One of the subtexts of this program is a passion for rural life.  You may have noticed.  You see, the link between food and rural is a part of my DNA.  Sure, cities grow food too, and I often celebrate that.  But rural regions will still provide most of our food for the foreseeable future.  And so when I visit rural areas that have high food insecurity, I get worried.  

     I have noticed that lots of folks who pronounce about food -  researchers, bureaucrats, functionaries, academics (I have to include myself here), business leaders, free-ranging banquet speakers, media celebrities, and so on, they mostly live in urban areas.  Their everyday relationship to food is very different from the situation in rural regions – especially in remote rural regions.  

     So today on "Fit to Eat" we’re in St. Anthony Bight – close to the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula.  We’ll chat with Renee Pilgrim, a 7th-generation Pilgrim (on both sides) from this community.  We talk about growing up here, leaving here, moving back here after many years away.  And how food and health and community intersect in this rural location.

Fit to Eat S2E27 Renee Pilgrim

it is our duty to disobey unjust laws

practice

and i think he is gone

You may not be aware, but there is a keen competition underway at this time of the spring that your usual media outlets have likely ignored.  Of course, I'm referring to the annual Fool's Gambit - the race to plant a garden!  This is the struggle to be the first in your township to get your garden in, no matter what the experts say (because you know better, right?).  You watch the sky like a sailor, looking for clues to next week's weather.  You create shelters from pop bottles and plastic and 1x2s to protect the tender seedlings from the elements.  You coax the seeds from the soil, spending hours hunched over recently-planted rows, pleading with the goddesses of unreasonably-early fertility.  You are engaging in ritual dances to assuage the frost spirits.  And of course, you end up replanting whole sections three weeks later...!  Oh, and it can be called a Fool's Gambit, because by the end of June all of the plants in all the gardens are at about the same state of maturation, no matter when they were planted.  Though that doesn't keep me from engaging in the race every year!

For a respite from this stress, this week we have the last of the series on Celtic Spring here on Routes & Branches & Beyond.  We have songs and tunes about wing commanders, peculiar ferrets, green bushes, shoals, skylarks, merry sisters, hash (not the expensive kind), false young men, good beer, speedy ploughs and a mess of feathers.  From bands such as Nomos, Nightingale, Siobhan Miller, Ceolbeg, Kenneth & Angus MacKenzie, Mackeel, Dallahan, Malinky, Lúnasa, Allison Lupton, Donal Lunny, Matt Molloy & Paul Brady & Tommy Peoples, and Aiden Coffey et al.  Put down that packet of seeds and join me.

Routes & Branches & Beyond show #322 2024 04 18

This is the April 21, 2024 edition of Georgian Bay Roots Radio, hosted by Lloyd Lemon. 
In this episode Lloyd presents music inspired by live shows by RPR, Sue Foley, Colin Linden, and Shawn Kellerman.  These experiences are supplemented by connections with other summerfolk artists, new music, and new to him music that he’s experienced over the past few months.  Artists featured include: Fred Penner; RPR, Lucy MacNeil, Sue Foley, Ruthie Foster, Colin Linden, Harrison Kennedy, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Jay Linden, Adrian Sutherland, Shawn Kellerman and Carlos Del Junco with honorable mention of Terra Lightfoot. 
#summerfolk  #podcast  #georgianbayroots  #georgianbayrootsradio;  #fredpenner; #rpr, #lucymacneil, #suefoley, #ruthiefoster, #colinlinden, #harrisonkennedy, #blackieandtherodeokings, #jaylinden, #adriansutherland,  #shawnkellerman, #carlosdeljunco, and #terralightfoot

Fit to Eat S2E27 Renee Pilgrim

Ivan Emke

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