Gherkins & Tomatoes

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

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Peaches 2

How Cooking Transforms the Aching Soul

September 12, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Living today’s hurry-up-run-run-run-faster-faster-text-text lifestyle tends to blunt contact with more earthy things, like cooking. The act of cooking offers something that the stiffest drink or most potent tranquilizer cannot. Dare I say it out loud? It’s even better than sex, in a way. Especially when chocolate is involved, but that’s another story … . For me, cooking offers a glimpse of the spiritual, but it’s also a calming and mindful activity. After all, I must be in the present moment […]

Categories: American Cooking, Cooking, Food writing, France, French Cooking, Peaches, Photography, Pies--Sweet • Tags: Cooking, La Cucina, Lily Prior, Meditations, Peaches, Photography, Pies, Spirituality

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Seeking Honey, in the Bee-Loud Glade

March 30, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The journey begins, with a glimpse, through the kitchen window, of golden dust shimmering in sunlight, a phantom shadow darting through the air. Hive-bound, the soaring bee dips and kisses the blue-hued flowers once more.  Life blossoms with the promise of fruits and grains to come. Auriferous, gilt-laden with pollen. Honey. Nectar. Food for the common good. Alchemy. Sweetness dwells in the honeycomb, high up in trees or resting in sunken hollows of the Earth. A drop of honey calms […]

Categories: Cooking, Honey, Lit & Food, Photography • Tags: Back to the land, Bees, Blueberry Jam, Honey, Honeybees, Meditations, Photography, Poetry, Religion, Spirituality, Sustainable agriculture, William Butler Yeats

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Pasta, The Taste of Hospitality

Cooking Italian Food — Rooted in the Past

October 14, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Note: For further reading on cooking, spirituality, and religion, check out my work-in-progress “Food, Spirituality, and Religion Bibliography,” which right now tends to lean a bit more toward Christianity, but will eventually reflect more in-depth aspects of other religious traditions. I find the first-hand experience of cooking delicious Italian food to be one of my callings in life, one of life’s endless riches. Finding the right recipe for the ingredients I have on hand, fussing with my tiny pantry space, […]

Categories: Bibliographies, Italian Cooking • Tags: Cooking, Food, Italian Cooking, Spirituality, St. Benedict

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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

  • Moonstruck, a Meditation on Earth’s Moon
  • The Grocery List: Color, Primates, and Food Selection
  • A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas
  • “Stew’s so comforting on a rainy day.” *

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