Spreading Joy with the Gift of Food

Sharing food spreads joy, in so many different ways.  Whether you are the giver or receiver I am sure you have felt that joy in at least one small way.  I feel it all the time and it warms my heart. I share food with my family, friends and neighbours. It is a gift that is well received by everyone, no matter their age. It is a simple gift but one you cannot put a price on.  Let me tell you some stories about the joy it brings me.

Homegrown navel oranges from our neighbour

My neighbour grows an enormous variety of edible food in his backyard.  He shares it with us often.  We are always having chats over the fence about growing produce.  We are learning so much from each other. We don't have a lot to share with him yet, but last week, he gave me some beautiful homegrown navel oranges.  I am going to make one into a Whole Orange Cake and we will share some of that cake with him.  He just loves our chickens and we share eggs with him too sometimes.  Joy!  How lovely it is to live near like-minded people who truly appreciate the value of such food. Already over the year we have been here, he has gifted us with bananas, mulberries, oranges, persimmons, dragonfruit, figs, panama berries and these exquisite berries.  Native raspberries. 

Our neighbour on the other side celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago.  She is in her eighties. We made her these delicious chocolate oat biscuits, packaged them up and we all went around to give them to her on the afternoon of her birthday.  She was so happy.  As we were leaving her daughter-in-law arrived.  The next morning she told my husband she and her daughter-in-law chatted and ate the biscuits with a quite a few cups of tea.  She said, "tell Belinda that those biscuits were delicious, that was my dinner last night!"  That story made me smile inside.  I could imagine them enjoying those biscuits and catching up.  I played a part in their joy!

My family are Italian and we are big on sharing food.  If I drop into my parents' house, you can almost bet I'm coming home with something food related.  Whether Mum has picked me up a big wedge of parmesan cheese from the European deli, or Dad has caught some fish that he has fried up and it's waiting in the fridge.  Dad is Vice President of his Italian Club and when they have events, he will often come home with a big bag of Italian Crostoli  (a fried pastry dusted with icing sugar).  These are so time consuming to make and need more than one pair of hands, so we don't get to cook them very much.  I really look forward to receiving them, they connect me to my heritage.  What a delicious gift. 

A big wedge of Parmesan cheese- yum!

Even my small nieces are understanding the joy of receiving the gift of food.  They are three and five and come over for dinner every Tuesday night. Often I will send some baked treats home with them.  They love my biscuits and my Mum told me, that when she was looking after them last week, they were excited to tell her they had brought  "Aunty Belinda's biscuits to have for afternoon tea".  At this young age, they are starting to understand this pleasure.  That makes me smile too.

My friend once started up a group called the "Ladies Preserving Society". Every season we would each make a preserve.  We would then meet, taste them, chat about them, vote on our favourites, share the recipes and each take home around eight jars of different preserves.  It was a lovely way to connect with like-minded people, of all different ages and backgrounds and we came home with pretty jars of homemade preserves.   Such an enriching experience.

My winning preserve- Strawberry Chilli Sauce

Often,  I share produce with my friends or family.  Sometimes I will take a bunch of kale and herbs to friends if we a catching up, instead of bringing flowers.  They are so grateful.  We chat about ways in which to use it or cook it.  They are always interesting conversations, sometimes they lead to chats about a special family recipe or hints we can learn from each other. Those delightful exchanges are sparked because we shared some food.

Our Russian Kale and Silverbeet

Lemons, gifted from a friend

I don't think we fully understand the ripple effect of this homemade joy, of how many people it touches.   We eat that food and we think of that person, we talk about that person, we tell others about that person and we smile.  We feel their love or their kindness with every bite.  The effects are far reaching and they are so worthwhile.  Spreading joy, we can always do with more of that in our world.