B&B in the Loire - Sustainable Food - China - & the Power of Eating Together

Last week we went to the Loire Valley for a few days to visit the Castles and look for real princesses.  The first night there we went for dinner with 4 other couples staying at the B&B La Bigottiere.  The owner/cook/tourist agent/local marketer served us an amazing meal consisting almost entirely of locally grown and harvested food: carrots from the neighborhoods yard, beef from a local farmer, wine from a local wine-maker.  The conversation between strangers: 2 Americans, 2 French people living in Africa, 2 Belgians, 2 Chileans living in Belgium, turned easily around the subject and themes of food, whether talking about the globalization-induced uniformity of wine tastes, to agricultural policies and multinational farming, to the rise of China in global affairs, and the month old enforcement of the use of pasteurized milk in the production of Camembert Cheese (thanks to the policies of the European Union).  The meal only ended when the various children of the families gathered around the table clamored for bed-time assistance around 10:30pm.

The following morning at breakfast most folks couldn’t remember each other’s first names, although the conversation continued following.  Around the table, community was empowered and enabled, relationships established quickly when they are rarely –if ever-done so without the presence of food in Urban European daily life.  Funny to re-experience the power of food – not so much what we eat, but how we eat it, in terms of our human condition and the way that we relate to and with one another.

Is it any wonder that when I read the stories of Jesus of Nazareth he’s always engaging other in existential, life-changing dialogue and conversation around a dinner table.  From a meal at Zaccheus’ place, to the feeding of the 5,000, to the wedding at Cana, from the Last Supper to the meal in Emmaus.  It’s always this ritual of sharing, not just nutrients, but a meal - an experience of food together - that ushers in the possibility of really living and being pushed to live fully alive.