Poem: "The Deeply Colored Rows"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the August 2, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from ng_moonmoth and See_Also_Friend. It also fills the "Assemble" square in my 8-1-22 card for the Reel Time Bingo fest. It belongs to the Daughters of the Apocalypse series.


"The Deeply Colored Rows"

[1 A.E.]

The first year After
was chaos, but people
had stored food to rely on.

Beyond that, they had
to grow their own and
remember or relearn
how to preserve it.

The Cherokee had
taken with them
the Three Sisters
of corn, squash, and
beans -- all of which
could be dried for winter.

Along they way they picked up
sunflowers to grow for seeds,
greens, and petals in salads.

Sunchokes, a popular survival food,
provided nutritious roots of red or white
that would keep in the ground all winter.

On the coasts, people harvested salt
and used it to pack salmon or other fish.

Smoking and drying regained
their popularity as well.

Buffalo and venison
both dried well and
could be used as jerky,
reconstituted in soups,
or pounded to powder
and made into pemmican.

All the Blackfeet women
had taken the food that
came from the ground
and preserved it.

Now they assembled
the deeply colored rows
of jellies and pickles and
canned vegetables and
fruit, maroon and amber
and dark rich green.

They stood side by side
in the pantries and root cellars,
a poem by the Blackfeet women.

The root cellars also held braids
of onions and garlic, baskets of sand
for potatoes and carrots, barrels
of cooking apples and pears.

Dried fruits were packed in
jars of honey or maple syrup,
sometimes meats as well.

People who kept milk cows,
sheep, or goats fermented
yogurt and hard cheeses that
kept better than fresh milk.

All through the growing season,
the deeply colored rows of corn,
squash, beans, tomatoes, and
other crops soaked up the sun.

Autumn brought the harvest
as everyone put up the bounty
to last through the long winter.

Whether the people traveled,
they took their food with them,
and the ways of making it
whether modern or traditional.

There wasn't much left to connect
the scattered remains of Before,
but food was always bonding.

* * *

Notes:

"All the Blackwood women had taken the food that came from the ground and preserved it, and the deeply colored rows of jellies and pickles and bottled vegetables and fruit, maroon and amber and dark rich green, stood side by side in our cellar and would stand there forever, a poem by the Blackwood women."
-- Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Explore food preservation methods.

Root cellars come in various types. They can store many kinds of food.

Native American foods include the Three Sisters of corn, squash, and beans of which all three can be dried for winter.

Sunflowers may be grown for seeds or oil. Sunchokes are good survival food.

Pemmican can be made in modern or historic ways.

Comments

[readera]

💙💙💖💖

Food preservation is so amazing! I love hearing about all the ways to preserve food.

[acelightning73]

Your description of the colorful jars of homemade preserves reminded me of the food competitions at old-fashioned country fairs. I can imagine some kind of mixed pickle of the Three Sisters (all of which can be individually pickled) as something you'd eat to remind you of the harvest that just passed, and help you hope that there will be good harvests in the future. And take pride in the work of your hands - you picked those berrries, you cleaned and cooked them and made beautiful gleaming red jam, and the skills of your mind and hands also prompt you to bake a loaf of bread for toast to spread that jam on.