Suzanne Crocker has challenged herself to a year of eating only food that can be hunted, gathered, fished, trapped, grown, or raised in the Dawson City area, where she lives—and she needs the knowledge of communities North of 60 to do it.

Crocker is known for her award-winning 2014 documentary about her family’s off-grid experience, All The Time In The World.

She is now setting her sights on creating a public conversation about food self-sufficiency with communities across the North.

The project, to begin in the middle of the coming summer, is entitled First We Eat: Food Security North of 60.

It will explore and highlight the bounty and the challenges of northern food through social media and a project website.

Crocker said Monday she wants to collaborate with people and organizations across the North that can help her journey by sharing knowledge, both traditional and innovative, on eating local.

People are invited to contribute via the project website at www.firstweeat.ca.

For example, Crocker said, now is the time to think about seeds. Who has successfully harvested and grown their own seeds?

Has anyone successfully grown sprouting seeds up north, to help provide greens through the winter? What’s the best variety of spinach to grow in your northern community?

What are northern options for salt? Who has been successful in the North growing hydroponically in areas with poor or no soil?

How far north have bees been able to successfully overwinter?

Has anyone made potato flour or beet sugar? How can one make the best use of all parts of the moose and caribou?

“I can Google tips for growing celery or how to grow oats, but I will usually find a southern solution,” Crocker said.

“I hope this project will become a sort of crowd-sourced guide to northern food solutions—a place where northern knowledge and expertise is easily accessible and shareable.”

A diet of wild food was the norm for thousands of years, she pointed out.

“But I want to explore the extent of the possibilities if we combine wild foods with food that northerners have been able to cultivate, raise, overwinter and breed.”

Crocker concedes her family is not thrilled by her project.

“Even though the kitchen is not my natural environment and I am not an expert gardener, one of my challenges is to create enough variety of delicious foods and ready to go snacks from local sources that my family won’t feel the need to secretly eat elsewhere.”

Those who want to interact with the First We Eat project can do so through the project website at www.firstweeat.ca or email First We Eat directly at firstweeatproject@gmail.com.