For the past 8 years or so, our children have worked at the Queen’s Pantry at the Colorado Renaissance Festival during the summer. Our visit today was not only an excuse to buy festival food from our son, but to consider the range of food ecosystems on the planet.
While finely crafted foodstuffs at the Renaissance Festival can be found, they are not the main draw. The atmosphere of artisans and tradespeople, and live theatre, music and entertainment is the real purpose for visiting. Yet I found my thoughts repeatedly turning to food.
While we enjoyed the Endangered Cats Show, learning about some of the 37 species of these predators, I watched small pieces of red meat disappear inside a 200 lb Siberian Tiger cub. I thought about endangered species and the food chains which barely support them.
As my daughter and her friend “Sirena” munched on perfectly grilled turkey legs, I thought about how fortunate we are to have such a range of foods available to us, to be able to enjoy sources of protein which are lower on the food chain and therefore more sustainable.
And as we all watched the Celtic Legacy musical act, marvelling that they have managed to seamlessly integrate a belly dancer into a group of musical lads in kilts, Sirena related that she had been to Scotland. I had heard from others that, “you can’t get a good meal there,” and thought that was odd, so I asked Sirena about her experience with Scotland’s culinary expertise.
“We had some AWESOME haggis pizza,” she said.
One more vote for agricultural diversity.
Robo-Dog, welded from bits of junk, graces the secret garden
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