SOUL. How To Enjoy Fruit This Summer.
A Turkish-American woman I was traveling with has the gift of speaking poetry about the simplest of acts. A beautiful mind, and soul, she has a way of distilling wisdom and enriching life through what may seem to be the mundane everyday.
She shared a ritual that was passed to her by her mother. I am not certain if this an entirely Turkish tradition, but regardless it is one I will forever associate with her with gratitude. Her mother taught a way to enjoy the first fruit of the season, and that is to make a wish with the opening bite.
The reason? If you eat that fruit seasonally, there is likely a yearning that you have had for that taste, texture, experience for many months. A craving that is finally being fulfilled. A moment of bliss in the satisfaction of now having that juicy, sweet [insert your favorite fruit here] in contact with your tastebuds. This blissful state of mind is the perfect time to “make a wish,” set an intention, put forth a dream.
This beautiful, yet simple, tradition brought up two concepts for me: 1) seasonality and 2) dreaming.
Seasonality is not something we pay much homage to these days. It is possible to find tomatoes, figs, blueberries all year round just about anywhere. And their taste? I will leave that to your own judgement. But a memory comes to mind for me a year ago on a family trip to Italy. It was my sister’s second time to the country, and the first was almost 20 years earlier. At breakfast our first morning, she had a bowl of ruby red strawberries. As she took a bite into the first one, she marveled at their taste - something she had not tasted for a while with the Driscoll strawberries in the US. And also their color - red all the way to the green stem.
Our “I want it now” convenience culture has perhaps untrained us to the seasonality of fruits and vegetables. But our tastebuds have not forgotten; they know the difference between one picked at the peak of ripeness from a nearby farm, and a fruit picked while still green, sprayed with ethylene and transported from thousands of miles away. One bite, and you now the difference.
On dreaming, this was also a theme of this Turkey trip for me. First incited by the wise and thoughtful friends I was traveling with, “Let’s allow ourselves to dream unabashedly together. Give them life by speaking them aloud.” What an invitation, - even to get in touch with what dreams may be that have been buried deep by practicalities and reality. Time to get back in touch with what sets a spark inside.
So now, I return the invitation to you this Summer. Enjoy your local fruit this season, and with the first bite of cherry, nectarine, watermelon, huckleberry … make a wish. Be in touch with your dreams. And enjoy food as medicine for the soul.
