The Ecstasy of Cheese: A Meditation on Our Conceptions of Value
By 2023 apprentice, Sedona Lewis
One evening the apprentices were enjoying dinner when Sam, a core team member, approached us with a gift. From our reaction, a bystander might have assumed he unveiled something approximating a winning lottery ticket. However our hoots and hollars were in response to, simply, cheese.
After only a few months living at the Ranch, I have observed my experience of eating good cheese transform from mundane to something approaching ecstasy. This has lead me to reflect on our personal and collective conceptions of value.
Apprentices excited about cheese!
A Permaculture Diet
As a society we have grown accustomed to waltzing into a grocery store and purchasing virtually any vegetable, fruit, grain, nut, or seed we desire. Globalization has artificially eliminated scarcity and seasonality from our lives; we are living in an age of unprecedented abundance.
Seasonal fruits off the farm
In Mastatal, there is no grocery store. Aside from the local bar and the Soda, a small restaurant, the closest store is forty minutes by car. Despite our isolation, the Ranch is a place of remarkable abundance. However different from the globalized, western sort of 'abundance' referenced earlier.
We are lucky to operate in a part of the world which provides a prolific variety of edible and otherwise useful plants. Things we can't produce ourselves are mostly purchased from our neighbors, such as milk, eggs, and pork. Nearly all other vegetables, fruits, and other food items sourced regionally. Thanks to the hard work of our meal coordinators (mostly Robin), over 80% of the calories we consume are sourced within fifty miles of the Ranch.
We maintain a sense of place within our diets; during meal times we are engaging with our surroundings. No longer are we enjoying cheese from France, salami from Italy, and wine from Spain in the same meal. We're embracing the here through our food.
In keeping with the ethics of Permaculture, this means we are dependent on and invested in the health of our local and regional communities. The variation in our meals comes with the seasons, and our health is linked to that of our environment. I have observed that this way of interacting with food has changed the way I think about, and value, my food.
Sedona with her morning harvest of salad greens
Our Conceptions of Value
Olive oil, butter, cheese, meat, bread, and nuts are examples of foods that many of us used to consume almost daily. Delicious, yes, but not extraordinary, and only worth what the price tag says at the store. Now, several months into the apprenticeship, items like these have become precious.
During my days splitting bamboo, sifting clay, and working in the orchards, I've had the opportunity to ponder the following questions. I invite you to consider them for yourself before reading my list of ideas.
What makes something valuable?
Perhaps...
An item's relative availability
The effort required to acquire the item
The relative necessity (a bowl of rice when you've just eaten a meal and a bowl of rice when you haven't eaten for 2 days may as well be two completely different items)
Personal preferences/tastes
The collective value structure and social narrative associated with that item
The experiential and monetary value of a food item can be somewhat arbitrary...
Of course it's important to note and remember that our species evolved under conditions in which sufficient nutrition was not the norm. It makes sense why nutrient dense foods such as cheese, meat, and honey were and are sought after and treasured.
But still, we invest a lot of resources shipping things like salad greens, spices, and liquors around the world. Is the Italian wine really that much better? Couldn't the same caloric and satisfactory needs be met with items produced regionally? It seems that there is something deeper influencing our values surrounding food.
Our special occasion pizza party
what do we gain by attaching arbitrary value to specific foods?
Special foods provide a sense of occasion and celebration
These occasions provide a sense of anticipation, which alters our experience
Special foods, and the events formed around them, provide space for community to be built
As food is a human universal, sharing food is a way to bridge and build relationships
A Note on Sharing
One might assume that precious food items at the Ranch would be hoarded; kept in decoy packaging in the back of the refrigerator with the intention of maximal solitary indulgence. However, as we have adjusted to our new environment, I have observed something entirely different. The reflexive action when in possession of said precious items has been radical generosity. Perhaps it is because a precedent of sharing and reciprocity has been set for us by the culture here at the Ranch. However, it genuinely seems like reveling in the remarkable depth of blue cheese is just more enjoyable when done in the company of others.
Enjoying sharing some treats with the community
The utility of sharing is easy to see when living in community. When taken out of the individualist paradigm operating in most of the western world, reciprocity is an undeniably advantageous practice. Given the unpredictable nature of life, I wouldn't be surprised if appropriate generosity has been selected for throughout our evolutionary history. No doubt those who refuse to share with their community when needed would feel the consequences of their actions later on.
Looking Ahead
So, I invite you to consider how living in this age of convenience and instant gratification affects your sense of value.
How might your experience of peaches change if you only ate them when they were in season? What could be gained by manufacturing a bit of scarcity, creating some anticipation, in your life? How can you apply these principles, rooted in Permaculture, to repair your communities and regenerate our natural environment?
Just food for thought - because now we only have cake on birthdays, and I think it tastes sweeter.
Chocolate bon bons, made from locally grown cacao