"When you care, you conserve."

Quote Serving Bowl and Loggerhead Bowl 20131121_140324, a photo by Elizabeth's Pottery on Flickr.

"When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world." John Muir

Years ago while I planed to take a large group of friends to St. Catherines I asked them if there was anything anyone particularly wanted to do. Of course I wanted to go walk the beaches, see the lemurs fed, tour the Button Gwinnett house, see south end settlement, visit the mission, and have drinks admiring sunsets over the marsh, maybe even crabs for dinner. Any other requests? Then my friend Kari asked "Elizabeth, what do you want us to get out of this visit?" I was touched, I thought only a moment..."I just want you to care, to care about this place."

"When you care, you conserve."

When you care you will find your own way to take care. No one has to lecture you to reduce, reuse, recycle or to eat local organic food. No one need explain the evils of plastic, power lines, pollution, or paper mills. Things like not walking on dunes, turning out lights on the beach on summer nights, choosing sustainable seafood for dinner and refusing that Styrofoam to go box are just decisions you make more and more. This list of dos and don'ts is different for every individual according their passions, backgrounds, and abilities. It's important to follow our hearts. If you sit down to dinner with me you may notice a great deal of my heart is on an island.

I grew up on an Island

In the mid 1970's when I was almost two I moved to St. Catherines Island with my father and very brave mother. This is not an island resort but also not like Gillian's island either. We lived in a house with electricity, indoor plumbing, a TV with rabbit ears made of foil and access to four channels but no phones. The only way to reach this place is by boat. When I was a child island staff and their families could leave the island only once a month for the day round trip on personal business such as grocery shopping. So we ate a lot of fish (which I LOVE) and powered milk (which I have never learned to enjoy). I found island life wonderous as only a child can and my brother, sister and I were only tempted to leave on this day of stocking up and errand running by the promise of seeing the current playing Disney movie. On island endangered exotics were being reared, native ecosystems rebuilt, and every "ology" from archaeology to zoology was in practice. Before I reached school age a archaeological site of great importance was found and uncovered carefully for years. What this meant to me was that for a few months out of the year we had "neighbors". Beyond island exploration the chief entertainment was and still is... eating. These visitors brought exotic foods with them like bagels, olives, humus, even cranberry sauce in a can to name only a few. And of course we had oysters, fish, crabs, and pig on hand so to speak. Because of this the archs began to jokingly call the island "Saint Calories". Anyway that's how I thought of the title of this blog. I so enjoyed a good meal with family and friends especially after a day spent out in nature. I still do. I am also learning that the choices we all make at the table can change the world. So I started sharing my thoughts here... in the spirit of making meals matter.