changesustain: Warm, bitter, beautiful

"Together we stooped to pick up fallen wild peaches. Blood peaches. It was the first time I had ever seen a wild peach. I held one up to the light, broke it in two to study the scarlet veins running through the flesh." - Kim Sunee, Trail of Crumbs.

The idea of plucking something from a plant and popping it into my mouth is very alien, scary even. I have a long held fear of poisonous plants from my mum's paranoia over a large bush with red berries that grew in our garden. I find it sad that I've grown up to believe that food is not food until it has arrived at a shop, gone into a plastic bag, been paid for and brought home. When I was reading Trail of Crumbs it was her descriptions of the wild fruits and freshly grown produce that really captivated me. Could you actually bite into a peach picked up from beneath its tree? What a wonderful idea! It seems romantic, natural and strange all at the same time.

Today, however, I ate something straight from the bush. It was a gooseberry. I did some research and some sources indicated that the berry was green and as I was looking at the plant today (on my twice daily visit to all of them) I thought I might try one and see if they were ripe and, perhaps, if they were, in fact, edible. I pulled open the soft little pod that are like intricate tear-shaped balloons and pulled the little green ball out. It was a little bitter, but not much, it was warm from the sun, it tasted like a berry and I didn't die. It was liberating, in fact. Exciting even.

I also realised that I have seen this plant before. It grew at the little farm in Sweden where I housesat one winter for six weeks. The little pods captivated me then, brown and dry and covered in snow and I wondered what on earth this charming little plant was, never believing that I'd know, let alone have one growning in my garden. It feels reassuring - it is a gentle reminder of one of the very best times in my life. Exactly the sort of thing I need right now.