Double, Double, Toil & Tomatoes

I offer this in honour of my Nonnas, and Nonnas the world over, who have collected the garden's produce in their aprons. 

While the fabric differs, the cultural fabric remains the same. 

It clothes how we cook, how we eat, who we are. 

 It demands clean, lean, fresh, ethically sourced food grown, flavoured, prepared and shared with love. 

God bless them.

While they grew maybe two varieties of tomatoes, we grow maybe 20.

However, the need to grow, like the need to breathe, remains the same.

The work and the responsibility to keep up with an abundant harvest and not let any go to waste, but share it, cook it, sauce it, salad it, bottle it, preserve it, also remains the same. 

Tomato sauce courses through our veins and ties our ancestral umbilical cords.

   Shakespeare: Double, double toil and trouble,
                        Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
                        Fillet of a fenny snake,
                        In the caldron boil and bake.
          
            Nonna: Toil the soil or you're in trouble,
                        Wash the beer bottles and light the fire.
                        Fill with sauce and wrap in newspaper,
                        In the cauldron boil and bake.

                        And do it properly
                        Because I'm watching.
                        And don't worry about rhyming,
                        It's all about timing.

                        The figs need picking,
                        The prickly pears peeling,
                        The chestnuts gathering,
                        The beans shelling,
                        The zucchini plants pulling,
                        And the winter broccoli planting.
                        And hurry up about it
                        Because I'm watching.


Foodliterary Regards,
Julia