So yesterday I spent a wonderful afternoon with my Mom and two fabulous girlfriends. We spent the afternoon making liverpate.
I remember as a child that my Mom often made it herself rather than buy it from the store. As always it was important for her to be thrifty and make use of everything.
My Mom, we all call her Oma, is 87 and was born in what was once Prussia. She is an incredible resource of "Old World" culinary information. Oma learned everything she knows from her mother, my prussian grandmother. I only met my grandmother a few times in my life but she was an amazing and talented cook. My grandmother was trained in the kitchen of the last Kaiser of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm. My mother and her sisters all learned their culinary skills from her.
Being raised on a self-sustainable farm has given my mother incredible skills and resources to draw from. She also has a photographic memory for how things were done back in the days. It has become really important to have her tell me and instruct me in those ways.
I want to know these things so I can better know myself and what I am capable of. I am a first generation Canadian and for a long time my mother didn't talk so much about the "old" days. There are a lot, too many actually, painful memories as well. The depression, the war took a lot out of everyone. My mother as well as so many others lost their chance at youth during those times. They all "grew up" much too quickly.
Its true what they say, time heals all wounds. I am sure they are never truly healed but time and age seems to take the stinging edge and hurt out of the experiences and they become memories that can be spoken of and shared. I am glad that my mother has lived long enough to share these memories with me and others. Knowing what she knows is filling in the empty spaces in my soul. I am beginning to have a deep connection and feeling for the place of my ancestors. It is giving me an understanding of myself I wasn't able to connect to before.
A most wonderful galfriend of mine has been calling me the "keeper of the old ways". I like it ! I have always had an affinity for doing things by hand. Whether it is tending the plants or preparing food I have a definite fondness for "handling" and "touching" what I am doing. I remember when I physically connect. We are physical beings. Touching and feeling must be two of the most amazing senses. We miss a lot when we just look or listen. To truly experience you need to touch and feel. It goes deep inside. When we touch something we leave our mark on it.
So yesterday I took my Mom to my friend's place and along with another friend "Oma" taught us how to make liver pate. We spent a happy afternoon learning a "new/old" culinary skill . More than that my mother shared more of herself and her stories. As her daughter it is a wonderful feeling to observe how my Mom engages and draws them in. My Mom has never believed that she has lived up to her potential. I am saying here and now that she has done it and more. She inspires the potential in me every day.
My interest and passion for everything that grows, everything that can be nurtured, everything that can be touched and handled and cooked, baked, pickled , preserved, made into something and then shared with everyone is what my mother has passed into me. I can think of no better gift to be given.
Best of all I have a daughter who is showing many of the same family traits.
Hopefully the next blog will be about how to actually make the pate. Today I just wanted to thank my Mom for sharing the knowledge so I can keep writing this blog. :-D
Love to you all. Barbara
the photo is of the house my mother was born in. It was already 300 years old when she was born. Unfortunately it is no longer there. She is the five year old girl in the photo with my grandparents, about 1928.
Barbara and my Mom, "Oma". Grandmother in german.
