We need to get much better at connecting hikers to locals and the landscapes – and food is a great way

Text and drawings by Frits Ahlefeldt, Hiking.org

Just came back from a food fair, watching people connect over food. Is there any more genuine way for hikers to both connect to the locals and the land, without words? – simple by follow the old saying: “you become what you eat” sharing food experiences. And, instead of relying on freeze dried food from nowhere, in the backpack,  relate through tasting the land and the local ways of eating, together with people who live their lives along the trails 

Eating together is a way hikers and locals can use much more

Eating is a wordless way of relating both to the land and to each other

Hiker and farmer relating over food