Eating Locally in Yukon
Crocker and her family ate locally produced food for an entire year. She shares the story in her film First We Eat.
Suzanne Crocker joins us from Dawson City, Yukon to tell us about the year she spent knowing where all the food on her plate came from.
There was no salt, no sugar, and no caffeine. There were three hungry (and sceptical) teenagers, and a reluctant husband. There was no grocery-store food in the house for the entire year.
“I knew where every single ingredient on my plate came from.”
Food Discoveries
Crocker talks about some of the techniques she learned during the year:
Making birch syrup to use as a sweetener
Foraging weeds and spruce tips
Juicing potatoes to make a thickener
Using rhubarb juice as a vinegar substitute
“It was kind of like your taste buds came alive,” she says as she talks about what it was like after getting through the first couple of months with no added salt.
Gardening North of 60
With only a couple of months of frost-free days, the gardening season is short and intense. The intense light causes some cool-weather vegetables such as spinach to bolt.
Crocker talks about crops that do and don’t grow in Dawson — and about gardening with moose!
From Medicine to Film
Crocker was a rural family doctor before becoming a filmmaker. She captured the year of her family eating locally in her new film, First We Eat.
This isn’t the first time she’s turned the lens on her family. Her first feature documentary, All The Time In The World, shared her family’s experience leaving home to live in the remote Yukon wilderness for 9 months.
Links and Resources
Rent the film (online streaming available in only Canada until fall 2022, when it becomes available worldwide)
