Sustenence. I Don't Know At Which Point It Flipped to Being an Art Form.

"He thought it happier to be dead,

To die for Beauty, than live for bread."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

October is the time of the harvest, of the abundant feast, of the wine crush, of ethereal dreams ripening into fruition. I'm thinking these will be the recurring themes of this blog over the autumn harvest season.

And I see Tara Hunt (viva la slow marketing!) is thinking along same lines: "Sustenance. I don't know at which point it flipped to being an art form." That book I'm writing - albeit in fits and starts - was inspired by no less than bread, fasting, feasting, Hansel and Gretel & "man doth not live by bread alone".

Tara shares:

..Like the mature wines we drank in France, they will taste 'right'. The kind of right that happens naturally, over time, like they are supposed to. Like they've waited for that exact moment to dance across our palettes. The difference between having a conversation with an awkward teenager:

me: "So, what do you think of [insert cool thing here]?"
teenager: "It sounds stupid."

...and having a conversation with an engaged, interesting, interested person. One is mildly entertaining and the other awakens your senses and pushes your imagination further. It's like the first sip of a mature wine lays out the bouquet of the ingredients the wine encountered as it went through it's lifetime as a grape and then as a liquid. The vineyards of France talk about Terroir...or the 'sense of place', which exists mostly in geography, but also in the nuances of the life cycle of the wine. A hint of apple? Perhaps the soil previously bore an orchard. The second wave of sensation hits you with a realisation of the history of the wine. We watched Sideways last night (me, for the second time) and Virginia Madsen's character discusses how she loves wine for it's unique history: how she imagines the person who picked the grapes...that with old wine, that person could be gone. Some believe the soul of everyone who is involved in the process of making the wine along the way infuses the wine with their character.

Merci beaucoup, Tara. Perfect.

BONUS: If you are local to Bay Area or are in town, join us:

TUES, OCTOBER 17. Salon #5 at Vino Locale, 431 Kipling Street (at University Ave), Palo Alto, ( map) 6 pm. Vino Locale is an inviting, cozy Victorian home with a slow food inspiried cafe specializing in local wines and supporting local art. In fact, proprietor Randy is the leader of the South Bay chapter of Slow Food USA. We'll start the open mic for lyrical prose, singer-songwriters, poets, etc on themes of sustenance, harvest, bread and wine, and anything really that strikes your muse at about 7:30 p.m. You can read/sing/perform your favorite writer or performers work too!

 

Lovely photographer Mary Bartnikowski, www.bartnikowski.com, whose work is currently on display at Vino Locale will be in attendance.

The theme was inspired by the season, the slant of the harvest moon, and the Italian novel, Bread and Wine. Revolutionary Pietro Spina, the main character, returns to pre-war 1938 Italy after a lengthy exile disguised as a priest:

His journey takes him from the pavements of Rome to the lovingly tended earth of the impoverished countryside, where he rediscovers a way of life attuned to the eternal rhythms of planting and harvesting , the enduring pulsebeat of birth and death. Slogans and political dogma fade beside the blossoming of a vision in which flesh and spirit are as inseparably joined as the bread and the wine that give this masterpiece its title and its theme . - backcover of Bread and Wine, by Italian novelist Ignazio Silone

"Writers and poets have always been fascinated by the mouth, which can probably claim more erotic literature in its own right than any other single part of the body. The language of love is filled with images of the mouth, of food and of eating, beginning with the Bible. "Thy lips, O my spouse," says the Song of Solomon, "drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue...Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits."" - The Sex Life of Food: When Body and Soul Meet to Eat, by Bunny Crumpacker

Since Randy buys his produce at Live Earth Farm, and hey it's slow food, I've already put in my order for 20 people. $20 per person, $30 per couple in advance by Paypal (at my email) or at the door, including wine tasting. Frugal students, inquire separately.

 

PLEASE RSVP by email or 408-513-7324.

Happy feasting and wine-stomping!

p.s. Salonists join in for slow-inspired tao-er power lunches every Thursday at Vino Locale throughout harvest season starting this Oct 12th at noon. No RSVPs needed, simply show up.

images Flickr Olive and bread by Dey; what do you know a search on 'terroir' tag in Flickr yields Tara's own photo of her recent trek to southern France (this grotte is nearby the winery Daumas Gassac).

Comments

[Romy]

I live in the East Coast but if I could join you I would start with this verse about bread, wine, poetry and friendship:

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, -- and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness --
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

(from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam)

[Ric]

I have a brother-in-law who is quintessential "salt of the earth" - a southern Italian who would scoff at such an ephemeral concept, but whose touch with wine, olive oil and simple fresh food betrays thousands of years of inherited DNA, and always makes a visit to his place a joy. He takes his personal 'terroir' wherever he goes ...