The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
-Buechner

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Saucing And Such

I love this part of fall. Each year I wonder to myself if I could become Amish. I think the picking and chopping, and simmering, and canning is truly down to earth wonderful. An ideal. I feel deep down this sense of belonging and peace in the kitchen as I'm making my way through the peel and the pith that becomes my countertop.

And then I remember that I'm cooking on my electric stove, with the lights shining over head and yesterday, I was doing all this while wearing my Billabong sweatshirt. I'm quite sure that wouldn't be found (legally) on any Amish farm or in any Amish community. Yes, I am a priss. And, I have accepted that fact...most of the time.

But, for a few days each fall I take myself into a world of pure (personally) hand-picked, homemade goodness. I reflect upon the life of my maternal grandmother who was the epitome of what a grandmother should be. Homemade and cooked and grown (nearly) everything. Hand washed and likely the majority handmade, clothes. Five children running around, wreaking havoc. Her cookie legend lives on. And, I sense the wonder and awe each time I take myself back to what I imagine her life would have looked, sounded, felt, tasted and been like. I try to envision a snapshot of her life. And, while I know it was nothing as serene as I imagine or as lovely, gentle and calm as the day dream into which I often fall, there is something about life back in the fifties and sixties that makes me yearn for a lifestyle I know I will never - likely never could - attain...certainly not with the grace of my grandmother.


{i wonder what my grandmother would have thought if one of her children was caught wiping his or her nose right around the applesauce production area. actually i do know. her reaction likely would have been one similar to that made when she saw children slapping their dirty hands all over the clean windows: perfect. proof that children live here. she, like I, would likely also have been thankful that her children did not touch the apples and also that they were well cooked before being canned.}



The end.

4 comments:

Joy and Geoff said...

I keep trying to come up with ways of moving into the country (at least from my doorstep in my little town, I can walk and bike into the official country-side within a couple of minutes) and living the super-simple, outdoorsy, do-it-yourself, home-made life (along with a goat or two)...while still having a source of funds to, you know, actually pay for my house and property and other necessities. But I don't even do any canning...yet...so maybe I should start there. Looks like the perfect autumn kitchen to me!

Dana said...

you have to stop teasing us with your delicious concoctions and no recipes to try ourselves!

Katie Leipprandt said...

Yummy!! I have been busy calculating how many pounds of apples it will take to supply us for the next year with readymade applesauce and apple pies....what a delicious undertaking!

Dana said...

Thank You....Getting busy in the kitchen. Right. Now.