When I was 11, I went to summer camp. It rained the entire second week I
was there. In a panic and because there are only so many card games you can
play or shadow puppets you can make, the staff devised a series of
indoor relay races. They were held in a makeshift gym about the size of
half a basketball court. It was damp and musty and stored the canoes and
archery targets during the winter.
The relay races were all food themed. We had to eat Saltine crackers, then run
to the other end of the gym and whistle three times before we could tag our
teammate. We carried raw ( I suspect they were hardboiled) eggs on a spoon and
lastly carry 6 plump freshly shelled peas on a knife. Until that moment I
had never seen a fresh pea in that verdant shade of green. My mom had a
propensity for canned vegetables and boiled them beyond recognition.
Two important things happened in those weeks away from home. I began to look at
food in a whole new way and I learned to problem solve, not by thinking outside
of the box, but by discarding the box altogether. While the other teams had
peas rolling all over the floor, we squished those
peas into the knife and ran our way to victory.
Until next time, eat well
: tell stories and kiss the ones you love,
xoSherry