Lately I’ve spent time looking back into influential moments where and when food entered my consciousness more deeply in some way, and thought this could be a sweet ongoing idea for a series. Here’s a first pass at it.
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It was nearly pitch black and the dark-pebbled beach had long emptied out. We’d only just met a couple weeks previously and yet there we were, in a National Park completely new to both of us, alone. Or so we thought. The stars shone brilliantly above and the crash of the Pacific Ocean filled our ears as we stepped onto the infamous Rodeo Beach of the Marin Headlands (Coastal Miwok territory).
I was with my new friend, Sam, who was also doing a habitat restoration internship in relation to the National Park Service. For the next year I’d be living in a small house in the Headlands, and it’d be one of the most memorable times of my life. We approached the beach initially with some caution, until suddenly a group of children led by a fierceless outdoor educator emerged from the shadows, exiting the dark, shiny beach as we entered.
‘What are y'all out here for?' we asked incredulously.
‘There’s biolumniscence in the sand and in the ocean!’ they responded quickly. 'If you strike the sand, it’ll shoot up lights at ya!’ And they left as quickly as they appeared.
We looked at each other in disbelief and rushed to the shore as fast as we could, our feet sinking into the deeper sand as we hurried. As we got near the water, we struck the moist sand with the soles of our feet, and blue and white lights sparkled back up at us like little stars beneath us. We were stunned, delighted, and left in awe.
The next morning Sam texted me, “They’re called dinoflagellates!” and I knew only one thing:
That I didn’t know sh*t!
Last month, while visiting my mother for the holidays, we started one of the new episodes of Chef’s Table, Season 7, and this particular episode featured a chef that cooks with plankton and sea rice, and it reminded me of my time living in the foggy and majestic Marin Headlands, and how my friend Sam and I came upon bioluminescence at Rodeo Beach one late October night in the form of plankton. It was a revelation for me at the time, and now in the present, watching the documentary, it reminds me of my own explorations with food and sustainability throughout the years, personally and professionally. It once seemed so distant then, dancing with stars above and underneath our boots, but now it feels like I’ve been doing environmental-related work for years.
The year I stumbled upon bioluminescence in the sand is particularly memorable to me for many reasons: not only because I got to learn about botany and approaches and practices of habitat restoration in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, my favorite stretch of nature anywhere, but because it was the first year I more deeply questioned my relationship with food.
At the time, I’d been trying to make it as a triathlete outside of work hours, and I was hungry all the time. Some people will joke that there is a secret fourth sport to triathlons, and it’s the nutritional aspect; especially when you start getting into the longer distances like half and full Ironmans, you need to account for food because your body will need it. In early-20s fashion of me, I went all in and decided I’d also be vegetarian for the first time in my life, while attempting to keep up with the appetite of someone who was training twice a day, morning and afternoon, 6 days a week. And to those familiar with habitat restoration - yes, this means I was also outside for many days a week already for work: weeding, planting, watering, stewarding.
In short, I got my butt kicked a bit.
I was hungry literally all the time. But that year I learned to cook quinoa veggie blends, added kale to my massive 48oz breakfast smoothies, snacked on popcorn with yummy seasonings and learned about polenta and roasted vegetables from the same friend Sam, and experienced the first group of people in my life who deeply cared about food - the kind that eat raw brassicas right in front of your face with a gigantic grin.
End note
The more I thought of this, the more I wanted to dig into the history a bit regarding plankton and other food that’s been hitting fine dining craze. Plankton, I figured like algae, must've been part of the culinary repertoire of humans, particularly Indigenous communities, for millennia. I did some light reading and research, so I wanted to share two of those links here. Highly recommend!
All of this makes me think of future as return.
Links to additional reading on ‘future foods'
