WOW. What an amazing weekend.

I have to say, what with all the morning sickness, anxiety around quitting my job and all that fun stuff – I haven’t exactly been spending my time being excited about gardening and food security and changing the world.

This weekend was a booster-shot of optimism. We were lucky enough to score tickets to see Joel Salatin in Courtenay, BC on Sunday. He was here in Vancouver the next day at UBC, but we thought seeing him in the tiny town of Courtenay would provide a much more intimate experience than in some huge lecture hall at UBC. WAS IT EVER!!

So despite the 2 hour ferry ride and 2 hour drive to get there – off we went! For our travels we were rewarded with the opportunity to participate in a 2 1/2 hour round table discussion with Joel and maybe only 35 or so other folks followed by an evening lecture and Q&A. I had a hard time expressing the enormity of this opportunity to my friends . . . Ah, It’s like getting to sit down and chat with your favourite rockstar!! But he’s a farmer. Um ya. So maybe some of my friends weren’t as excited for me as we were . . . but that’s ok.

It was an interesting mix of people; chefs, food activists, permaculture educators, high school home-ec teachers, a sheep farmer, backyard gardeners, seed-savers, back-to-the land hippies, far-out left-wing airy-fairy-types, food scientists, stay-at-home renegade mums, you name it.

Joel, despite his lack of coveralls (everyone was thrown off by his suit jacket – whispers of “Where’s his straw hat?” rippled through the room) was his adjective-spewing,  pontificiating, chuckel-inducing, no-holds-barred self that we’ve all come to know and love from Food Inc. and YouTube. I spend the entire day madly scribbling down pearls of wisdom, laughing, nodding my head and feeling the circulation slowly returning to the parts of my brain responsible for inspiration.