Longtime friends gave us a bowl of orange-sized lemons from the tree growing in their front yard. Talk about fresh, juicy fruit. Whenever I make a lemon pie, my husband’s favorite, it takes squeezing three store-bought lemons to glean the 1/2 cup of juice required by the recipe. In contrast, it took only one of our gift lemons to offer more than a half cup. What a difference, both in quantity and in taste.
Their generous gift prompted memories of other times I had the opportunity to taste truly fresh products. We visited an uncle while his winter garden was still producing. Before we left, he insisted that we go to the garden and take some collards home with us. I washed and cooked them the next day. They were, with minimum seasoning, the best greens I’ve ever eaten, and I really like most every kind of greens, even the frozen kind.
Likewise, I’ll never forget the baked potato that I was served in Idaho. Instead of talking about snow white or paper white, I now think of potato white whenever I want to describe the absence of any color. That Idaho potato was the whitest I’ve ever seen and by far, the tastiest.
Also, pick a Georgia peach at its peak and enjoy as its juices runs down the chin. Or, what about a summer tomato straight from the garden? Nothing can compare.
While I marvel at absolute freshness on rare occasions, I’m grateful for grocery stores where we can buy reasonably fresh fruits and vegetables in season, along with wide selections from well stocked shelves and meat counters. In the United States, we take this abundance of food stuff for granted. Yet, shamefully, we throw away more food than some people in this world can even imagine.
Also, with the right touch, good cooks can turn the plainest fare into gourmet dinners. Ask my daughter-in-law about her recipes for collards and party potato casserole.
However, freshness to savor isn’t limited to food. While we, as humans, tend to seek the comfort of the familiar, we all have marveled at those first time, “aha” moments when we see anew - standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon, whether the first or the fifth time; holding a newborn; finally mastering a skill at which we’ve worked long and hard to achieve.
Twentieth century Japanese author Shunryu Suzuki says, “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few...that is the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.”
Fortunately, we don’t have to be a beginner to retain the beginner’s great sense of awe. Just think what I would have missed, if I had refused the gift of lemons, saying “thank you, but I already have store-bought ones in the refrigerator. Who among us would refuse such tasty treats?
However, it is so easy to deny ourselves the chance to be beginners over and over again by just staying at home mentally. Or, we limit ourselves by using our talents as we’ve always done until they have become mere habits that we perform without thinking.
In a interview with AARP about her novel A Mercy, 77 year-old Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, says that we don’t have to forfeit a fresh outlook on life as we age.
During the interview, Marilyn Milloy asks the author, “Do you find you’ve become more creative as you’ve gotten older?
Mrs. Morrison responds, “Oh, yes. I’m much, much better with creative things - people generally get better. They just know more.”
Our friends have nurtured their lemon tree. And they took the time not only to pick the fruit, but also to share some with others and to squeeze and freeze the juice of what they kept for themselves. They love lemonade.
Freshness in food doesn’t just happen. It’s nurtured and appreciated. In all other aspects of living, the freshness that comes from a beginner’s stance starts with an eagerness to try.
2009
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