Twenty-Seven Winters of Freezers
The first freezer in this family was bought in the winter of 1999, the same winter the notebook began, and it was a small white chest with a humming motor and a handle that had to be pulled…
Pumpkin, Properly
Pumpkin is the one thing in this family that causes an actual argument, and the argument is about spice. My mother puts cinnamon in it, my sister puts ginger and a little nutmeg, and my…
Chestnuts in the Ash Tree
The ash tree at the end of the street is the same tree my grandmother walked to as a girl, and it is older than the street by a good margin. In the third week of September the husks come…
The First Pears of September
The first pears of the year came in the second week of September, in a bag, from a tree two gardens along that nobody has any claim to and nobody has any intention of claiming. The tree is…
We Made Ice Cream for the School Fair
Elena came home with the idea on a Tuesday and the fair was on the Saturday, which in this family is enough time for exactly one batch and no second attempt. We made four tubs of vanilla…
Melon, Salt and a Knife
There is a way of eating melon in this family that involves no table, no plates and no conversation, and it began with my grandmother refusing to let anybody cut anything too neatly. The…
Figs From the Neighbour's Tree
The fig tree at number next door was planted by a man whose name we have never been told, because he died before we moved here, and every year in the last week of July it gives away more…
The Coldest Evening of the Summer
The coldest evening of the summer was the sixth of July, which sounds impossible until you remember that we had a wet, grey, strange month and the temperature dropped nine degrees between…
What Nonna Would Have Said About Icing
The cake was mine. Not the recipe, which came out of Nonna's notebook in her own handwriting, but the decision about the icing, which I made without asking anybody and then had to defend…
Strawberries, and the Race Against the Weather
June this year was wet in a way that made the strawberries difficult. It rained on four days out of the first ten, and then it rained again in the afternoons for a week, so the fruit lay in…
Ice Cream Without a Machine
We have never owned an ice cream machine. Nonna's machine in the old flat was a grey canister that turned all afternoon and made a noise like a small washing machine, and it was broken more…
The Apricot Tree in the Back Yard
There is one apricot tree in our back yard, and every year we make too much noise about it, because it is the only one we have. It stands against the fence where the soil dries out fastest,…
Rhubarb, and the Short Season
Rhubarb is the first thing we cook of the year, and it is also the shortest season we have. In this garden it does not creep forward like strawberries or hang on like the figs. It comes in…
Why We Started Writing Things Down
Every April, around the time the garden wakes and the apricot tree shows its first pale blossom, Nonna Elsa opens the drawer under the kitchen table and takes out a notebook with a soft…