| Last night, while in the midst of preparing dinner | | | | carriage, and of us going to the Sunday market |
| with Charlotte and Prad, I was reminded once | | | | at Neuville, the closest town to our village. There |
| more of the amount of garbage and recycling we | | | | we got sardines, and fresh fish from the covered |
| can generate in one sweep. It is tremendous. For | | | | fish market, 'rillettes' and 'boudin noir' from the |
| dinner alone, the list was quite long: one plastic | | | | charcuterie, and goat cheese from the goat |
| container for mache salad, one plastic container | | | | cheese man. We saved the boulangerie for last. |
| for raspberries, two glass beer bottles, two large | | | | The line was long, and I did not mind. I knew I |
| Ziploc bags for fish from farmers' market, one | | | | would be rewarded for my patience, as my |
| plastic bag for lettuce, one paper bag for | | | | grandfather always made sure to get 'un carquelin |
| mushrooms from farmers' market. The plastic | | | | pour la petite', puff pastry with caramelized sugar |
| bag, and the Ziploc bags, I threw in, although I | | | | on top. No plastic bags then, only thin paper bags. |
| was not even sure they could be recycled. | | | | To carry all our purchases, we each had a 'filet a |
| Plastics are a complicated matter, and I was a bit | | | | provisions', an almost weightless net-like bag that |
| distracted when I read the recycling guide from | | | | had the advantage of taking no space when |
| the city, a while ago. We are a garbage society, | | | | empty, but that could hold a lot. Once back at the |
| and I am a part of it. | | | | farm, my grandmother would store all the |
| I am old enough to remember the days, when | | | | perishables in the 'garde-manger', a cool place in |
| the garbage collection was only once a month. | | | | the cellar especially designed for that purpose. We |
| There was no recycling then. The milk and yogurt | | | | did not know what the word environment meant, |
| came in glass containers, that we brought back to | | | | and we did not need to. |
| the merchant. We got five centimes for each | | | | I long for those times, of living in harmony with |
| bottle. A lot of the fruit and vegetables came | | | | nature. And I also know to beware of easy |
| from our garden. My grandmother had a | | | | sentimentality. Life on the farm was extremely |
| 'cassette', a wooden box with a wooden handle, in | | | | hard for my grandparents. My mother did all she |
| which she carried the products of her daily | | | | could to escape, and ended up marrying a man |
| pickings. For meat, she would just kill one of the | | | | from the city. I laugh when I see the recent |
| rabbits or chickens that she raised. Milk came | | | | plethora of books, glorifying the virtue of going |
| from our cows. Cows were a big deal on our | | | | back to the earth, and the old ways. I am a bit of |
| farm. Many times, I heard my grandmother | | | | a cynic in that respect. For a healthy dose of |
| complain about having to get up so early to milk | | | | reality, I recommend reading Little Blog in the Big |
| the cows. One of my most favorite memories is | | | | Woods. |
| of my grandfather lifting me up into his horse | | | | |