Tradesies?

Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to live sustainably. My biggest focus has been on how food habits can impact ones sustainability. For a while I thought that eating sustainably meant growing all the plants and raising all the animals you consume. However, while speaking with Michelle Drodz (from Essex Farm) today, I realized that sourcing food sustainably means using every resource available. One of the strongest resources I failed to give much credit to is the power of community.

Hurricane Mountain is named as such, not because of the winding road, but because of the gale force winds and bitter temperatures that come with living on it. This means growing most types of vegetables is out of the question. However, there are a few animals, like sheep, with their heavy winter coats, and other food sources, like maple sugar and honey, that are much easier to come by in this climate. Perhaps, sourcing food sustainably in a location like this doesn’t look like months of work for a very small yield of vegetables. Maybe it looks more like trading Essex Farm some “Mountain House Honey” in exchange for a few palates of tomatoes and cucumbers, and Mace Chasm a sheep to butcher for some laying chickens.