That brings up an interesting thought.
Am I a cooking enthusiast because I spend time hunting/fishing/foraging wild ingredients? Many of my neighbors do some foraging and hunt and fish also. (I live on a lake in the middle of a very large forest). Or does the fact I made 10lbs of home smoked Canadian bacon in my own smoker this fall make me a cooking enthusiast? Maybe the breads I sometimes bake? Or the hand harvested and then parched over a wood fire wild rice I traded some of my bacon for from my one neighbor?
Am I a cooking hobbyist? Or am I just cooking to survive? Where is the line drawn?
Would I survive? Perhaps not so well. Everything I forage or hunt and fish for reduces the amount of dollars spent on buying groceries. And a good portion of what we eat you can’t buy in a store.
The second part of that comment sounds like you are a culinary enthusiast not a survivalist. Like, I grow stuff in the garden to get better, fresher foods and varieties I don’t see in the store, and also for the local bees Saving money is secondary(tertiary?), though I think at this point the lines may have crossed and we are saving some money. I do it because I like good food.
If I lived where there was more to forage, you can bet your ass I would be foraging too. Wild food is awesome.
