One of the things we’re going to miss most about St. Louis is our connection to great beer and local food. Though we have no doubts that we’ll encounter great beer and food in our future, we’ve been wonderfully spoiled, and have loved being masters of our own culinary universe for so many years.
After 30 years of access to “free” beer and 14 years of access to “free” food, it’s going to be a shocker to have to go out and buy it from an actual store. On the beer side, it’s leading us back to our homebrewing roots, but on the food side, we were never really gardeners, and there isn’t much possibility of that on an internationally traveling boat, anyway. Being the owner of a local CSA/co-op, most of the “free” produce I got was all the unsellable half-rotting stuff that was leftover. Part of me can’t wait to make a salad that I didn’t have to pick through and roast vegetables that I don’t have to rescue from the compost. On the other hand, we are used to food that tastes really good, that we know was grown and raised sustainably, and that is safe, healthy and nutritious. When I read labels in a store, I usually end up putting the items back on the shelf. I guess I’ll be climbing down from my high horse and eating out of the trough along with the rest of the mere mortals soon…