Poem: "Instinct and Taste"
This poem is spillover from the May 4, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
readera, wyld_dandelyon, 
rix_scaedu, and Anonymous. It also fills the "women and girls" square in my 5-1-21 card for the Leaky Pipeline Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred, ng_moonmoth, janetmiles, and edorfaus. It belongs to the Daughters of the Apocalypse series.
"Instinct and Taste"
[No Food Moon 16, 15. A.E.]
Catcher found Maggot
making fuzz sticks with
his knife beside the fire, so
that the icy wood could burn.
The housetrucks sat at what
had once been a rest stop along
Cascade Way, under a roof
that only had a few leaks in it,
so they were out of the wind and
the campfire was burning well.
As Catcher watched, the boy
reached for another stick.
Maggot was a lot of
aggravating things,
but he was no bumey.
He would find work to do,
as long it wasn't whatever he
thought of as "women's work."
That was the problem at hand.
"That's enough firewood for now,"
said Catcher. "Come with me;
we're going to do a cooking lesson."
"What for?" Maggot said predictably.
"Well, Dibble wants to learn cooking,
and Digger could use more, so Alma
is setting up a lesson," said Catcher.
"I do a bit of cooking along with making
medicines, and I doubt you know how."
"I don't need to know how to cook,
ass what you're for," Maggot said.
Catcher sighed. "You don't like us much,
so what if you're away from us -- say,
you go out hunting and get hungry?"
"Kill somethin', put it on a stick,
build a fire," Maggot said, shrugging.
"And if you eat something that's
not good for you?" she said gently.
Maggot flinched. "I won't make
that mistake again," he said.
"Druther just go hungry."
"Or you could learn what's
safe to eat and how to cook it,"
Catcher said. "Winter is almost
over, and spring will bring all kinds
of new foods. Start learning now,
and you'll be ready for them."
"Guesso," Maggot muttered,
but he got up to follow her.
Alma had set up a miniature
of the real camp kitchen, just
a tripod and a pot hanging over
a couple of unlit, snowy logs.
The housetrucks all had
kitchenettes, but it was
often easier to cook outside
where there was more room,
so they had campfire rigs.
Digger and Dibble sat with Alma
on stump seats that someone
had left at the rest stop.
"Catcher, Maggot, I'm
glad that you could
join us," said Alma.
Maggot shrugged.
"Catcher said come."
"That's fine," Alma said.
"Now we have kitchenettes,
but not everyone does, so if
you learn campfire cooking,
then you can cook anywhere."
"If you got a can, you can
cook anywhere," Maggot said.
"Or just find a sharp stick."
"Yes, very good, we'll get
to that in a minute," Alma said,
smiling at him. Maggot ducked
his head. "First, cook with
cast iron if you have it. If not,
drop in a piece like this."
She pointed to the iron pot,
then held up an iron fish that
they'd gotten from a blacksmith.
"Whyja do that?" Maggot said.
"Your body needs a little iron
to make blood," said Catcher.
"You get some from food, but
not always enough of it."
"We'll get a lucky iron fish
for everyone who wants one,"
Alma said. "Then you'll always
have something to bring when
people are making soup together."
"Like the Stone Soup story,"
Dibble said. "I like that one."
"Yes, but this is real, not
imaginary," Catcher said.
"So we call it Iron Soup."
"To make this work better,
add a splash of something sour,"
said Alma. "Lemon juice works
well if you can get it, or vinegar
which you can make anywhere."
"Sour foods like tomatoes or
apples don't need anything
added," Digger said. "They
have their own acid already,
a lot of fruits do. But for meat or
sweet vegetables, add vinegar."
"Yeah, but if I gotta cook, I ain't
cookin' plants," Maggot said. "I
can't tell what's safe or not."
"I can teach you that later
in spring," Digger offered.
"Some things are easy,
like alliums," Dibble said.
"Anything that looks and
smells like onions, you
can eat it. Some just
taste better than others."
"That's right, and we eat
whatever we can get,"
Alma said. "We also
cook with whatever
tools we find, like
Maggot pointed out."
"I remember cooking
with cans when I was
younger," said Catcher.
"We made them into pots
and ovens and stoves."
"You can make a lot of
things with cans," Alma said.
"Use your imagination -- you
need that in all kinds of cooking."
"I thought that cooking was
like ... recipes and stuff,"
Maggot said, frowning.
"Recipes are only part of it,"
said Alma. "Cooking is not
just chemistry. It's an art.
It requires instinct and taste
as well as measurements."
"Sometimes people think they
have a recipe but they don't,"
Digger pointed out. "Things
get lost, or forgotten, or people
remember the same thing
in slightly different ways."
Catcher chuckled. "Yeah,
and sometimes it's written
with measurements you don't
even recognize. What's a thumb
of ginger, or a glug of syrup?"
"I don't get it," Maggot said.
"How much cheese is a handful?
How much more or less is a cupful?
What's in a glass or a soup ladle?
What's the difference between
a smidgen and a pinch?" Alma said.
"How the fuck would I know?"
Maggot said, throwing his hands up.
"Let's work it out," Alma said. "It's
fine to cook with a recipe, if you have
exactly what it needs, but you also
need to know intuitive cooking so
you can fix whatever you have.
The same holds for measurements.
You may not always have the tools,
but you always have your hands."
"I usually use measuring spoons,
because I make medicines so much,
and they need more precise amounts,"
Catcher said. "Baking is the same.
Things like soup or salad, though,
you can put in whatever you find."
She picked up a battered spoon.
"You can use these to learn not just
how to measure with spoons and
cups, but with your hands too."
"How's it work?" Dibble asked.
"These look different from
the spoons that we eat with."
"They are different," Alma said.
"Straight edges make it easier
to measure because you can
scrape over the top with a knife."
She picked up an old set
of camping knife, fork, and
spoon to show the difference
in shapes and how much easier
it was with a measuring spoon
than with a camping spoon.
"Intuitive cooking is all about
knowing basic skills so you can
cook with anything available,"
Alma said. "That's why we're
starting with measurements."
"Do you have things we
can measure?" Dibble said.
"I've tried, but I'm not good
at it yet. I keep spilling."
"Here," said Alma, waving
at a set of buckets. "These
have textures close to
things we cook with."
One had powdery gray ash,
another had fine red sand,
and the last bucket had
coarse yellow sand.
Alma set the buckets
where people could
scoop out a portion.
"Everyone choose
a spoon or a cup, and
practice measuring,"
Alma said. "Take
your time and learn
what feels right to you."
Catcher picked up
two spoons, one for
herself and another
for Maggot to use.
She showed him how
to scoop up a load of ash.
"If you leave it like that,
it's a heaping teaspoon,"
she said. "Level it off,
and then it's regular."
He wasn't good at it,
but he did keep trying.
Catcher practiced loading
bits of different things
to fill her tablespoon,
which was one way
to make small amounts
when you didn't have
a small enough spoon.
Alma showed Digger
and Dibble some tricks for
handling different textures,
then came to help Maggot.
He was slowly starting
to get the hang of it.
"Now, spoons are nice
when you have them, but
hands have advantages
of their own," said Alma.
"Look at how large or
small your hands are."
Everyone checked theirs.
Catcher held up hers to
compare with Maggot's.
They were similar in size,
but hers were plumper.
Dibble's were the smallest.
"It's hard for me to measure,"
she said. "My hands don't
always do what I want."
"Me too," Maggot muttered.
"This shit's harder'n it looks."
"Your hands haven't finished
growing yet," Catcher said.
"You'll get better with time."
"I'm not a baby!" Maggot said.
"True, and that gives you
more dexterity than Dibble,"
said Catcher. "Puberty messes
with your steadiness too, though,
and you're not out of the woods yet."
He snorted and looked away,
not agreeing, but at least
not arguing out loud.
"Your hands help you
measure the right amounts
for yourself," Alma said.
"A handful of dry rice will
make a serving cooked, but
that's smaller for Dibble
than it is for Maggot."
"Huh," he said, looking
at his hands and Dibble's.
"What about beans, though?
They're hard to measure.
I never can get them
to stay in the cup."
So he had tried
cooking before, or
at least measuring.
"I'll go find something,"
Digger offered. "You
can keep practicing."
She went to the creek bed
not far from the rest stop,
and came back with a bucket
full of dark brown gravel.
"Going by hand, you can
grab the beans in your fist,"
Alma said, dropping a handful
into the pot on the tripod. "Or
you can scoop them up
in your palm, like this."
"Beans kind of lock in place
when you squeeze them,"
Catcher said. "Peas don't,
because they're round."
"That's true," said Alma.
"With peas, you might want
to scoop with both hands."
She demonstrated. "Fill
the pot with water, put in
your beans or peas, and
a pinch of salt if you have it."
"Most vegetables go well
with beans," Digger said.
"Onions, tomatoes, and
potatoes are the best."
"Grains," said Alma.
"We eat beans and rice,
or peas and corn, because
they fit together to feed us
better than either alone.
Half a handful of beans or
peas, and half of grain."
Maggot gamely tried
measuring the gravel.
"See, it won't flat out!"
"You can either shake it
gently, or level it by hand,"
she said, showing him
how to do both ways.
Maggot found that
hand leveling worked
much better -- shaking
or tapping was how he
had been spilling them.
"Now, compare your hands
with the measuring cups."
Alma said. "You can
do this in two ways ..."
She showed them how
to fill a spoon or cup, then
tip it into their hand and
look at how much that was.
Next she showed them
how to take a pinch, or
a handful, and put it into
the measure to find out
how much they picked up.
"Both ways work, but they
tell you different things,"
Alma said. "Start off by
pouring measured things
into your hand so you learn
what they look like. Then
try to match that by hand."
Catcher was pretty good
at estimating, but Alma could
use hand or measuring cup and
have almost identical amounts.
Neither Dibble nor Maggot
were very good at it, though.
"It's okay," Digger said when
Dibble started sniffling. "This
takes a lot of practice to learn."
"It really does," Catcher said,
looking at Maggot, who had
a white-knuckled grip on his cup.
"I started learning this when I
was little younger than Dibble,
and I'm still not as good as Alma."
The old woman chuckled. "Well,
I started learning to cook about
the time I learned to walk."
She demonstrated how
to make beans and rice
by measuring handfuls
of the dark brown gravel.
"Now suppose we have salt,
ginger, and peppers," said Alma.
"Salt is easy to get from the sea, so
use plenty." She put in a teaspoon
of the fine red sand. "Ginger is harder
to get and it tastes strong, so use less."
She put in half a teaspoon. "Peppers
are hotter, so put just a pinch of flakes."
"Salt, ginger, pepper flakes," Maggot said,
struggling to match what she'd done.
"Don't think I could get it right."
"You don't need to do it alone,"
Catcher said. "You can help me
when I cook, and I'll make sure
that you get everything right."
"Really?" Maggot whispered.
"Really," Catcher promised.
"It's not as hard as it seems
at first. You just need instinct
and taste -- and you sure
know how to taste things!"
Maggot gave a ragged laugh.
"Guesso," he admitted.
It could have gone worse.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes will appear separately.
readera, wyld_dandelyon, rix_scaedu, and Anonymous. It also fills the "women and girls" square in my 5-1-21 card for the Leaky Pipeline Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred, ng_moonmoth, janetmiles, and edorfaus. It belongs to the Daughters of the Apocalypse series."Instinct and Taste"
[No Food Moon 16, 15. A.E.]
Catcher found Maggot
making fuzz sticks with
his knife beside the fire, so
that the icy wood could burn.
The housetrucks sat at what
had once been a rest stop along
Cascade Way, under a roof
that only had a few leaks in it,
so they were out of the wind and
the campfire was burning well.
As Catcher watched, the boy
reached for another stick.
Maggot was a lot of
aggravating things,
but he was no bumey.
He would find work to do,
as long it wasn't whatever he
thought of as "women's work."
That was the problem at hand.
"That's enough firewood for now,"
said Catcher. "Come with me;
we're going to do a cooking lesson."
"What for?" Maggot said predictably.
"Well, Dibble wants to learn cooking,
and Digger could use more, so Alma
is setting up a lesson," said Catcher.
"I do a bit of cooking along with making
medicines, and I doubt you know how."
"I don't need to know how to cook,
ass what you're for," Maggot said.
Catcher sighed. "You don't like us much,
so what if you're away from us -- say,
you go out hunting and get hungry?"
"Kill somethin', put it on a stick,
build a fire," Maggot said, shrugging.
"And if you eat something that's
not good for you?" she said gently.
Maggot flinched. "I won't make
that mistake again," he said.
"Druther just go hungry."
"Or you could learn what's
safe to eat and how to cook it,"
Catcher said. "Winter is almost
over, and spring will bring all kinds
of new foods. Start learning now,
and you'll be ready for them."
"Guesso," Maggot muttered,
but he got up to follow her.
Alma had set up a miniature
of the real camp kitchen, just
a tripod and a pot hanging over
a couple of unlit, snowy logs.
The housetrucks all had
kitchenettes, but it was
often easier to cook outside
where there was more room,
so they had campfire rigs.
Digger and Dibble sat with Alma
on stump seats that someone
had left at the rest stop.
"Catcher, Maggot, I'm
glad that you could
join us," said Alma.
Maggot shrugged.
"Catcher said come."
"That's fine," Alma said.
"Now we have kitchenettes,
but not everyone does, so if
you learn campfire cooking,
then you can cook anywhere."
"If you got a can, you can
cook anywhere," Maggot said.
"Or just find a sharp stick."
"Yes, very good, we'll get
to that in a minute," Alma said,
smiling at him. Maggot ducked
his head. "First, cook with
cast iron if you have it. If not,
drop in a piece like this."
She pointed to the iron pot,
then held up an iron fish that
they'd gotten from a blacksmith.
"Whyja do that?" Maggot said.
"Your body needs a little iron
to make blood," said Catcher.
"You get some from food, but
not always enough of it."
"We'll get a lucky iron fish
for everyone who wants one,"
Alma said. "Then you'll always
have something to bring when
people are making soup together."
"Like the Stone Soup story,"
Dibble said. "I like that one."
"Yes, but this is real, not
imaginary," Catcher said.
"So we call it Iron Soup."
"To make this work better,
add a splash of something sour,"
said Alma. "Lemon juice works
well if you can get it, or vinegar
which you can make anywhere."
"Sour foods like tomatoes or
apples don't need anything
added," Digger said. "They
have their own acid already,
a lot of fruits do. But for meat or
sweet vegetables, add vinegar."
"Yeah, but if I gotta cook, I ain't
cookin' plants," Maggot said. "I
can't tell what's safe or not."
"I can teach you that later
in spring," Digger offered.
"Some things are easy,
like alliums," Dibble said.
"Anything that looks and
smells like onions, you
can eat it. Some just
taste better than others."
"That's right, and we eat
whatever we can get,"
Alma said. "We also
cook with whatever
tools we find, like
Maggot pointed out."
"I remember cooking
with cans when I was
younger," said Catcher.
"We made them into pots
and ovens and stoves."
"You can make a lot of
things with cans," Alma said.
"Use your imagination -- you
need that in all kinds of cooking."
"I thought that cooking was
like ... recipes and stuff,"
Maggot said, frowning.
"Recipes are only part of it,"
said Alma. "Cooking is not
just chemistry. It's an art.
It requires instinct and taste
as well as measurements."
"Sometimes people think they
have a recipe but they don't,"
Digger pointed out. "Things
get lost, or forgotten, or people
remember the same thing
in slightly different ways."
Catcher chuckled. "Yeah,
and sometimes it's written
with measurements you don't
even recognize. What's a thumb
of ginger, or a glug of syrup?"
"I don't get it," Maggot said.
"How much cheese is a handful?
How much more or less is a cupful?
What's in a glass or a soup ladle?
What's the difference between
a smidgen and a pinch?" Alma said.
"How the fuck would I know?"
Maggot said, throwing his hands up.
"Let's work it out," Alma said. "It's
fine to cook with a recipe, if you have
exactly what it needs, but you also
need to know intuitive cooking so
you can fix whatever you have.
The same holds for measurements.
You may not always have the tools,
but you always have your hands."
"I usually use measuring spoons,
because I make medicines so much,
and they need more precise amounts,"
Catcher said. "Baking is the same.
Things like soup or salad, though,
you can put in whatever you find."
She picked up a battered spoon.
"You can use these to learn not just
how to measure with spoons and
cups, but with your hands too."
"How's it work?" Dibble asked.
"These look different from
the spoons that we eat with."
"They are different," Alma said.
"Straight edges make it easier
to measure because you can
scrape over the top with a knife."
She picked up an old set
of camping knife, fork, and
spoon to show the difference
in shapes and how much easier
it was with a measuring spoon
than with a camping spoon.
"Intuitive cooking is all about
knowing basic skills so you can
cook with anything available,"
Alma said. "That's why we're
starting with measurements."
"Do you have things we
can measure?" Dibble said.
"I've tried, but I'm not good
at it yet. I keep spilling."
"Here," said Alma, waving
at a set of buckets. "These
have textures close to
things we cook with."
One had powdery gray ash,
another had fine red sand,
and the last bucket had
coarse yellow sand.
Alma set the buckets
where people could
scoop out a portion.
"Everyone choose
a spoon or a cup, and
practice measuring,"
Alma said. "Take
your time and learn
what feels right to you."
Catcher picked up
two spoons, one for
herself and another
for Maggot to use.
She showed him how
to scoop up a load of ash.
"If you leave it like that,
it's a heaping teaspoon,"
she said. "Level it off,
and then it's regular."
He wasn't good at it,
but he did keep trying.
Catcher practiced loading
bits of different things
to fill her tablespoon,
which was one way
to make small amounts
when you didn't have
a small enough spoon.
Alma showed Digger
and Dibble some tricks for
handling different textures,
then came to help Maggot.
He was slowly starting
to get the hang of it.
"Now, spoons are nice
when you have them, but
hands have advantages
of their own," said Alma.
"Look at how large or
small your hands are."
Everyone checked theirs.
Catcher held up hers to
compare with Maggot's.
They were similar in size,
but hers were plumper.
Dibble's were the smallest.
"It's hard for me to measure,"
she said. "My hands don't
always do what I want."
"Me too," Maggot muttered.
"This shit's harder'n it looks."
"Your hands haven't finished
growing yet," Catcher said.
"You'll get better with time."
"I'm not a baby!" Maggot said.
"True, and that gives you
more dexterity than Dibble,"
said Catcher. "Puberty messes
with your steadiness too, though,
and you're not out of the woods yet."
He snorted and looked away,
not agreeing, but at least
not arguing out loud.
"Your hands help you
measure the right amounts
for yourself," Alma said.
"A handful of dry rice will
make a serving cooked, but
that's smaller for Dibble
than it is for Maggot."
"Huh," he said, looking
at his hands and Dibble's.
"What about beans, though?
They're hard to measure.
I never can get them
to stay in the cup."
So he had tried
cooking before, or
at least measuring.
"I'll go find something,"
Digger offered. "You
can keep practicing."
She went to the creek bed
not far from the rest stop,
and came back with a bucket
full of dark brown gravel.
"Going by hand, you can
grab the beans in your fist,"
Alma said, dropping a handful
into the pot on the tripod. "Or
you can scoop them up
in your palm, like this."
"Beans kind of lock in place
when you squeeze them,"
Catcher said. "Peas don't,
because they're round."
"That's true," said Alma.
"With peas, you might want
to scoop with both hands."
She demonstrated. "Fill
the pot with water, put in
your beans or peas, and
a pinch of salt if you have it."
"Most vegetables go well
with beans," Digger said.
"Onions, tomatoes, and
potatoes are the best."
"Grains," said Alma.
"We eat beans and rice,
or peas and corn, because
they fit together to feed us
better than either alone.
Half a handful of beans or
peas, and half of grain."
Maggot gamely tried
measuring the gravel.
"See, it won't flat out!"
"You can either shake it
gently, or level it by hand,"
she said, showing him
how to do both ways.
Maggot found that
hand leveling worked
much better -- shaking
or tapping was how he
had been spilling them.
"Now, compare your hands
with the measuring cups."
Alma said. "You can
do this in two ways ..."
She showed them how
to fill a spoon or cup, then
tip it into their hand and
look at how much that was.
Next she showed them
how to take a pinch, or
a handful, and put it into
the measure to find out
how much they picked up.
"Both ways work, but they
tell you different things,"
Alma said. "Start off by
pouring measured things
into your hand so you learn
what they look like. Then
try to match that by hand."
Catcher was pretty good
at estimating, but Alma could
use hand or measuring cup and
have almost identical amounts.
Neither Dibble nor Maggot
were very good at it, though.
"It's okay," Digger said when
Dibble started sniffling. "This
takes a lot of practice to learn."
"It really does," Catcher said,
looking at Maggot, who had
a white-knuckled grip on his cup.
"I started learning this when I
was little younger than Dibble,
and I'm still not as good as Alma."
The old woman chuckled. "Well,
I started learning to cook about
the time I learned to walk."
She demonstrated how
to make beans and rice
by measuring handfuls
of the dark brown gravel.
"Now suppose we have salt,
ginger, and peppers," said Alma.
"Salt is easy to get from the sea, so
use plenty." She put in a teaspoon
of the fine red sand. "Ginger is harder
to get and it tastes strong, so use less."
She put in half a teaspoon. "Peppers
are hotter, so put just a pinch of flakes."
"Salt, ginger, pepper flakes," Maggot said,
struggling to match what she'd done.
"Don't think I could get it right."
"You don't need to do it alone,"
Catcher said. "You can help me
when I cook, and I'll make sure
that you get everything right."
"Really?" Maggot whispered.
"Really," Catcher promised.
"It's not as hard as it seems
at first. You just need instinct
and taste -- and you sure
know how to taste things!"
Maggot gave a ragged laugh.
"Guesso," he admitted.
It could have gone worse.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes will appear separately.