Thoreau observed that humans are happily designed in such a way that the distance they can cover in a day's walking means that were they to spend every day hiking in a different direction from their homestead, it would take a lifetime to get to know every corner of their surroundings.

There's something analogous in the distance that meat and vegetables can cover in an ox cart in the old formula of market towns gathering and redistributing the produce of a region. It's like concocting a meal with what you have in the kitchen, settling a craving for good economy.

Any region can use a patron saint, and in England's West Country, that saint is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (aka Hugh Fearlessly Eats-It-All). One of Britain's top TV chefs, Fearnley-Whittingstall is on a near-holy mission to return to the land. He had his first success with a show called "A Cook on the Wild Side," in which he traveled around cooking up game and wild plants on his camping stove.

Then he settled in Dorset and moved into growing his own food - saddleback pigs, old breeds of chicken - and reviving many old techniques for curing and preserving the food. His larder is permanently hung with sausages, salamis, hams and varieties of smoked fish.