Gherkins & Tomatoes

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

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Photo credit: C. Bertelsen

Reflections on a Green-Grape Tart

September 28, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Sugary milky sweetness, that first delicious taste, imprints itself on a baby’s tiny tongue, and seals forever a great love. From the very beginning of life, then, a yearning for that nectar haunts us forever and never leaves us in peace. This primal urge for sweetness led to the scourge of slavery and fuels the modern obesity epidemic. Imagine, for a moment, vast fields of sugar cane, saber-sharp green blades swaying under gentle tropical breezes, fed by the merciless sun […]

Categories: Africa, France, French Cooking, Grapes, Middle Ages, Science of cooking • Tags: Grapes, Paula Wolfert, Sidney Mintz, Slavery, Sweetness and Power

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The Last Vineyard in Paris? Clos Montmartre

October 3, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Through the seasons of the year, the Montmartre vineyard prevails … the temple of Bacchus no longer sits on the steep slopes and the vineyard covers only a small portion of prime real estate, 1500 square metres to be exact. Benedictine monks in the 12th century produced wine here, their monastery destroyed during the French revolution. A group of artists in the 1920s saved the vineyard and prevented it from being overrun by developers hungry for another type of greenery. […]

Categories: Agriculture, France, French Cooking, Local foods, Photography, Wine • Tags: Clos Montmartre, France, Grapes, Paris, Photography, Vineyards, Wine

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Vitis, Vin: Gift of Life

March 16, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Reach out a hand and take the ruby fruit, gift grown of sun and rain. Vitis. Grapes. Gift too of earth, of chalky soil, sloping and stone-filled, redolent with vistas and vast horizons. Hard toil, yes — certainly this truth the hands of peasants knew. Cutting and pruning, trimming back. Thus, from that harsh care, life blooms and grows amidst the green of summer. Beneath lacy leaves and soft spiraling tendrils, tiny globes pregnant with sweet nectar lie, dormant, red […]

Categories: Agriculture, France, French Cooking, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Grapes, Photography, Vineyards, Vintners, Wine

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Food forms the very essence of life, from the fruit fly to the elephant, with humans in between. So much of what we do revolves around cooking, eating, and the finding of food. Here you'll discover stories, meditations, and photographs celebrating the places that we call home. And, of course, the food that garnishes it all.

My book, due out September 15, 2013

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What’s Cookin’ Here

  • A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas
  • “Stew’s so comforting on a rainy day.” *
  • Singkong, Manioc, Mandioca, Mandió, Tapioca, Yuca: Singing the Praises of Manihot esculenta (Cassava)
  • The Promise of Apple Blossoms

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