Poem: "A Whole World of a Thing to Do"
This poem came out of the June 6, 2023 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Dreamwidth user Acelightning73. It also fills the "Main character ends up in a foreign country" square in my 6-1-23 card for the Kinky and Unusual Situations Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by DW user Fuzzyred. It belongs to the Rutledge thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
"A Whole World of a Thing to Do"
[Saturday, June 27, 2015]
Zelmira Qasim was delighted
when she spotted the truckstand
selling boxes of strawberries.
Back in Syria, they were
a winter treat, first ripening
in November or December,
then continuing through March.
Here they were a summer fruit,
available June through August.
Zelmira bought a medium box.
She was tempted by the big ones
the size of a drawer, but she and
her son Neguib couldn't eat
that much fruit at once.
When the civil war had
started, Zelmira watched it
move closer and closer to
the art gallery where she
worked in Damascus, and
the family home nearby.
She used her art contacts
to smuggle her family out
of Syria, but then they had
gotten separated in Jordan.
She didn't know whether
her husband Marwan and
their daughters Jalila and
Lamis had survived, but
still hoped that they had.
Zelmira and Neguib
had made their way
to France, where they
stayed for a while, then
eventually to America where
they settled in Rutledge, Vermont.
When Neguib came home from
his summer English program,
he was excited by the strawberries.
"Where did you find these?" he said.
"I'm used to strawberries in winter."
"A truckstand," said Zelmira. "Here
they grow in summer. I wish we
could have them all year round."
"Maybe we can," said Neguib.
He pulled out some papers that
he brought home from the library.
"There are all these programs, and
I thought I saw one about fruit. Yes,
here -- a class on home canning."
Zelmira thought about the metal cans
of peaches and mixed fruit that came
from the food pantry. "That doesn't
seem practical at home," she said.
"Not metal cans like from a store,
but these glass jars," said Neguib.
"Some of the other kids have jelly
or canned fruit from home."
"Well, let's see," said Zelmira.
She looked over the pages,
struggling to read the entries.
"Yes, there's a canning class
this afternoon at a place called
Emerald Mountain Glen and it
says that it's free," Zelmira said.
"Would you rather come along,
or find friends to stay with?"
"I'll come," said Neguib.
"It sounds interesting."
So they went out to
Emerald Mountain Glen.
Signs pointed them to
the retrofitted garage,
and they went inside
to find generous spaces
devoted to the cleaning
and canning of produce.
Overhead, the banner read,
Welcome to the Can Can Club!
above a row of cartoon vegetables
doing some sort of kick dance.
On one wall, a chalkboard read,
Come give it a try, you can can!
Today's selections for canning are:
Fruit: strawberries, cherries, rhubarb
Vegetables: beans, peas, broccoli.
Portable kitchen equipment
around the room set up stations
for each different type of food,
with a listing of recipes for each.
Zelmira headed for the one that read,
Canning Recipes for Strawberries:
Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
The Easiest Strawberry Jam Recipe
Homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Cherry-Strawberry Jam Recipe
Strawberry Pie Filling.
"So many things to do
with the strawberries,"
Neguib said, staring.
The women who stood
at the station beckoned
them closer with smiles.
"I'm Mountain Rose Brown and
this is my daughter, Abundance.
We live at Emerald Mountain Glen,"
said the middle-aged blonde woman.
"Mildred O'Leary is from town. She
belongs to our club and helps teach."
"My name is Zelmira Qasim and
this is my son Neguib," she said.
I never tried to can anything,
but my son wanted to try this."
"You have lots of options,"
said Mountain Rose. "We're
starting with the easy jam."
"Easy is good," said Zelmira.
"It would be nice to get out of
my head for a while and learn
something new and simple."
Art used to help her focus,
but she'd gone from managing
a gallery in Damascus to working
at an art supply shop in Rutledge,
so that didn't help as much now.
"Canning is a whole world of
a thing to do," said Mountain Rose.
"It requires you to get out of your head.
It's a Zen thing. You cannot be wondering
about your inadequacies and how they
drove Bob off and be making jelly. You'll
wind up with big, cylindrical jujubes."
Abundance shook her head. "Bob
isn't that big a deal," she said. "I'm
kind of bummed that he left, but not
broken up over him. I'll just drown
my sorrows in strawberry jam."
"You are lucky to have that,"
said Zelmira. "In Syria, we
used to have strawberries
in winter, but then it got
hard to find food at all."
"Yeah, that was rough,"
said Neguib. "I like Vermont,
it has all kinds of good food."
"I feel blessed to have had
such a background where
farm animals, food raising,
harvesting and canning
are a natural part of life,"
Abundance said. "I love
living here, gathering food
from the woods and gardens."
"I actually started canning as
a young mother," said Mildred.
"I needed a job that I could do
from home with small children
underfoot. That grew into
making hospitability baskets
for the bed-and-breakfasts."
"That sounds lovely,"
said Zelmira. "You must
be quite good at that."
"I won all the blue ribbons
for canning at the state fair,"
said Mildred. "I've had
years of practice, though."
"Then let's get started,"
said Mountain Rose. "We
work together, and everyone
gets some of each batch
that they help to make."
"I don't know how to cook,
but want to learn," said Neguib.
"I can clean the strawberries."
"Just wash and hull them,"
said Mountain Rose. "We're
starting with lemonade concentrate,
so the strawberries get puréed."
"We need to juice the lemons,"
said Mildred. "Zelmira, would
you like to help with that?"
"Now that I know how to do,"
Zelmira said, smiling. "We
cook with lemons all the time."
The recipe wasn't complicated.
All they had to do was cook
the puréed strawberries with
lemon juice and sugar, then
load the concentrate into
the waiting glass jars.
"Always make sure
to wipe the rims clean,"
said Mildred. "That
gives you a good seal."
Once the lids went on,
the jars sat in something
called a water bath for
fifteen minutes, and
then they were done.
"Tape won't stick until
they cool," said Mildred.
She made paper tents
with everyone's name
on them, then sorted out
the jars. Several were
left over for the farm store.
"We'll make some jam next,"
said Mountain Rose. "That
uses pectin, which is halal."
"This time, the strawberries
need to be hulled and chopped,"
said Mildred. "We also need
to juice lemons, then mix
the pectin with the sugar."
They were making a big batch
because jam was popular, so
everyone got to help with
the different steps involved.
Making jam required boiling
the strawberries, then adding
the sugar and the pectin.
After that, they poured
the liquid jam into the jars
and put them in the water bath.
"Are you interested in variations?"
Abundance asked. "We can do
strawberry with rhubarb or cherries."
"We love rhubarb," said Zelmira
"We're interested in both of those."
"Rhubarb can be sweet?" said Neguib.
"At home we put it in stew with lamb."
"Yes, rhubarb is sour but if you add
sugar to make jam, then it can turn
somewhat sweet," said Abundance.
Mountain Rose brought out a basket
of rhubarb. "This has been washed,
so we just need to chop the stems.
Leaves go in the compost bucket."
Chopping the rhubarb required
a bit more care than strawberries,
to make tidy little crescents.
They also had to mash
the strawberries, and then
while cooking, make sure
the two fruits blended well.
The jam put out a lot of foam
that had to be skimmed off.
After making strawberry-rhubarb,
they moved on to strawberry-cherry.
The cherries had to be stemmed
and pitted, then mashed. Strawberries
needed to be hulled and mashed.
From there it worked a lot like
the strawberry-rhubarb had.
Zelmira was starting to see
the patterns in making jelly,
much the way you could mix
a cool red with white to get pink,
or a warm red to get peach.
She helped sort out the jars
behind the various name tags.
"We're building up a good set
here," she said to Neguib.
"Strawberries in winter,"
he replied with a smile.
"The last recipe is for
strawberry pie filling,"
said Mildred. "This time,
we're slicing the strawberries
and adding an extra thickener."
By now the motions of hulling
the strawberries were familiar.
The thickener had to be mixed cold,
and the strawberries blanched,
before blending them together
and putting the filling in the jars
to process them in the water bath.
When finished, the pie filling had
sliced strawberries suspended
in a glossy, jewel-red gel.
"The big jars are sized
to make a pie apiece, but
you could also pour this over
cheesecake or ice cream,"
Abundance pointed out.
"Ice cream in summer, and
hot pie in winter," Neguib said.
"I like that idea," said Zelmira.
It had surprised her when
Neguib suggested canning
as a way to keep strawberries
for winter, but she had to admit
that it was a promising solution.
She wasn't sure that she felt
confident enough to try canning
by herself yet, but the process
made sense and she thought
a few more classes might help.
It really was a whole world of
a thing to do, and she loved it.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its character and content notes appear separately.
"A Whole World of a Thing to Do"
[Saturday, June 27, 2015]
Zelmira Qasim was delighted
when she spotted the truckstand
selling boxes of strawberries.
Back in Syria, they were
a winter treat, first ripening
in November or December,
then continuing through March.
Here they were a summer fruit,
available June through August.
Zelmira bought a medium box.
She was tempted by the big ones
the size of a drawer, but she and
her son Neguib couldn't eat
that much fruit at once.
When the civil war had
started, Zelmira watched it
move closer and closer to
the art gallery where she
worked in Damascus, and
the family home nearby.
She used her art contacts
to smuggle her family out
of Syria, but then they had
gotten separated in Jordan.
She didn't know whether
her husband Marwan and
their daughters Jalila and
Lamis had survived, but
still hoped that they had.
Zelmira and Neguib
had made their way
to France, where they
stayed for a while, then
eventually to America where
they settled in Rutledge, Vermont.
When Neguib came home from
his summer English program,
he was excited by the strawberries.
"Where did you find these?" he said.
"I'm used to strawberries in winter."
"A truckstand," said Zelmira. "Here
they grow in summer. I wish we
could have them all year round."
"Maybe we can," said Neguib.
He pulled out some papers that
he brought home from the library.
"There are all these programs, and
I thought I saw one about fruit. Yes,
here -- a class on home canning."
Zelmira thought about the metal cans
of peaches and mixed fruit that came
from the food pantry. "That doesn't
seem practical at home," she said.
"Not metal cans like from a store,
but these glass jars," said Neguib.
"Some of the other kids have jelly
or canned fruit from home."
"Well, let's see," said Zelmira.
She looked over the pages,
struggling to read the entries.
"Yes, there's a canning class
this afternoon at a place called
Emerald Mountain Glen and it
says that it's free," Zelmira said.
"Would you rather come along,
or find friends to stay with?"
"I'll come," said Neguib.
"It sounds interesting."
So they went out to
Emerald Mountain Glen.
Signs pointed them to
the retrofitted garage,
and they went inside
to find generous spaces
devoted to the cleaning
and canning of produce.
Overhead, the banner read,
Welcome to the Can Can Club!
above a row of cartoon vegetables
doing some sort of kick dance.
On one wall, a chalkboard read,
Come give it a try, you can can!
Today's selections for canning are:
Fruit: strawberries, cherries, rhubarb
Vegetables: beans, peas, broccoli.
Portable kitchen equipment
around the room set up stations
for each different type of food,
with a listing of recipes for each.
Zelmira headed for the one that read,
Canning Recipes for Strawberries:
Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
The Easiest Strawberry Jam Recipe
Homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Cherry-Strawberry Jam Recipe
Strawberry Pie Filling.
"So many things to do
with the strawberries,"
Neguib said, staring.
The women who stood
at the station beckoned
them closer with smiles.
"I'm Mountain Rose Brown and
this is my daughter, Abundance.
We live at Emerald Mountain Glen,"
said the middle-aged blonde woman.
"Mildred O'Leary is from town. She
belongs to our club and helps teach."
"My name is Zelmira Qasim and
this is my son Neguib," she said.
I never tried to can anything,
but my son wanted to try this."
"You have lots of options,"
said Mountain Rose. "We're
starting with the easy jam."
"Easy is good," said Zelmira.
"It would be nice to get out of
my head for a while and learn
something new and simple."
Art used to help her focus,
but she'd gone from managing
a gallery in Damascus to working
at an art supply shop in Rutledge,
so that didn't help as much now.
"Canning is a whole world of
a thing to do," said Mountain Rose.
"It requires you to get out of your head.
It's a Zen thing. You cannot be wondering
about your inadequacies and how they
drove Bob off and be making jelly. You'll
wind up with big, cylindrical jujubes."
Abundance shook her head. "Bob
isn't that big a deal," she said. "I'm
kind of bummed that he left, but not
broken up over him. I'll just drown
my sorrows in strawberry jam."
"You are lucky to have that,"
said Zelmira. "In Syria, we
used to have strawberries
in winter, but then it got
hard to find food at all."
"Yeah, that was rough,"
said Neguib. "I like Vermont,
it has all kinds of good food."
"I feel blessed to have had
such a background where
farm animals, food raising,
harvesting and canning
are a natural part of life,"
Abundance said. "I love
living here, gathering food
from the woods and gardens."
"I actually started canning as
a young mother," said Mildred.
"I needed a job that I could do
from home with small children
underfoot. That grew into
making hospitability baskets
for the bed-and-breakfasts."
"That sounds lovely,"
said Zelmira. "You must
be quite good at that."
"I won all the blue ribbons
for canning at the state fair,"
said Mildred. "I've had
years of practice, though."
"Then let's get started,"
said Mountain Rose. "We
work together, and everyone
gets some of each batch
that they help to make."
"I don't know how to cook,
but want to learn," said Neguib.
"I can clean the strawberries."
"Just wash and hull them,"
said Mountain Rose. "We're
starting with lemonade concentrate,
so the strawberries get puréed."
"We need to juice the lemons,"
said Mildred. "Zelmira, would
you like to help with that?"
"Now that I know how to do,"
Zelmira said, smiling. "We
cook with lemons all the time."
The recipe wasn't complicated.
All they had to do was cook
the puréed strawberries with
lemon juice and sugar, then
load the concentrate into
the waiting glass jars.
"Always make sure
to wipe the rims clean,"
said Mildred. "That
gives you a good seal."
Once the lids went on,
the jars sat in something
called a water bath for
fifteen minutes, and
then they were done.
"Tape won't stick until
they cool," said Mildred.
She made paper tents
with everyone's name
on them, then sorted out
the jars. Several were
left over for the farm store.
"We'll make some jam next,"
said Mountain Rose. "That
uses pectin, which is halal."
"This time, the strawberries
need to be hulled and chopped,"
said Mildred. "We also need
to juice lemons, then mix
the pectin with the sugar."
They were making a big batch
because jam was popular, so
everyone got to help with
the different steps involved.
Making jam required boiling
the strawberries, then adding
the sugar and the pectin.
After that, they poured
the liquid jam into the jars
and put them in the water bath.
"Are you interested in variations?"
Abundance asked. "We can do
strawberry with rhubarb or cherries."
"We love rhubarb," said Zelmira
"We're interested in both of those."
"Rhubarb can be sweet?" said Neguib.
"At home we put it in stew with lamb."
"Yes, rhubarb is sour but if you add
sugar to make jam, then it can turn
somewhat sweet," said Abundance.
Mountain Rose brought out a basket
of rhubarb. "This has been washed,
so we just need to chop the stems.
Leaves go in the compost bucket."
Chopping the rhubarb required
a bit more care than strawberries,
to make tidy little crescents.
They also had to mash
the strawberries, and then
while cooking, make sure
the two fruits blended well.
The jam put out a lot of foam
that had to be skimmed off.
After making strawberry-rhubarb,
they moved on to strawberry-cherry.
The cherries had to be stemmed
and pitted, then mashed. Strawberries
needed to be hulled and mashed.
From there it worked a lot like
the strawberry-rhubarb had.
Zelmira was starting to see
the patterns in making jelly,
much the way you could mix
a cool red with white to get pink,
or a warm red to get peach.
She helped sort out the jars
behind the various name tags.
"We're building up a good set
here," she said to Neguib.
"Strawberries in winter,"
he replied with a smile.
"The last recipe is for
strawberry pie filling,"
said Mildred. "This time,
we're slicing the strawberries
and adding an extra thickener."
By now the motions of hulling
the strawberries were familiar.
The thickener had to be mixed cold,
and the strawberries blanched,
before blending them together
and putting the filling in the jars
to process them in the water bath.
When finished, the pie filling had
sliced strawberries suspended
in a glossy, jewel-red gel.
"The big jars are sized
to make a pie apiece, but
you could also pour this over
cheesecake or ice cream,"
Abundance pointed out.
"Ice cream in summer, and
hot pie in winter," Neguib said.
"I like that idea," said Zelmira.
It had surprised her when
Neguib suggested canning
as a way to keep strawberries
for winter, but she had to admit
that it was a promising solution.
She wasn't sure that she felt
confident enough to try canning
by herself yet, but the process
made sense and she thought
a few more classes might help.
It really was a whole world of
a thing to do, and she loved it.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its character and content notes appear separately.