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A feast for all the senses - jam from acacia flowers and strawberries
"The senses are the richest source of writing", says Anaïs Nin, "a writer's tools are not ink and paper but his body,
the sensitivity of his eyes, ears and heart. If they are atrophied he no longer has to write. "
I'm anything but a writer. And I'm not even a careful reader. I fall in love with books for their cover or title and then I read by flipping through the pages more or less quickly, jumping from beginning to end, or reading in the middle. I drink words and phrases and then I stop and let the little that found me and in which I found myself settle.
But out of necessity I have to write lately and I always have some obstacles. It is almost always linguistic obstacles, but also obstacles of the imagination.
To give a trivial example, having to describe the strawberry, I stumbled upon what seems to me an insurmountable obstacle: describing its scent. On the flavor I can recklessly resort to the words I already know, but on the perfume? How would you describe the scent of the strawberry? What does a strawberry taste like?
Fortunately I don't have to write a lot and often, so in these weeks, to escape the daily duties that await me anyway, I wander my world which is in a few square kilometers. It is a world that gives me a lot of pleasure. And it's all there: stream, forest, fields, views of hills and mountains, wild animals and herbs, busy bees that buzz and birds that give unparalleled soundtracks.
Pleasure: A sense of lively satisfaction that derives from the fulfillment of physical or spiritual desires or aspirations of various kinds. In an absolute sense (as translated from the Greek ?δον? and the Lat. Voluptas), it is opposed to pain and variously considered in the various philosophical schools, in relation to the supreme ideal of life.
You will think, and not wrongly, that I am a woman who finds fulfillment in really simple things. Probably because I don't confuse must and am so often anymore (I let it happen).
I don't have to take pleasure in things that other people like. I don't necessarily have to experience a sense of satisfaction because that's what others expect me to do.
Haruki Murakami said: So the fact that I am me and no one else is one of my greatest assets.
And my sources of pleasure are also great resources.
I go out there, free my mind from the clutter of solvable and unsolvable everyday issues, and just let things happen.
So I end up amazed at what younger people consider banality.
A cool example of today? After a gloomy, black day, with a sky that you could touch and that could crush you with its gray weight, with the water that drowned the earth, today I was amazed in front of the infinite expanse of blue sky. Lonely white sheep here and there. Each green shone with infinite glows under the rays of the sun and this infused me deeply, intimately in my soul, a sense of liberation and peace that I had not felt for a couple of days. Like when you quickly go up the water column to take a breath of air. It is like being reborn.
I am reborn in these small, extremely significant, beauty events. I opened my nostrils with the help of my fingertips and the air infused with the scent of acacia entered my lungs, head, heart, soul, without obstacles. It was like being reborn 100 times again.
And then the Piacenza hills and the Apennines at my feet, of all the greens I can imagine, clear, clear, without obstacles. So in being reborn it was like recovering sight.
My pleasure in wandering my square kilometers of land and exploring all my "I want ..." today seems so within my reach, without obstacles that all of them are achievable.
So, while wandering with feet, mind and soul, I try to break down language barriers and try to invent new words to describe the scent of strawberries. But I would have to strip myself of what I know to be able to say it, so I inevitably stumble upon comparisons "like broken grass, like daffodil corolla, like peach skin, like philadelphus heart note ...".
I am trapped in the condition of not knowing how to describe it for what it is, without having to use comparisons, without limiting myself to saying “tastes like strawberry”. And maybe that's enough, that is: strawberry is exactly what it is for me, subjected to a precise order of memories that make the strawberry smell of that specific thing for me.
If you have thought about it a few times and you know how to say it, please write it in the comments. Or if you prefer, write me a private message on the Facebook page of the Cottage. I will be happy to read your thoughts, your description of the strawberry scent and to publish it too, with your permission of course.
While waiting, I grind a few more kilometers on foot, I collect the most hidden acacia clusters, even those that have yet to open to release the scent and I leave you the recipe for a jam reworked from my grandmother's original which only involved the use of acacia flowers. I combined acacia and strawberry and I am sure, very sure, you will love it. After all, May is as much the month of strawberries as it is for acacia flowers.
Ingredients: 600 grams of strawberries, 400 grams of sugar, 350 grams of fresh acacia flowers, the zest and juice of one lemon.
Preparation:
Get fresh acacia flowers, possibly collected in the woods or canals away from busy roads.
Wash the flowers under running water, remove them from the bunch and dry them on a cloth.
Also wash the strawberries, remove the green part and cut into large pieces.
In a saucepan with a thick bottom (I am an old Mondial Casa, but really as old as me) put the strawberries, sugar, flowers and cook over high heat for about 10 minutes, being careful not to let the bottom burn.
Finally, add the lemon juice and the cut zest, paying attention to have eliminated the white part.
Lower the heat and cook until the flowers are almost translucent and the fruit compote has thickened. I about 35 minutes over medium-low heat. Remove the lemon zest.
Put the jam in the sterilized jars when it is still hot from the fire, close the lid, turn the jars upside down and keep them warm with a heavy wool blanket until the next day. Store in the pantry.
If you prefer, you can boil the jars until the cap is removed and the vacuum effect is created. Use the method you usually use.
Acacia flowers and strawberry jam
One of the most popular spring and summer jams in my childhood home. Thank you granny, for all the love and wisdom that you have infused into each recipe.
Preparazione15 min
Cottura35 min
Portata: Colazione, Dessert, Snack
Cucina: romanian
Keyword: breakfast, eat your flowers, flowers, foraging, fruits
Chef: Rebecka
Ingredienti
600 grams of strawberries, 400 grams of sugar, 350 grams of fresh acacia flowers, the zest and juice of one lemon.
Istruzioni
1. Get fresh acacia flowers, possibly collected in the woods away from busy roads.
2. Wash the flowers under running water, remove them from the bunch and dry them on a cloth.
3. Also wash the strawberries, remove the green part and cut into large pieces.
4. In a saucepan with a thick bottom, put the strawberries, sugar, flowers and cook over high heat for about 10 minutes, being careful not to let the bottom burn.
5. Finally add the lemon juice and the cut zest, paying attention to have eliminated the white part.
6. Lower the heat and cook until the flowers are almost translucent and the fruit jam has thickened. I cooked the jam about 35 minutes over medium-low heat.
7. Remove the lemon zest.
8. Put the jam in the sterilized jars and preserve with the method you usually use.
Rebecka G. Sendroiu and her wonderful blog https://www.missbeckyscottage.it/
