32 animal, vegetable, miracleWaiting for the quality experience seems to be the constitutional article
that has slipped from American food custom. If we mean to reclaim it,
asparagus seems like a place to start. And if the object of our delayed
gratification is a suspected aphrodisiac? That’s the sublime paradox of a
food culture: restraint equals indulgence.
/On a Sunday in early April we sat at the kitchen table putting together
our grocery list for the coming week. The mood was uncharacteristically
grave. Normally we all just penciled our necessities onto a notepad stuck
onto the fridge. Before shopping, we’d consolidate our foraging plan. The
problem now was that we wanted to be a different kind of animal—one
that doesn’t jump the fence for every little thing. We kept postponing our
start date until the garden looked more hospitable, but if we meant to do
this for a whole year, we would have to eat in April sooner or later. We had
harvested and eaten asparagus now, twice. That was our starting gun:
ready, set... ready?
Like so many big ideas, this one was easier to present to the board of
directors than the stockholders. Our family now convened around the
oak table in our kitchen; the milk- glass farmhouse light above us cast a
dramatic glow. The grandfather clock ticked audibly in the next room.
We’d fixed up our old house in the architectural style known as recycling:
we’d gleaned old light fi xtures, hardware, even sinks and a bathtub from
torn-down buildings; our refrigerator is a spruced- up little 1932 Kelvina-
tor. It all gives our kitchen a comfortable lived- in charm, but at the mo-
ment it felt to me like a set where I was auditioning for a part in either
Little House on the Prairie or Mommie Dearest.
They all sat facing me. Steven: my faithful helpmeet, now quite happy
to let me play the heavy. And whose idea this whole thing was in the fi rst
place, I’m pretty sure. Camille: our redheaded teenager, who in defi ance
of all stereotypes has the most even temperament in our family. From
birth, this child has calmly studied and solved every problem in her path,
never asking for special help from the Universe or her parents. At eigh-
teen she now functioned in our household as a full adult, cooking and
planning meals often, and was also a dancer who fueled her calorie-