I had lunch at Fish. the other day, one of my favorite hang-outs on the water’s edge in Sausalito, California, which serves sustainable seasonal seafood caught with rod and reel by local fishermen or with their own boat.
What’s so special about this place is that it has taught me about the seasons under the surface. Just as carrots, corn, and tomatoes have their specific time throughout a year, so do herring, cod, and salmon. Seafood and plants go through the same rhythm and cycle of hatching (or sprouting), growing, mating (or pollination), and creating offspring (or seeding). And just as this cycle for plants is by and large initiated and regulated through the temperature of the soil, so it is dependent on the temperature of the water when it comes to sea life.
In fact, there is nothing that does not have a season. The sun, the moon, the Earth, all plants, all animals, and all humans go through cycles, or seasons, every year and every month. Even life itself goes through its seasons, from a youthful spring and a warm wonderful summery mid-life, to hopefully a rich fall, and an inevitable winter in which we have to say our goodbyes to what was before.
The more local and in season we eat, the greater the opportunity to live with the awareness, gratitude, and love – for whatever season we may be in right now, for what has gone before and the experiences we’ve already had, and for a winter that inevitably awaits all of us.
Originally posted 2014-08-25 23:07:39.
