster roll anywhere you go. Plus, lobster stew, lobster bisque, and lobster cakes. I ate my first whole lobster ever last Saturday, and we're going again to Youngs Lobster Pound today. (I wrote about it a few posts ago).

One of the most frequent comments I've gotten on facebook has been "aren't you supposed to be writing?" And the answer to that is, of course, I'm supposed to be writing. But I can only write about two hours at a time. For one thing, I get tired of constant typing. And the other surprising thing to me is that writing this story is very taxing, emotionally.

I handled Nicole's accident very well at the time. I held it together and went into "take care of business" mode from the very beginning. But going back and reliving it again for the book has meant facing fears and realizing the enormity of it all. Back then, I couldn't look beyond the very moment we found ourselves in. I had no idea what kind of road we'd be on or for how long. I guess because now I know, it is all so much more amazing to me.

So, I write, then I enjoy all this marvelous place has to offer when I'm not writing. It's food for the soul.

Blessings to all who read this!

Susan