The food here is in almost every colour imaginable, and we eat loads of fruits and vegetables for every meel. Alot of it is from Carolyn and Hossy's garden, but also alot comes from the market. Carolyn took me to her "vegetable man" the other day, and I couldn't stop taking photos and asking questions. What is this? What is that? Is it a fruit or a vegetable? How does it taste :-)
The vegetable man got a broad smile when he realized my interest in his stuff, and people from other boots nearby came to have their photos taken when they saw my camera. I am collecting portraits.
My weeks here are a holiday, and I spend hours on Carolyn's porch, reading, writing, painting or listening to stories from Carolyn and Hossy's life.
From their stories and from books and magazines I learn all the time. Custard apple was a word I had never heard before. Then I went to the market and actually got one, and then I came home and read from "A Vision of Eden by Marianne North, a Victorian Englishwoman who travelled the world around 1870 to paint trees and flowers:
Some of the wild fruits are very good, though the English seldom eat them. The custard apple was an especial favorite of mine; it was a green horny heart-shaped thing growing close to the stem of the tree, with a creamy pulp and black seeds, and an acid pineapple flavour.
The vegetable man gave me a custard apple as a gift. Now it is laying on the fruit plate waiting to be ripe enough to eat.
Soon I can make Marianne North's words mine.
We use alot of fruits and vegetables at home, and I considered myself an expert. But what did I know?
What is your favorite fruit? Is there a fruit you have heard about but never tasted?
