Very curious that I should happen to stumble upon this thread today of all days. <P>Just returned from sharing a campfire and a community cooking pot with a local living history group portraying the life of the French voyageurs from the fur trade era. And let me tell you ... when you eat in the great outdoors, the best thing about sharing germs is knowing that you're sharing them among friends.<P>Split pea soup was keeping warm over an open fire this afternoon, when the lady who'd been tending the pot the longest remarked that a fly had just sampled some of our supper, and alas, this after someone had knocked dirt into the kettle. No big deal. <P>Then, the tent came crashing down in a heavy gust of wind and would have plunged into the soup and fire had I not been sitting in the way. After the lady moved the kettle and I untangled myself from canvas, rope and pole, I noticed that there were now ashes sprinkled on top of the soup. But hey, ashes add character, right?<P>Next, the chef who'd originally brewed up the split pea concoction with all kinds of fancy ingredients like nutmeg and cinnamon, blueberries, onions, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper disembarked from the canoe and joined us ashore. First thing he did was stuff his face with nacho chips. Wouldn't you know it, he then stood directly over the kettle, talking with his mouth full and spraying nacho chip crumbs around. He then lit a cigarette from the fire and stood over the kettle smoking and talking, stray smoking-ashes free to join the fire-ashes in the soup.<P>And what was the good voyageur chef talking about? Why, how two weeks before a dog had come over and licked some soup from the upper edges of a second kettle laying nearby. And how he'd just shrugged, tossed in more water, and served the soup to people who were none the wiser. He then explained how he'd left the kettle sit outside with leftover soup caked on for thirteen days and had only just cleaned it the night before, so it's a good thing kettles clean up real nice.<P>Some things, methinks, seem to cross the borders of time and nationality, if you leave the confines of your comfortable Shire and live anything close to an adventurous life.<P>BTW ... Today's was the best split pea soup I've eaten all season. <P>Gandalf the Grey<p>[ October 13, 2002: Message edited by: Gandalf_theGrey ]
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