THE DAGWOOD BUMSTEAD CULINARY TOUR!
I grew up in post World War II England and we
were all very much taken with Dagwood Bumstead, the American cartoon
character that was often portrayed eating a vast, many-layered
sandwich. Having just been through war rationing,
you may imagine how my mouth watered at the thought! And now here am I
to tell you of a much more up-to-date
Dagwood sandwich that started out as a simple, laid back vacation and
became one of the most empowering food experiences of my increasingly
long life.
 Early
in October this year my wife, Treena, and I set out to enjoy the
Olympic Culinary Adventure route. We would take two bites at it
because we planned to be at the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival in
Port Angeles where I had been asked to be part of the fun. We would
return at a later time to complete the Pacific coastline portion of the
route.
Normally I don't much like the word
"empowered." I find it overused, but in this case it fits quite well. I
have been the last man in the relay race of food for most of my 60 years
as a culinarian. This means that I carried the leek (or whatever) across
the finish line to the customer’s plate. Until 2009 I had never
successfully grown anything that I had cooked, other than mint, bamboo
and horseradish . . . all virtually impossible to kill!
In 2009, all that
changed with the whole year taken up in starting a home kitchen garden
from scratch . . . literally! I have never had such a wonderful year and
met so many truly gracious gardeners and farmers, all of whom gave me
their time and shared their skills so unselfishly.
The result was 17 hours of Hi Def filming, a
book, and a whole new way of appreciating food and especially those who
started the relay race back on the farm.
We live in Mt. Vernon, so we are certainly
aware of the riches of the local food supply, but during this trip on
the Olympic Peninsula we were "set apart" from the familiar to such an
extent that it felt like an overseas adventure. Treena and I have been
28 times around the world on tours like this one and yet this was to be
radically different. We were to be caught up in understanding a new word
for the food business -- one suggested by Marco Gifford III of Taylor
Shellfish Farms, our first stop, just outside Shelton.
 Marco
(pictured at left) used the word RESILIENT whilst
explaining how we might begin to think about food
beyond sustainable or even organic. Take a piece of elastic fabric and
pull it out as far as it will reasonably go, and then release it and it
will return to its original size. That is resilience. The action works
only subsequent to being stretched. Of course you can "unreasonably"
stretch the fabric and destroy its ability to return. We are now looking
at what our world looks like close to the maximum stretch -- but we
still have time to return.
We had thought of this trip as a gentle drive
through some of the most beautiful countryside alongside the wide Hood
Canal, through quaint villages with only sparse
traffic -- especially during the off-season. We got it all. If you, like
us, have been stretched almost to the breaking point in today's mad
electronically-assisted lifestyle, then by all
means, do what we did and take the tour (note that it rhymes with
"cure").
 We
encountered resilience wherever we went. Here are people who are
deliberately helping to gradually ease the fabric of our culture and
nature itself back to its "reasonable"
design capacity.
Red Dog Farm, Chimacum
Many of the folks we met are
multi-generation owners of the same lands and waters
they now farm. Theirs isn't a recently-arrived
entrepreneurial endeavor. These people grew up here and so did their
parents’ parents. They have been through the stretching of modern life
-- who hasn't? But they are now boldly returning and by doing it so
creatively, they are blazing a trail for you and me to start thinking of
our way back to . . . normal?
The gold standard for this "return" is to
recover a true sense of community and caring for one another, rather
than the relentless pursuit of efficiency. I do not mean to be sloppy in
managing one's affairs, only to be caring,
especially about the unintended consequences of our actions upon people
we call our neighbors!
It was during this trip that I
began to develop a personal mission statement about my own life and its
direction on the return to . . . normal. It's still a work in progress,
but I wanted to let you see how much these folks have "empowered" me.
"DELIGHT and do less harm to
each other, the soil, the water and the air we breathe."
 At
every stop you make on the Olympic Culinary Adventure,
you will notice this quality of resilience. This is a
great example of a region on its way to a special future, a deliberately
resilient one, one that wants this way of life to continue to get better
and better for at least another hundred years. This isn't some utopian
objective, they just want what they do to do less harm and this is a
fine example in a world pushing everyone around on a breakneck drive for
efficiency at all costs.
Port Townsend Food Co-op
Please try the delicious
smoked fish at the Hama Hama Seafood & Shellfish Store in
Lilliwaup, dine on local lamb at The Resort at Port Ludlow’s
Fireside Restaurant, try your hand at making your own pizza after a
late lunch at the brilliant Alder Wood Bistro in Sequim, and
enjoy a great evening at the Woodfire Grill in Port Angeles where
you will find innovative dishes that include the fabulous seafood and
mushrooms that abound in season. Pick up some fine produce at Nash's
Farm Store in Sequim. You may stay at the lovely restored
Alderbrook Resort on the Hood Canal, at the stylish yet warm and
friendly Resort at Port Ludlow or even (if you can get in) at
Collette’s Bed and Breakfast in Port Angeles, which has to be one of
the best appointed B&Bs in the world today.
Whatever you choose to do, do
it now. It's off-season and it's going to rain off and on (except
possibly in Sequim!), but the fires will be lit
for you and the normal, resilient life will surround you. Who knows? If
you give it some thought, you may just begin to see your own way back
before we tear the fabric of our fragile lives beyond repair.
Go on . . . take the cure!
November 2011
Graham Kerr is an internationally known culinary and television
personality ("The Galloping Gourmet") and award-winning author who, over
the years, has moved from using butter, cream and fat to create
flavorful dishes to serving people who want to make healthy, creative
lifestyle changes including an increase in consumption of fresh, local
edible plants and seafood while maximizing flavor.
www.grahamkerr.com
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