Everyone’s Eating Local

---01.13.2000---

There have been huge seas lately, I looked out onto the horizon the other day and thought I saw mountains. They turned out to be waves. It’s been getting a little colder and wetter as well. I hear hail and rain on the window panes. I’ll pause in Germany for the moment, as life continues here in Scilly and I don’t want to fall behind.

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I came across a plastic tub full of live crabs on the side of the road the other day when the weather was better. A fisherman had put them out in front of his house, on offer to the rest of the island. I came back with our washing-up tub and my bike trailer and gingerly, picking from among those who had managed to retain most of their appendages, I selected the sprightliest five. These I took them home and left outside in the shade. That evening we chucked them into a huge pot of boiling water. It didn’t kill them immediately. When I lifted up the lid to see if they were making progress, I saw a weakly failing claw or two. Sheesh.

After they were cooked it was like a flash back to junior high biology class. Everyone was given a tray and we all sat around the kitchen table, crab in hand, popped the shells off, and went to work. There wasn’t a lot of meat on them, but we got all we could from the claws and legs while Hans went to work picking the rest from the joints on the underside of the body. They tasted amazingly fresh, with a hint of sea, not the familiar Crab Taste that I had imagined. In other local food news, the other day I ate seaweed for the first time. It tasted similarly of the sea.

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Bitey Cat was spotted crossing the garden the other day with a pigeon in his mouth. He reemerged about twenty minutes later with feathers all over his face looking smug like he always does. Everyone’s eating local. The rest of the day he spent asleep in the kitchen like it was the day after Thanksgiving.  

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I’m feeling a little muddy today. My genetic predisposition towards an independent, adventurous lifestyle is having a noticeable effect on my bank account. I’m not that keen on being skint. Things always work out though, I find. Then after a few weeks I wonder what I was worried about. But I really need to get on the self-promotion tip.