One of the most interesting features of Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe is the detailed accounts of how the protagonist learns to survive on an uninhabited desert island. Once he has built and furnished his shelter, he begins a journal (using paper and ink that he had found on the wrecked ship) and, through this, documents his attempts to build his own version of English society on the island. He describes making different shelters, building a boat, civilizing a savage – Man Friday whom he rescues from cannibals - and, most importantly for my purposes, growing and cooking food.
In my last post – see http://pagetoplate.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/food-survival-manual.html - I wrote about the goats that live abundantly on the island which are Crusoe’s principal source of meat – he does also eat turtle and wild fowl – and his only source of dairy food. But whilst the goats provide ready food – they just need to be captured or shot, then cooked – other food requires time. Fortunately Crusoe – who spends 28 years on the island – has plenty of that.
