Gherkins & Tomatoes

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

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Wonderwerk Cave

Prometheus Unbound: New Evidence on Humans’ Early Use of Fire

April 3, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I woke up this morning fully intending to end my two weeks of silence on this blog – due to familial obligations – with a preliminary examination of the role of ducks in French cuisine. But that alluring topic took a sudden backseat when I opened up my local newspaper and read, “Humans May have Used Fire 1 Million Years Ago.” Recent archaeological finds in a South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave place human use of fire at least several hundreds of thousands of […]

Categories: Africa, Archaeology, Cooking, Drawings, France, Paintings • Tags: Africa, Félix Régnault, Grottes de Gargas, Myths, Paleolithic Diet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Richard Wrangham, Wonderwerk Cave

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Frederic Leighton: The Return of Persephone (1891)

Nightly She Sings on Yon Pomegranate-Tree

November 3, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Magic and myth wind through the history of many foods. At the crux of these stories the very mysteries of life clamor for explanation. In the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, for example, it’s possible to feel the foreboding of ancient humans when the first chill kissed the air and darkness descended over leafless trees and barren fields. Demeter and Persephone. Mother and daughter. Goddesses of Earth. Fertility.  Loss. Hope. A very human story, actually. But first let’s gather […]

Categories: Agriculture, Lit & Food • Tags: Demeter, Myths, Persephone, Pomegranates

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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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