We are getting out of this.
What is the new world going to look like? Can we make it better than the old?
Furlough for me for the first 3 months was torture. Alone with a rapidly depleting ta da list, I tried all sorts. My senses were bored. I found relaxation in aromatherapy, ASMR (towel folding is deeply relaxing), even guided meditation on Zoom with my cousin’s Canadian group.
One of the hardest part of being solo in lockdown one, was eating alone, every day and every night. Although I spend a lot of time solo, I was rarely alone, my work and social life was packed like a Manchester bar on pay day (remember that). Now I found myself clinging to Zoom calls, bereft as friends left the call to eat with their family. “Dinners ready” never sounded so hollow.
To eat with others is deep in our psyche, primeval, to gather by a camp fire, tell stories, share food. So I contacted my family, sending out ingredients to buy for a Sunday cook together. 5 households, Lancashire teatime and brunchtime Ontario, sharing a food journey across the pond. It helped.
As lockdown eased I watched my local pub and many other independents open up like butterflies. The Cartford Inn built greenhouses in the garden, set up the incredible TOTI patisserie and stunning take home hampers. They had not wasted a moment and they knew people would want to be out again. Zoom is good, reality is sensory heaven.
Bowland & Bay was built out of the realisation that food is much more than we realise, it connects us even when thousands of miles away but even more when we share a new adventure together. As we awaken our senses to the wonders on our doorsteps, we reconnect as friends, family and fellowships, like never before.
The pandemic has brought huge loss, of loved ones, of time, of economic certainty. As we get our freedom back, lets make a world that works. Remember we are humans. We all eat, lets eat together, why not in a greenhouse…..the rulebook has been rewritten.
