We moved to Prince Edward Island from far, far away. A lot of Islanders ask us why we chose to move here, and there are a lot of reasons why we wanted to move to PEI.
But a primary reason that I wanted to leave the city and live more simply was because I didn’t understand how anything worked.
Water
I used to live in a condo in an urban city. When I turned on the kitchen sink tap, water came out. But I had no concept of where the water came from. I mean, physically, where did it come from? Was the water piped in from a lake? Was it from some reservoir? Obviously, I knew that some pipes were involved, but the whole thing just didn’t make sense to me. I just didn’t get it.
Electricity
Similarly, we could talk about electricity. Indulge me for a moment.
Envision me, going back in time to the days of Little House on the Prairie. Being from the future, naturally, I’d want to tell the Ingalls’ all about modern innovation.
Here’s me explaining electricity to Ma Ingalls:
“Well,” I’d say, “There are these holes in the walls. And when you stick a plug into them, electricity comes out! And you can use it to power…everything!”
Wide eyed Ma Ingalls would urge me to go on. (”Go on..?” She’d say with a smile.)
“Well, there’s the hole in the wall, and then, um, there’s the electricity. Yep.”
Ma Ingalls would cock her head to the side, “But how does this electricity work? Perhaps we could make some together?”
“Oh. How does it actually work, um, that’s a good question, Ma Ingalls, that’s a good question.”
There’s silence in the Ingalls household. Ma loses her smile a little.
“Just forget I said anything, Ma. Is there any more bread and honey, perchance?”
Food
And bread and honey brings us to food. Oh sure, I can bake and cook. But where do the ingredients come from? How do you make the basics? Let’s take flour, for example. Obviously, there’s some grain involved. And some grinding. But would you know how to make it if you were alone in the woods with some grain (assuming that you could identify grain. I live in farm country and I still don’t know what’s what)?
Not knowing the answers to these questions doesn’t mean that we’re bad people. We can’t all be experts in everything; it’s okay not to know these things. (And please don’t ask me how electricity works, because I still couldn’t explain it to Ma Ingalls or anyone else.)
So where does tofu come from?
I’m a vegetarian, and I eat a lot of tofu. But what is tofu?
Why, tofu comes from soy beans! And they’re all over PEI. Down my road, there are acres of them. Here they are!
At least tofu makes sense to me.
But what I wanna know, is….are soybeans indigenous to PEI? Or are they an introduced cash crop gone wild? Please, dear Abby, advise!
@Laurie You’re making me feel like I’m trying to explain soybeans to Ma Ingalls now, too! Um… I think they are a cash crop that has just taken off here over the past few years here on PEI.
If you’re reading this and know more about soybeans, do tell!
Cash crop, I think.
But really what I wanted to tell you is that making your own tofu is pretty easy – it’s just like making cottage cheese, except you use soy milk instead of cow milk.
Here’s a link, with pictures:
http://www.chow.com/stories/11043
As an added bonus, it shows you how to make the soy milk first : )
As for Ma Ingells? I would tell her that electricity is magic. But you might get burnt at the stake.
I don’t know much about soybeans, but I know what you’re talking about. I grew up on PEI and when I was little we pumped water out of the ground by hand, took showers in the rain (on warm days) and ate strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries that grew wild all around us, in the lawn and ditches, by the side of the road and back behind the barn.
And don’t tell anyone.. but once, after a storm, we even had lobster that had been trapped in a shore pool by a freak sandbar, and with it we had lambsquarters (tasty greens) that grew in the yard.. just add butter and instant yum!
We even made our own maple syrup for a couple of years.. sooo delicious.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that it really is a special gift to know just how much the earth provides for us. I think it can help you feel more confident and safe and cared for. And I credit it with my almost ridiculous sense of hope and optimism in the face of all odds.
I moved to some big cities when I grew up and wanted to see the world, and I was a little shell-shocked by the fear and disconnection I found there.
It made me realize how lucky I was to have grown up the way I did, and that even on PEI more and more people are living apart from the earth. Spending more and more time inside.. on their computers.. yup, I’m guilty of it too. So I had the bright idea of trying to make people’s homes more connected, like earthships (www.earthship.net) for example. And try to make the house-as-a-living-organism concept more transparent and obvious to the people who live there.. instead of trying so hard to hide it.
Surely there will always be strawberries in the ditches and trout in the stream.. surely.
@Greensprite – Lovely, lovely! Thanks for sharing…
i thought it was interesing to read that soy beans have ‘just taken off in the past few yrs’ on PEI !! from the time my memory became my memory we had soybeans in the fields around our house every 3 yrs. it went corn, wheat, soybeans on a 3 yr rotation. my fav years were corn years because it grew up so big i couldnt even see my grandma’s house next door!!!!!! it made us seem so isolated being surrounded on 3 sides by corn. lately it’s been soybeans more often because they dont need sprayed with 2-4-d like corn does (that chemical can drift up to a mile and it REALLY messes up my pumpkins!!! EEK).
All very good, but none of this has anything to do with blowing up Walnut Creek, building by building (which is all I can think of when “Little House” is mentioned, a show with the most awesome series finale conceivable).
So, in conclusion, soy beans = big explosions. Got it…
Since moving back to the Island we have learned alot about where things come from……water comes from the ground and tastes awesome compared to city water……strawberries, blueberries, cherries and apples grow in the yard and to our kids amazement you are allowed to eat them…..cranberries can be found along the capes and homemade jams are easy to make. Growing a large garden has had its trials and tribulations……the potato fields around our area are brutal to tomatoes haven’t had much success with them. This year with all the rain we finally understood what farmers go through…..not much of a crop in our yard this year :0(. Making maple syrup is awesome and its a taste like no other……and home grown chicken is the best. Nothing is better than fish you caught yourself whether its in a river or on the ocean. One thing moving back here has taught us is where our food comes from and how hard people have to work to get it and God forbid try to make a living at it (hence we have jobs) It is an excellent feelings knowing that my children came here thinking everything came from the grocery store to now knowing where it comes from, how to get it, when to get it, how to cook and store it. And that heat comes from wood and which wood burns better……..how and when to cut it, split it, pack it (the Northsider way which apparently is the best and only way according to my mother LOL) And even if my children do not stay on the Island when they have children they will be able to tell them where there food came from. And they could probably hold there own with Ma Ingalls since my children (unlike me) know where electricity comes from LOL.
I’ve often thought of what the generation of Little House would think about cell phones-I can even hear what my grandparents would have said about them-and yes it would have been funny.
Oh, I can relate to this post. I wondered where the basics came from, too. My curiosity made way to frustration — why couldn’t I make these things myself? Why must I be dependent on the grocery store for my food?
This led to a gentle transition into simple living, gardening, and small-scale farming. Our goal? Self-sufficiency.
Can’t wait to see your homemade tofu!
Blessings!
Lacy
Soybeans, particularly for tofu, are a very valuable crop right now. The farmer who rents our land planted it with soybeans this year and last year and has done very well. Unfortunately, they were Round-up Ready GMO soybeans, but because he is a responsible farmer who looks after our land, we are holding our collective noses at the moment until we can turn this farm organic!
You see tons of soybeans around here. I’m surprised they plant them in PEI; we have an organic farmer friend in NS who says he can’t grow them, but then he is inland so who knows.
I grew “Black Jet” non-GMO soybeans in my garden this year. You can cook ‘em like other beans if you don’t feel like making tofu.
“Our” farmer has also been planting adzuki beans, which he sells to the Japanese market (along with all his soybeans, which are turned into tofu over there.)
Here are a few things I have learned about soybeans in the field. White-tailed deer love them, but especially the plants. Wild turkeys love them (we’ll get 50 to 75 at a time eating the leftover beans on the ground after harvest.) Canada geese love them. Baby porcupines will hide amongst the plants in summer and then nail your dog if he is foolish enough to go in there to check things out! This is what I have learned through experience. :)
I moved from a city to a rural area. I couldn’t tell a potato field from a soy bean field! didn’t know what was next to me till it was dug up. Potato
Well better late than never they say. So, sorry to b late with this post but I couldn’t help posting this link.
http://www.re-energy.ca/
The info found there will go a long way to help anyone understand where electricity comes from. There are even links to model projects that can be built to really understand how it all works.
So I wish you many hours of looking, learning and building on this site.
Smiles :o)
Gary
I moved to the country for similar reasons. I live on a commune in rural Virginia now and…we make tofu! I fact I’m just killing time here before my tofu shift in a half hour. I really enjoy it, especially stirring the soymilk really fast with a huge paddle and pouring nigari into the center so the soymilk curds. I definitely feel a tofu connection too. :)