Five years ago, I sold my house and all my stuff and bought a water access only cabin in coastal BC. I didn’t have a boat so I would pay a water taxi to drop me off and would tell him to come back and get me in a month or sometimes two.
It would be easy to live off the land up there as there are lots of berries, mushrooms, edible plants and seafood to eat. The cabin came with a row boat and a crab trap. I bought a cheap fishing pole and some hooks and lures. There were muscles lying on the beach in front of my cabin. A ways up the inlet there were oysters and seaweed beds. It was a veritable Garden of Eden. However, I almost always ate the food I had brought with me instead of living off the land as
I had dreamed of.
I decided to only bring up a very monotonous yet nutritional diet, thinking that I would tire of the monotony and go out and forage for food. However the two meals that I would make for myself proved to be so delicious and satisfying that I was always happy to eat them. They were:
Super oats.
Oatmeal, raisins, almonds, cinnamon, soy protein powder. (Even better with brown sugar) Cook the oatmeal and raisins with extra water so that when you add the soy protein powder it isn’t too dry.
Garlic fried rice.
Sauté a half to a whole head of garlic along with a lot of dried red peppers in oil, add cooked brown rice( let the rice sit for a bit uncovered so it dries out some) , add an egg to it all and stir it around until the egg is cooked. (Even better when sprinkled with seasoned gourmet rice vinegar.)
Pat, you are too cool. I am always amazed by your wealth of experiences, knowledge and interesting anecdotes and whimsical drawings. And if you’re just making this stuff up (j.k.) don’t ever let on. You’re a great writer and story teller.
I’ve been making a similar rice-egg dish for a while now and I’ve found that it works especially well with some foraged herbs or leaves (eg. dandelion).
This is, without a doubt, the best site of its kind that I’ve ever read. The amount of practical, no-nonsense information! Keep up the great work! ^_^
Thanks for writing.
When I was living in the Assoke village in Thailand, they used to go out and pick a bunch of weeds growing wild and serve them fresh on a big platter.
Even though some of them didn’t taste great and were bitter, I got so I enjoyed munching on them.