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Peas and cellphones
A
t this time of the year, the two oldest members of our
family like to do what our grandmothers did, namely sit
at the kitchen table shelling peas.
We do this a couple of times a week as the peas growing in our
veg patch mature, blanching and freezing large quantities to see
us through next winter.
It's a funny thing, shelling peas, and for both of us it brings back
memories of our childhoods. OK, if I'm honest I can't remember
either of my grandmothers shelling peas, but one of them,
certainly, would have, having been married to a grocer and
living on a smallholding. And she certainly taught her daughters
how to shell peas because they I can remember at their kitchen
tables, aprons on, working away busily.
My other grandmother? Not a chance. She was far too grand.
I'm not sure she could even boil an egg.
The point about shelling peas is much the same as many of the
old kitchen tasks. It's pretty mindless repetitive work, but it has
to be done. Think of peeling spuds, dicing carrots or bottling
peaches. One by one, you twist the pod open, scrape the peas
out with your thumb and allow them to drop into your bowl.
And repeat. Twist, scrape, repeat.
Gradually the basket of pea pods diminishes while the bowl of
peas grows fuller. Not exactly rocket science and once you've
got the hang of it you can do it without thinking, which gives
you time to… talk.
Now I know many will ask why we bother to shell peas and
freeze them when one can buy peas ready-shelled and frozen
in the supermarket. My response is only half about the fact that
ours taste better, not at all about the fact that apart from the
labour involved in growing and watering them that they’re free,
and more to do with the fact that they give us the opportunity
to sit together and chat.
And so the two of us sit shelling away and enjoying a good
natter. Not necessarily deep and meaningful conversation about
the State of the Nation, Nkandlagate or #FeesMustFall, all of
which (and more) being topics worthy of heated discussion and
debate, but rather an opportunity to spend some time together
talking about our day, reminiscing about trips we've made,
things we've done, people we've known and so on. And in a
relationship and marriage that has seen more than 40 summers,
we have a lot to reminisce about, and we still enjoy each other's
company, which is a blessing in itself.
Last weekend our daughter, who no longer lives at home, came
to stay and we inveigled her to join us in the shelling job. She's
a pretty good conversa