Seeds, nuts and local spirits

-Let’s eat Brer Rabbit on the porch.

They carry plates and glasses

back to the front of Red’s bungalow.

-This is really good.

-Not bad, maybe I should drive my truck more often.

Mack peers intently at a strange citrus orchard

across the road. The rows of trees are trimmed

into cubes as square as topiary, flat-topped

with sides straight as a hedgerow. The orchard

is enclosed by chain link fence topped with

razor wire. Security cameras and lights on poles

at regular intervals.

-What are those?

-Oranges. Not ours, they belong to the Corporation.

They are trimmed that way so that they can be

harvested by robots. All the fruit goes to the cities.

-Really? very strange. I thought this valley

ran out of water years ago.

- It did. At least the surface water or enough

from runoff in the mountains. There is

some still in the aquifer, but not enough

for massive fruit and nut orchards.

So the Corporation built desalinization plants

over on the coast and pipelines to deliver

water for the orchards.

-I see. Do you get any water from them?

-Not a drop unless we’re willing to buy it.

Which we’re not. We have vertical axis

wind pumps. They don’t pull up enough

for huge orchards, but it’s enough for what

we do grow, a few trees and lots of crops

that require a small fraction of what

almonds or walnuts need. Sunflower seeds,

peanuts, potatoes. All the seeds from

watermelons and pumpkins too.

-What about meat? I know there's lots

of protein in seeds and beans, and this

rabbit is delicious. Any domestic livestock?

-A few. Chickens of course, but mostly

for eggs. Some of our folks up in the hills

have goats that forage, but we have to 

keep their numbers low so they don’t

eat everything down to the ground.

Because they would. Happily. And if

any of the feral hogs venture into

our gardens, they end up on a spit.

Mostly we save those for special feasts.

-Cool. That sounds festive.

-Yes it is. Everybody celebrates.

We honor all the traditional holy days

from the customs of everyone who lives here.

And that’s quite a few because we’re

a very mixed assortment of faiths and cultures.

But everyone participates in all of them.

-What do you do for income, money

or whatever?

-Don’t need much, as you can see,

we provide ourselves with food and shelter,

our energy is from the wind pumps and solar.

We can take care of most health care things,

we have a clinic and some university-trained

caregivers who have decided they want to live here,

but more serious problems mean a trip or

stay in the county hospital.

Red fills two small glasses with an amber liquid.

-Try some of our local spirits. We sell this to tourists

because yes we do need at least some cash.

So there are a couple of retreat type places

where people who want to experience this

what I guess you’d call lifestyle for a week or so

will book a stay.

There’s a pottery studio that sells to shops

in the cities. A modest farmstand. We have

lots of bees and way more honey than we

could ever eat all by ourselves. The special

ingredient in our local spirits. Like it?

-Mmm. Very nice.