First We Eat, From Nose to Tail
The Rundown
In this episode we meet the woman behind a remarkable Canadian documentary, “First We Eat”. Suzanne Crocker takes us behind the scenes of a film she made about the transformative year when she inspired her family to eat totally local for twelve months. In Dawson City, hard by the Artic Circle, through the winter.
Next up, Ontario farmer Ken Dam talks about going whole hog, eating pork from nose to tail as a way of honouring the animal. So, eating honourably and locally all in this episode.
Suzanne Crocker, First We Eat
Dawson City, Yukon is a northern community of 1,500 people. 97 per cent of the food for those folks is trucked in from thousands of kilometers away.Retired doctor, filmmaker and mother Suzanne Crocker wanted to see what would happen if she and her family could eat completely closer to home for a year - no salt, no coffee no oranges or chocolate. Her coaxing resulted in an at-first resistant family eating only eating local produce, foragings fish and livestock for a year, through a Yukon winter. And, she decided to film the whole thing. The result is a remarkable portrait, no only of a family’s resilence, but also of a bountiful land and a community of independant and inventive farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous elders ready to share their bounty and their wisdom. You can learn more about her film at firstweeat.ca.
Ken Dam, From Nose to Tail
Ken Dam and his wife Clare run a small farm near Lyden, Ontario. And on that farm they have some hogs, hogs that the couple wanted to honour by making sure they didn’t waste a bit of the goodness in the animal. So, they decided to eat from nose to tail, struggling with gelatinous headcheese and salty prosciutto along the way.
End Notes
By the way, the music in the podcast? It's by good ol' Canadian singer, composer and friend of the 'cast, David Archibald. You can find more of his music at his website, davidarchibald.com.
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