Every time I sit down to a meal, I realize that I married well.
You see, my mate is a foodie.
She pays attention to the tastes of different kinds of salt.
She mixes preserved lemon into our pasta, and thinks goat cheese is one of the finest things on the planet Earth.
She buys a particular bottle of wine for its qualities, not (like me) because the grocer has it on special for $3.
And though she is not at all snooty, my mate is a woman of taste and culinary culture...married to a man who, left on his own in the choosing of foods, would happily dine on beer and peanuts all three meals a day.
Leah puts creativity, mindfulness, and her good soul into the making of a meal, elevating food to High Art.
I am a most fortunate fellow.
***
I heard recently that a neighbor who lives down the lane from us also is making food into art, and I thought I might use my cameras (and this blog) as an excuse to investigate. Word was that the neighbor has teamed up with a couple of friends, and that the three women are turning out baked goods that are All The Rage at the nearby Saturday Farmers’ Market in Poulsbo, WA.
My neighbor and her friends call their business The Food Shed, and, ohmygoodness, what an amazing Food Find I wandered into!
I learned (in my nosy, quasi-journalistic search for The Story) that the three women started with a business ethic that stresses ingredients that are as local and in-season as possible; and I saw that each baker seems to add a high-energy, creative flare all her own. I hung out with the women in the wee hours on a recent Saturday morning as they worked in a commercial kitchen. I watched the making of asparagus bread twists, and strawberry and rhubarb hand pies (the women also make savory hand pies using herbs, potatoes, and spring onions.) There is more that they made, a LOT more, but I need to stop typing soon, as I’m about to salivate into my computer keyboard.
After pulling a college-style all-nighter, the three bakers barely had time to get their still-warm-from-the-oven goodies displayed at their stand before market-goers began lining up. It was a typically rainy Pacific Northwest day, but I sensed the weather only made sweets more appealing, and that Saturdays in our part of the world are a GREAT day for eating.
