Food, Glorious Food!

Is it Julia, the Harvest Season, local chefs and gourmands or inspirations from Gila House guests? What ever it is, I have been consumed by food...and consuming. And I am reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.

So it is all coming together into some supremely delicious dishes. The wonderful organic peaches I bought last week from the farmer and his blue-eyed toddler son were truly the Perfect Peach. From that wonderful afternoon when I stopped on a whim, and got to meet this sweet little boy and his proud papa to bringing home my treasure and gently wrapping them in newspaper to ripen in time for guests on the weekend, to the days of pondering what I would do with the peaches that would do them justice and honor their purity to that morning when I finally composed a little masterpiece, the week seemed to fill with the golden hue mirrored in the peaches.

I cannot say enough about buying local. One of the primary reasons I moved to Silver City recently was because of the wonderful Farmer's Market and the home gardeners. When you know who grows your food, you have an intimate relationship, both with your food and with that farmer or gardener. They are producing something that will become part of you and your family.

When the taste of those sweet ripe peaches burst in my mouth, I was transported to a time when the days were more golden, when we did know our neighbors and shared the harvest with baskets of fruits and jars of pickles. The only words that could fully describe that moment when I took my first bite of peach crepe was - "I have died and gone to heaven." But really, I was just doing some time traveling. The 50 or so years that have passed since I last tasted something that moved me so melted away for a bit. I plan on doing some more time traveling and finding those delicious home grown delicacies that bring us all back to a time and place when we were not so distracted from what was really important.

Food, glorious food!
Hot buttered zucchini and mustard greens!
While we're in the mood --
Cold jelly and custard!
(With Free-Range Eggs, of course)
Smoky roasted chilies!

What next is the question?
Food, glorious food!
What wouldn't we give for
That extra bit more --
That's all that we live for
Why should we be fated to
Do nothing but brood
On food,
Organical food,
Farm Freshly food,
Marvelous food,
Fabulous food,

Beautiful food,

Glorious food

Lyrics liberally adapted from Oliver!