Gather

Again, my word of the week, gather, from Andrew stumped me.

This morning it all came to me as I was sitting at a picnic table overlooking the Family Drudge's stand at the local Farmer's market. Where do we gather? Around food. I love food and particularly the farmer's market at this time of the year. The sweet scent of local berries, the tastes from fresh strawberries, raspberries and wild blueberries. Even the field cucumbers were yummy. I enjoy the banter with the different farmers about who has the sweetest strawberries, how late the wild blueberries are, that this is the last week for Ontario asparagus and the hopes that the garlic crop will be better than last year.

It was great fun sipping on my organic coffee, skinny lady from Guatemala, as I watched families, singles, kids come and go through the market. I heard English, Polish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Korean, Hindi, Italian and some languages I didn't know being spoken. We all gathered around this great food fest. People had carrier bags, buggies, suitcases on wheels & wagons all to gather up their fresh produce. Is this not a great thing to do this time of the year? For me it is one of my pleasures. I love to gather at my local farmer's market.

But then I started thinking of other times I love to gather, and again, food is involved. Last night I gathered at our local Italian eatery with an old neighbor, Di, not that you are old Di, just a neighour I previously had, & my Mom. Tomorrow I will gather with friends Vicki & Barb, I used to work with at Canadian Living magazine a lifetime ago, over a lunch on my generous Polka deck. We all enjoy to gather round food. Food is the great glue of the "gather".

For me, the summer is about catching up with friends, we haven't seen since we hibernated last fall. And to do this, we gather around food. I love it.