Essentials: Food

Recently, I took you on a short tour of our kitchen. It's small and basic and fulfills an essential function in boat life. Like house-dwelling landlubbers, boat people gotta eat.

On the boat, storage is at a premium. Also, the boat isn't stable - it pitches and rolls along with the movement of the river. We address these issues in the kitchen by hanging things up if they can be hung, and by storing plates and glasses in racks.

Hanging Pans & Storage Racks

A part of communal living is sharing. Food left on the side in the kitchen is fair game, and is usually gone quickly if left out.

Available Today - Pain au Chocolat and Christmas Pudding

For those things you don't want to share, each of us has a food box. Your food box is your private territory.

My food box, stowed up high

You gain a new appreciation and understanding of food living here. We have no refrigerator. It is cold in the boat, and most things will keep at our room temperature.

We're all fond of picking up severely reduced clearance items from the supermarket - it fits the frugal lifestyle. Expiration dates are more suggestions than gospel - I'll now happily eat most expired foods.

We have no oven or toaster - they require too much electricity. To replace the oven, we have a grill outside on deck that makes a decent substitute. For toast, we have a special toasting pan that goes on the hob.

Making toast

Eating this way, something remarkable happens - in line with a minimalist approach to life, no food is wasted. If you buy too much, or cook too much, you share it. Given that the average UK family throws away the equivalent of nearly an entire meal's worth of food per day, there's something to be said for this low-to-no waste effect seen in our communal life.

Once everything is prepared, we retire to the seating across from the kitchen - various stools, chairs, and a big white sofa provide ample perching at mealtimes.

Our sofa, in a slight state of disarray

Like most parts of boat life, food is more complex than it is on dry land. The gain from this additional complexity is a new appreciation for food - storing it, preparing it, and sharing it.