Silence is Golden

"Silence is golden..." I think that quote came about because those who work (making the "gold") all the time are never heard from! My silence has been the product of long hard days full of starched shirts, hot plates, aching feet, hungry people, and beautiful annual flowers coming in by the truck load. Spring has brought a different sort of rain this year and work is flooding my days, whether at my garden center or at my restaurant or in my studio.

Because my passion and focus (art/pottery) is not a clear cut job to apply for and work in solely, I find that I often forget that I do have a passion. What do I mean? Well, as I rush to the kitchen on my first rounds, dropping off dirty dishes, entering the order in the computer, and picking up another server's drink order, I know that serving is not my passion. I'd like to have one job, a job where I can be paid to do what I know, want to learn and am passionate about.

My best friend is a chef. She is enthusiastic and beginning to focus in a particular direction with her culinary talents. She just got a job at an incredible restaurant with the ideals she holds and the passion she exudes. Good food, exceptional food cannot be replaced by microwave boxed meals. Because real cooking, fresh cooking, is still somewhat practiced in homes across America, people can recognize a good meal. People seek out a good meal, share in it, are willing to pay for it, and enjoy it. They have experienced it once and want more, hence the typical longing for "mom's cooking" or a "fine home cooked meal." What they've experienced is real substance, prepared by human hands.

Unfortunately, artistry and craftsmanship of America is lost amongst the mass manufactured. While fresh home cooking has dwindled in the 15 second meal in a box (hopefully being revived by movements like "Slow Food" or Farm to Table"), art education is dwindling even more. And I don't just mean education in the formal sense. Education, especially in something like art and craft, can come from experiencing them.

Bernard Leach writes about this in "The Potter's Challenge". While he, of course, is speaking of pottery primarily, this can be applied to a much broader picture of art and craft - cooking, textiles, painting, photography, etc.

"One has to live with fine pots in order to appreciate their character, for they are intimate expressions of peoples and their cultures. Human virtues such as nobility, generosity, breadth, simplicity, sincerity, and charity -- virtues common to both man and pot -- are there to be discovered in shape, texture, color, and pattern."

It is in the familiarity with these hand made pieces, in knowing the maker, getting comfortable with the various aspects of the meal, of the picture, of the pot, that we really do learn.

[images: 'Cafe des Amie' sketch and 'Chef' sketch by Sarah Coffin]

Posts from a Spanish Diary: #5 La Comida

I am often asked, with wide eyes and drool already welling, what sorts of things I ate while in Spain. Video montages of a food tour through Europe are playing before the inquirer's eyes before I've gotten a chance to answer.

The rural Spanish, like many rural dwellers around the globe, are still closely tied to their land. This being so, one country's cultural outpourings will have wide variances depending on the specific regions' own natural bounties. Sheep, goat, olives, rice, almonds, oranges, tiger nuts, chickens, squid, and pigs abounded in my region of Spain. I love to say "my region" as if I own some of the spirit of it. I do feel a little like a fraud but I have grown attached to that land. The fresh, local farmers markets had wonderful produce to choose from and the few local home-made Spanish meals I had were adventures in new tastes and sights and smells.

But take a second and think about the typical countries that come to mind when you think of cuisine. At least for me, Italy and France are immediate. Spain wouldn't necessarily have jumped in there with those giants of food perfection. The preparation, the presentation, the almost haute-couture idea of food is associated with, well, other countries. Spain, Spain just seems to slip through with winners every now and again. Now, I have to say, I love this about Spain. When they do whip out the winners, they are strong enough to contend with any. But, in keeping with the Spanish attitude, they are content to be casual in most things, including their food. There are three phrases I think all Spanish have as mantras, "whats the rush?", "tomorrow!", and "siesta!" I met very few Spaniards who seemed overly concerned, anxious, or competitive. If put to the test, sure they could blow you away, but they know that and so on a normal day, why the fuss? Why not just a damn fine bocadillo?

Our casual dining experiences were not varied. No matter where we went, there were the same variations on the theme. The bars, or we would call them cafes, all served a few tapas behind a glass. Most had squid, a variation on egg salad (that one took me a while to figure out), sausages in a liquid of some sort, blanched almonds, olives (of course), and maybe some clams or another variation on a liquidy/mayo salad with unidentifiable lumps. Frittatas are another choice, made with egg and plenty of potato. This, of course, you would get with bread and beer. Keep in mind that none had labels, let alone labels in English, unless I was closer to a city. There, the bars would usually have something in English. My favorite was one touting "Home-made cooking, regional especialites, varied dishes, especial menu for pilgrims". Not that English menus were really that great ... to not even try didn't seem to fit with the spirit of travel and sometimes they were more mysterious than the Spanish ...


Bocadillos were a staple. Manolo's Bar, about 10 minutes from Seth's, served some of the best. Bocadillos are sandwiches or paninis. They are served with anything you want inside but don't over do it. The bread is the best part. "Un bocadillo con pollo, queso, tomatae, y lechuga, por favor," I would rattle off, trying to sound casual as I listed more ingredients than others usually do. Type of cheese or chicken or seasoning? Don't worry, you won't have to make that many choices, plus they wouldn't have stuck around to listen regardless. Bread, toast, french fries, beer, and any other high carb menu item are found a plenty.

Spanish Toast

Spanish Tomato Toast: The Breakfast of a Potter

Every morning Seth has Spanish Tomato Toast for breakfast. Its amazing! Give it a try and DO NOT skimp on the olive oil.

Its a very easy recipe!

Ingredients:*

Slice of Toast (not just any toast: light and airy, similar to ciabatta, wood fired, crisp outside and soft, bubbly, tender inside)

Tomato (Roma is best)

Cloves of Garlic

Olive Oil

Kosher salt

Directions:

Slice a thick piece of bread and place in toaster (turn over, if toaster doesn't do both sides).

Open one clove of garlic. Once bread is beautifully brown on both sides, take out and rub the clove of garlic generously on both sides of the toast (use another if that one gets too small).

Then take the half tomato and rub it generously, pushing down, all over both sides of the bread. This will squish the tomato and turn the bread a beautiful pinkish red color.

Place tomato and toast on a plate. Then pour, don't sprinkle, olive oil all over the bread. Be sure to cover the crispy outside as well as the middle. Sprinkle with kosher salt if desired.

The combo of the tomato and the oil soften the toast. Eat with a fork and knife, taking a bit of bread with a bite of tomato.

*Add ham and/or a strong cheese if desired.

Languages

On the metro the other night, in this the melting pot of the world, I, a Norwegian European American mutt sat beside a 4'1" 65 year old Cuban woman. Her accent was strong though she told me, quite close to my face, that she had been here for, oh, 50 years. She said, "I do not care about my accent! People ask me, 'I hear you accented, where is that? and I say I am here for long time!" I laughed and said her English was far better than my Spanish. I mentioned that I was going to Spain and trying to learn Spanish. She dismissed me with a hand saying, "I tell you," she raised her arms with emphasis, "compared to English, Spanish is easy. It is pho-net-ical," with an emphasis on each syllable, "You learn fast."

So, do you speak Spanish? Yes, well umm, no. I don't. I don't speak much Spanish at all. In the weeks leading up to my trip I have had very limited time to teach myself. I've looked over the basics but have not gotten comfortable speaking Spanish. Language is an interesting aspect to this trip. Seth Cardew is British so we will communicate pretty well. Undoubtedly, I will wish I sounded more like him and try to pick up some of the beautiful lilt. But the remote area of Castellon will, I hear, prove to be a Spanish speaking classroom for me. In my regular glass half full mentality I am banking on the universal languages of food, love, and art, confident that I will get by and learn moi rappido!

At one of my jobs there is a vivacious group of Spanish speakers from Bolivia and Peru. They speak to me in rapid Spanish, tossing my name in the midst of a long string of sounds and calling me "butterfly" and "queen" with a laugh. Its my job to draw on the chalkboard and even the ones that speak very little English enjoy the development of my pictures and advertisements and communicate their appreciation. We've gotten by with a slow friendship developing but there is always a barrier of language. The excitement on their faces, in their body language when they found I was trying to learn Spanish was priceless. Why? To be able to communicate with someone, to have that communal relationship with a fellow human being is essential to our well being.

In his broken English and my barely present Spanish, my Bolivian co-worker told me that when I return from Spain they would have me over for a meal to eat traditional Bolivian food. FOOD. Another universal language. Something to share in, to give, to take, to enjoy, to spit out, to laugh over, to cry over, to do together. Where has that sense of universality gone for a lot of today's art, for a lot of today's people's understanding of art? The ability for art to be a universal language of deep beauty - one to share, to give, to take, to enjoy, to spit at, to laugh over, to cry over, to come together has been lost in commercialism, egotism, and a lack of education in the arts.

But art and beauty, like food, is so much more than those wonderful aspects. Our poor minds and hearts starve without it ... other parts of our lives are affected by the lack of that essential harmony of nutrients or in this case, sights, sounds and textures. Sights, sounds, and textures that allow you to come out of yourself, to realize beyond the everyday. This subtle starvation makes for a sad, limited life, indeed.

Everyone has taste buds, taste buds prone towards certain tastes but taste buds that can be honed, developed, broadened and instructed to appreciate more flavors and textures. Our sense of appreciation for beauty, in music or arts, is the same way. We are prone towards certain styles, colors, shapes, patterns, harmonies, rhythms, sounds, and textures. But with exposure, with development and learning, those tastes can be expanded and our minds and hearts fed in so many more wonderful and fulfilling ways.

Learn to communicate and understand more than a spoken language. Learn what it is to communicate without words, through music, art, food, dance, etc. Allow yourself to grow in these things. The rich experiences that come out of that will feed your soul.

Glenfidich

Over the weekend Jennie and I got a chance to go to Glenfidich Farm. The farm is just west of us, near Leesburg, Va. We've been there before but it is always a delight! Richard Busch and Olwen Woodier own Glenfidich and have what I think is a dream of a set up.
The Farm: Glenfidich is a "170 year old former dairy farm located near Hamilton, just outside of Leesburg in the beautiful Virginia Piedmont region of Western Loudoun. Originally called Gobblers Knob after the multitude of resident wild turkeys on the farmlands, it was later renamed Glenfidich -- Celtic for 'Valley of the Deer' -- to celebrate the many deer that continue to reside on the property." After a long way down a pebbled drive you come to a few humble buildings and converted barn with gorgeous land surrounding them. Richard and Olwen grow vegetables and herbs and keep chickens (for fresh eggs!).
The Pottery: Richard Busch is a wonderful potter with incredible knowledge, experience and talent. He has created a work and living space that is ideal for a potter. The land around him must be so refreshing and inspiring. He was outside under a porch with his wheel set up when we arrived. Throwing outside may be one of my favorite things! He had the ease and friendliness of a potter and graciously showed me around. He has a huge Japanese influence, reminding me of the potters I most admire. His pottery is graceful and substantial at the same time. His vases and large bowls have an ease about them that reminded me of him. They were definitely my favorite. The seemingly spontaneous decoration on his pots is very traditional of Japanese aesthetics but he makes it his own.

The Cookery School: Olwen, a wonderful and energetic British woman, runs Glenfidich Farm Cookery School. Anyone can go take classes with her! Check out her classes and themes on the website. Makes my mouth water just reading it. A little while ago she bought some of my sister's handmade aprons for her school. She has written cook books and used to write for the New York Times Living section. Richard invited us up to their kitchen/living area where I fell in love with the light and airy ceilings, hand made pottery, exposed woodwork, and open cooking space. You can see that their creativity is bursting!