I can’t wait to get back into the forest, but visiting with
friends and family has been a nice respite from the work of foraging and
processing food. This was going to
be our last city stop for a while, and you know what they say about saving the
best for last. Andre and I made
our way to Madison, Fitchburg actually, to visit a woman he has known since his
days in San Francisco, Theresa, and arrived just in time for happy hour (but
every hour is happy hour on the forage voyage). Theresa had opened a bottle of
wine to go with the beautiful selection of Wisconsin cheeses spread out on the
table. We spent the evening
chatting and playing with her daughter, Miranda, who is simple and innocent and
full of love in its most pure form.
She also had her beautiful thick brown hair tied up in pigtails, which
reminded me of how much I like to wear pigtails myself.
Butter needed new shoes again, so in the morning we took
care of her, then drove to the Madison MOCA where Theresa was giving a tour of
a new exhibit by Leo—a show of computer programmed LED lights inspired by the
Playa. I took in a set of works by an female artist from Ireland, who used both
photography and video to depict her experience in a deforested area of close to
her home. She was running across a nearly colorless landscape wearing a red
dress and black tights, sometimes tossing stones that rolled from one screen to
another. The sound was mesmerizing
and the beauty of the bare landscape really captivated me. I could have watched
these films for hours, but mostly they made me want to skip rocks across a
pond. Clearly, it was time for me
to get back outdoors.
We decided to stay a second night at Theresa’s because the
forecast called for “ice pellets and possible snow.” After piddling around for
a bit, she and Andre went for a hike and I stayed back to do some yoga and
catch up on my work. My only
request was that he bring back some oyster mushrooms. Naturally, he delivered. I cooked a simple pasta (dumpster) dish
with sautéed oyster mushrooms, onion (rescued) garlic (gifted), and greens
(foraged from Theresa’s fridge) in a bit of cream.
In the morning, Theresa, Miranda, and I baked Sorghum
molasses cookies after breakfast of buckwheat pancakes topped with the maple
syrup my mom tapped from her friend’s tree with a side of mixed fruit from the
bus. We picked a few pears from
the neighbor’s tree, exchanged gifts of food – my peach and ginger preserves
and some dried porcini for all the leftover local cheese, local hot chocolate
mix, and a friend’s homemade cherry jam, then headed back into the forest…
where we were going, we didn’t really know, but as nice as our stint of city
visits was, we were both so happy to be back on the road.
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