100 KM DIET

Lots of people these days are looking for concrete ways to take positive action in the climate change crisis. A very basic way to be involved is in our eating habits. It’s a revolutionary new idea - eating locally. By-pass the agribusiness multinationals and their giant fossil fuel imprint, and get more in touch with what’s around us. We cause some consternation or embarrassment in grocery stores, asking for local produce. But sailing on La Sonrisa is a a great opportunity for eating locally.

Digging clams in Cockle Bay

Blue huckleberries in the rainforest

Another way we try to practice food justice is by seeking out Fair Trade products, where the grower receives a living wage and environmentally friendly methods are used in production. And we try to find sources of just meat – where the animal has a good life!

A great way to move towards eating locally is to grow it yourself – or trade with someone who does.
Gardening and living on a boat don’t go together easily. That’s why this summer at Crippen Cove was such a delight. We started our garden last summer by building a raised garden bed. We collected planks on beaches and towed them to Crippen. Thomas and nephew Matthew constructed the bed on a patch of removed sod, then we layered the upside down sod, large rocks, beach gravel, sand and then soil removed from the sod. We dug more soil from what had been gardens years ago and covered it all with a large layer of seaweed.

We spent the winter planning our seeds and headed north with what we’d found. Here is the La Sonrisa greenhouse, it felt great to be surrounded with little green children:

Cockpit greenhouse

When we got to Crippen Cove the garden bed was perfect. We tucked the little egg carton nests into the soil and planted more seeds. And watched things grow!

First garden salad

Open bottom buckets with rhubarb and potatoes to seed for next year.

Garden stir fry

On La Sonrisa we gather food wherever we go – it is our way of being part of the neighbourhood. The basic activity of getting food from our surroundings we have in common with all our coastal neighbours.

Our favourite wild green is goose tongue - sea plantain. It's also a favourite of deer and geeese

Our diet is based on what we find around us, and we eat whatever we gather.

Giant mussels and goose neck barnacles

We have been discovering ways to efficiently process food aboard. Often we are adapting methods from past generations. Our "root cellar" is in the cool storage near the hull. There is always something drying in the cockpit or galley.

salting bait

mint and apples

Black current jam

Just before heading south we harvested the garden



And brought our harvest aboardNow we just have to figure out how to grow winter gardens at our families' places down south.

On a sad note, as we were leaving Prince Rupert we spoke to a seasoned gill net fisher preparing to head home.
"How was the fishing?"
“Good year for the pink salmon. In all my years fishing, I’ve never seen ‘em that plentiful.”
"That's wonderful!" we said. Last year was a very poor year for pinks.
“But we can’t sell them. Price went from .15/lb to nothing. Same as we were getting 20 years ago and look at the price of gas!"

Wild Pink salmon are the most affordable and sustainable source of protein that coastal people can eat. Our natural, local food is overflowing the fishing nets. And yet pink salmon aren't in our diets. The "market" deems them worthless. Somehow we 100 Km Diet people have to turn this around!