Tomato said, “I will speak for the life of the sauce that finds me squashed or diced and sometimes whole.
Fig said, “I will speak for the jam that sweetens my flavor in a delightful spread on biscuit.
Onion said, “I belong in every garden, in every dish and in your tears.
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NaPoWriMo Day 20 prompt to write a poem that anthropomorphizes food.
Temperate climate
soil is loose and ready
to cultivate
arugula radicchio
celery cabbage kale
chard favas beets
made it through
kept warm under snowfall
now start to grow
nibbled by rabbit and slugs
buds swell on the fig
red of rhubarb emerges
cold brewed
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille and use the nibble word.
Bulging with fertility
too lovely to eat
ripened to perfection
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dVerse prompt on a remembrance of fruit. This heirloom tomato came out of my garden looking a lot like the Venus of Willendorf.
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Sliced
There is much to do
weather is changing
prepare for less light
more rain
bring in chairs
fold the sunshades
move plants inside
where they will linger
in warmth of a fireplace
or the winter sun
coming through glass
perhaps flower and fruit
again
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word linger. I am preparing for the continuous rains and trying something new in bringing some potted plants (tomato and pepper) inside to see if they will continue to produce.
Potato peel
best fried crisp
lemon peel
to use for zest
peel a carrot
into the salad
for pie
apple peels
must go
onion peeling
makes me weep
peel the garlic
before I mince
if they
can’t be used
into the compost
peelings go
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dVerse quadrille on peel
Kenya sugar snap peas
leeks and cucumber Holland
Tesco radish and asparagus mushrooms from China
baby corn and red chili Thailand broccoli from Spain
local lettuce
baby carrots from USA
Haricot vert from Italy
India okra
bananas from Ecuador clementines from South Africa Australia mandarins
Pakistan and Egyptian mangoes New Zealand apples
green apples from France
local beets
seedless lime from Vietnam eggplant from GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)
Morocco provides tomato
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supermarket in Dubai
Golden pea pods are on the vine, easy to see against the green. Patches of spinach, arugula, kale, chard and beet greens. Let’s go make a salad. Add scallions, fresh herbs- parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Now I am in a song.
Be patient tending tomato, cucumber and pepper plants. Someday they too will join in the salad.
wake from day to day
pray for more sun and some rain
we eat from the bowl
Fern Garden
swords pointing upright soft fronds curling
out of the ground
turn hard sharp then bend
bird’s nest
ruffled and feathered
soft under the rhododendron
Water Garden
wet with salamanders and frogs
hiding in the lily pads
bog bean taking over
hard slate waterfall
needs watercress between cracks
or flow again the dry creek bed
Vegetable Garden
wintered over the arugula and beets
one chard plant survived the snow
time to plant more greens some peas
these beds are ready from last fall’s harvest
now sun is warming their cold soil
plant the radish and watch it grow
Flower Garden
primroses always the first to show
nursery bed with more hellebore
cut back the fuchsia before it blooms
hummingbirds bumblebees search branches
lavender iris lilies galore
plant more hyacinth let its fragrance flow
Who can work these gardens?
Feel the earth between tired hands?
Feed the roots and make them flower?
even the vegetables look like a garden in winter
Large Red Tomato
Heirloom tomato
Since 1843 and most popular
Commonly planted
Juicy but meaty
My favorite for biting
Or slicing
Heirloom tomato
Large Red Tomato
Abraham Lincoln Tomato
Early Abe
How many presidents have
A tomato named for them
Plant it early for early fruit
Watch it produce
Almost a bushel
Early Abe
Abraham Lincoln Tomato
Glacier Tomato
Cold weather tomato
For northern gardens
With threat of early frost
And as its name implies
Will not stop bearing
When others die
Cold weather tomato
Glacier tomato
Delicious Tomato
What a flavor
Regardless
of size
Or shape or stem
Results that all
want in the end
What a flavor
Delicious Tomato
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NaPoWriMo prompt on names of plants in seed catalogs
wordshophop 