Lemons with Pear Basket, Diane Farris, ©2023
Pear Basket, Diane Farris, ©2000
There was a time after college when I was fortunate to spend a few weeks in a small Umbrian hill town. The recent art call from What’s Next for Earth, “Meeting Essential Community Needs”, brought reflections on an early experience that has deeply informed my life. Though times were not easy for the residents, the warmth of community and the celebration of seasonal resources in that setting made “enough” often feel like abundance.
People brought what they had to the town square market: figs resting in their own leaves, zucchini with open, golden flowers, ripe melons, rose-shaped breads, baskets of fresh cheeses and eggs, honey and aromatic olive oil. Essential plants like tomato, basil, thyme and rosemary in clay pots crowded windowsills and gardens. People flowed in and out of narrow coffee bars filled with laughter, talk and debate over who would treat friends to a coffee this time. Around lunch and dinnertime, people would drift home to dine with family or gravitate toward small restaurants with a half dozen tables, enough for the owner/cooks to make a living and small enough to open and close as desired.
I had a room above such a restaurant and had the opportunity to learn and help out in the kitchen where Signora Adele presided with calm and expertise. The kitchen was lively with children and pets, friends and family, bringing news, produce or bread, pouring another coffee from the worn espresso pot. Hot water was heated on the wood burning stove – and live pigeons were held in the cold oven (perhaps foreshadowing my vegetarian future). Great sheets of pasta would be rolled out on the table with a broom handle, then folded and cut into wide tagliatelle noodles. This is where I learned to make the risotto described in my pandemic blog entry, Zoomsotto, a dish built simply, no recipe needed. Leftover risotto could become suppli al telefono the next day, filled with local cheese and rolled in saved breadcrumbs. Those breadcrumbs could also stuff tomatoes or trout - or dress a pasta dish. I enjoy the way one dish can weave into another, through lines in the kitchen’s story. Many practices from that time are very much a part of my daily life, from the pasta making to keeping a bag of leftover breads for crumbs, composting - and keeping tomatoes, basil, thyme and rosemary at hand.
In that time and place, I was making photographs, drawings on paper from the local butcher and paintings. The sketches included in this post are from those days. I remember a sense of discovery and well-being. Two portfolios on my website, Italian Time and Italian Time: Ariccia offer images from Italy over the years.
The Pear Basket was made years ago, an homage to that early encounter. In it, Signora Adele rolls out pasta dough; a table welcomes company, and fresh produce spills from a market basket. Enough/Lemons with Pear Basket is a new image with today’s resources represented by lemons from our backyard Meyer Lemon tree, awaiting shared preparation and enjoyment with children, family and friends. In the background is the original photograph of Pear Basket and a page from a vintage dictionary in which “enough” is defined as “plenty” and even, “abundance”.
These are sketches from that time and place, found in a recent studio clean up. Sketchbooks and photographs bring people and settings back with surprising - and reliable - clarity.
Espresso Pots from a recent trip to Ameno with wonderful friends. May we all enjoy generous times in good company! DF, 2024
