The Vagabond Kitchen: Introduction

Figuring It All Out

Orson Humphrey and Rachel Mills celebrating the tent’s inaugural set-up!

In the two years since I stepped away from my old life and into a world full of new choices, it feels like every inane and sage saying or bit of wisdom about “taking control of one’s own life” has circled through my mind like the maddening lyrics of the latest pop song over gas station loud speakers.
How to balance between the controlling elements of society, demanding expectations of loved ones, and my own wants and needs? How to hear my own voice amidst the tumultuous world of people around me? How to find a balance between looking toward the future, living in the present, and remembering the past?
Literature, media, religious figures, and loved ones are all full of ideas concerning how life should be lived. Some philosophies and viewpoints are useful, others are not and life is filled with difficult decisions. But it’s also filled with adventures and the possibilities of adventures.

Old Gus lounging on his cushy tent bed.

One of those ideas has led me here: a 12×15 canvas wall tent with my partner, Orson, and our ancient, smelly German Shorthair, Gus. We’d been renting since August 2013 and after calculating the amount of money we paid other people to live with moldy basements, faulty electricity, and the constant anxiety of damaging someone else’s property and having to pay for it, we decided to buy a house. Months of searching, and we attempted to purchase our dream house, but it was not to be. Having set our sights on moving to our own home when our lease was up May 31st we were horrified at the prospect of renting. Again.
“I don’t care if we have to live in a damn tent,” I exclaimed one tension-filled evening as Orson and I attempted, yet again, to puzzle together the myriad life choices and short timeline before us. “I don’t want to rent anymore.” And just like that, the decision was made. Orson began researching canvas wall tent companies. After extensive research on Orson’s part we decided on a Bravo, a company out of Washington. When it arrived, we set it up in the backyard, marveling at the way sunlight played across the canvas.

We looked at countless pictures of “glamping”, laughing at the term but marveling at the possibilities living in a large canvas wall tent could afford. We planned, argued, laughed, packed late into the evening, and on June 1st headed down to Orson’s dad’s lakefront property to begin our vagabond summer.

 The Vagabond Kitchen Concept Is Born…

The conversion of thought to action generally begins with an idea. Often, inspiration comes from exposing yourself to the ideas of others.
More than simply writing out recipes and essays, “The Vagabond Kitchen” is about ideas and based off our experiences “vagabonding”: recipe concepts, information, and a view into the joys and complications endeavoring a new way of living.

A generous welcome from Orson’s family.

Culinary sketches and snapshots will serve as a main focus of the series.
The essential ingredients to delicious, healthy, simple, improvisational cooking are experimentation and curiosity (Often true in life, too :). To understand flavors you have to experiment, taste, make mistakes, and decipher which flavors work together. Recipes make excellent guides, but are often limiting.
The “Vagabond Kitchen” “recipes” serve as informational guides, listing ingredients, information on ingredients, and pictures of cooking processes and finished dishes to serve as inspiration for your own culinary creations.
Don’t be afraid, to try new things.

by Rachel Mills

Rachel Mills is a professor of English at Northern Michigan University where she received her BS in English, MA in Creative Writing, and MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Her current writing focus revolves around looking at food from a universal perspective-- the history, culture, and traditions surrounding both her family's food traditions, and those of other cultures.

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