The Artist Date is a dream-child of Julia Cameron, helping readers learn how to become a better writer. We’ve discussed her book, The Artist’s Way, and highly recommend both the book and the weekly date. An Artist Date can be life-changing. It can open your creativity like nothing else, even if you travel no farther than the garden and back to the kitchen.
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I hold the tomato in the palm of my hand. Red and round and perfect, it whispers to me in the early morning sun, I am more than what you see. I press its coolness to my nose, feel the damp that beads on its smooth surface, and I see the possibilities.
The mid-August air has lost some of its heaviness already, the coolness of morning lingering longer each day. Most of the local schools are in session, my house is empty, and I am alone with the garden. The tomato vines bend low with plump fruit. I move between their leafy fullness, plucking as I go. My apron makes a handy basket—I gather up its skirt-like corners and soon it dips low in the center, filled with all these ruby-skinned gems.
Inside, I spread the bounty out on newspaper-covered counters. I cut a little X on the bottom of each round with a serrated knife. The pot of water sits on the stove to boil for dipping batches of plump fruit into roiling waves. They bump each other around for 15 seconds in the hot bath and then it’s time to blanch them in the waiting ice water. The skins slip off easily after their spa and I chop them into a thick puree with my food processor.
While the olive oil is heating in the Dutch oven, I chop onions. As I slit through the papery skins with my knife, I remember Fr. Robert Farrar Capon’s essay, The Heavenly Onion from his book The Supper of the Lamb.
Onions are excellent company, he says.
I smile at the thought, but know I will be crying soon. Capon tells us to spend at least an hour with our onion—greeting it, observing it, dissecting and entering it.
I address the onion.
If I spend more than five minutes with you I’ll be bawling, I say. My nose starts to run.
But I do like the feel of it in my hand and soon it is crackling with the oil in the bottom of the Dutch oven. I dice some peppers, mince garlic and pick some basil from my herb garden. When the flavors marry and everything simmers in the pot, I wipe my hands on my apron and put on a pot of tea.
The house fills with that heady aroma of garlic and sweet marinara and all there is to do now is wait. And stir.
Julia Cameron tells me, “As a writer, I eat with my eyes.”
I pull the wooden spoon through the thickening sauce and it simmers red into orange around the bubbling edges. I study these flecks of green basil melting into rich red tomatoes and I am fed.
Post and image by Laura Boggess of The Wellspring. Image used with permission.
How to become a better writer? Browse Artist Dates for inspiration, then head out on your own.
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In September we’re exploring the theme Tattoos.
- Year of the Monarch—A Visit to Craik-Patton House - September 18, 2024
- Year of the Monarch: Butterfly Dreams - March 20, 2024
- Year of the Monarch: Harvesting and Planting Milkweed Seeds - November 15, 2023
Shelly Miller says
Oh Laura, you can take something as simple as making homemade marinara and turn it into a beautiful moment with your word weaving. I love this. And I’m hungry now.
laura says
Thank you, Shelly :). I’m looking forward to sharing the table with you soon! To me, there is something so sacred, so filling about the work of the kitchen. It’s a wonderful way of showing love. That marinara I made is chock full of it 🙂
Kelly Greer says
Laura – You just turned my next project of making tomato basil sauce from work to pure pleasure! You really captured the full experience in this one. So lovely and inviting! Bless you!
Hugs,
Kelly
laura says
Tomato basil? Mmmmm, Kelly. My garden is on its last legs, the tomatoes all but gone. But the peppers are really coming in. What shall we do with all these jalapenos?
Sandra Heska King says
Oh, you fed me this morning!
laura says
Always a feast with you, my friend!
Ann Kroeker says
Delicious….
You know how to stir together something beautiful.
laura says
It helps when friends are involved in the telling :). Makes the table much more fun!
Maureen Doallas says
Sensuous and lovely images, Laura.
———-
Company
The house, empty, whispers
of fruit plump with possibilities.
A hand, once lingering
in the coolness of the morning,
makes a move.
Skins slip off.
Everything simmers.
laura says
Now THAT, is sensuous, Maureen :). I love the way you listen.
Megan Willome says
I started cooking again this summer. I find that it feeds–yes, feeds–something in me. Yesterday, I chopped onions and peppers for one meal, then carrots, mushrooms, and bok choy for another. It relaxed me. I feel better, knowing good food awaits.
And now, my new Friday ritual: Make dessert! It’s nice for my daughter to have something to nibble when she gets back from football late at night.
laura says
I feel the same way, Megan. And I’m not the domestic type…but there’s something about the kitchen. For me, growing my own food has had a big impact too. A couple nights ago, I made a huge pot of gumbo because I wanted to use the okra I had grown. It’s just plain fun.
I like the idea of dessert night!
Monica Sharman says
Laura, long before this, I’ve come to associate the tomato with . . . you! (That’s a compliment, in case it wasn’t clear.)
Love the interaction between you and the onion. Come to think of it, I often cry in excellent company.
laura says
LOL, Monica! I can’t get enough tomatoes. It’s a memory thing. I still remember my mom’s cellar house-walls lined with jars of tomato juice, stewed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes…tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! Maybe they make me feel like a girl again? I know that I didn’t appreciate them enough when I was young. Maybe this is penance?
lynndiane says
This is soooo satisfying, Laura. Yesterday I canned applesauce… it’s like “putting up” love for later!
Maureen, you could probably make a tomato blush 🙂
Diana Trautwein says
Absolutely gorgeous, Laura. Love this. Love you.