I would say I´d have to be a tomato. How come? Because most people think that a tomato is a vegetable but it´s really fruit. And also I´m like kind of red (laughter) …or mostly because you are making me laugh. So, okay I think I´m a tomato because they are a lot sweeter than they look. A lot of people think I am more…. But I am not… I´m actually a Teddy Bear.
How do you like to eat tomatoes? It depends. Depends onto my mood. I like them in a salad, sometimes just plain with salt, sometimes just plain. I mean, I like them on food, they are awesome as marinara. … Plenty of potential. *
Larry has another sweet side: He lets you try different types of honey such as “Fall Desert Bloom” at Phoenix Public Market.
…the fruit I have always identified with is a pomegranate – for a number of reasons. First of all, the mythology story, the mythology of Demeter and her daughter Persephone (…) really spoke to me and the story of the mother having to rescue the daughter from the underworld, right. …I guess I´m identifying more with the daughter, Persephone who ate the pomegranate. (…) Plus I love the color and I love the complexity of it when you open it up and all the chambers and all the little cells. So there you have it! And I have a tree in my backyard. * Victoria also uses wonderful colors for her ceramics, called “Clay Madness”, presented at Phoenix Public Market.
I´m a tomato because it´s both a fruit and a vegetable. It is one of my absolute favorite smells in the world and one of my favorite flavors too. It´s like tomato and parmesan and dark chocolate are my favorite things. It´s meaty and juicy, … I don´t know, it´s both subsistent and delightful.
Any further questions? (Geschichtsträchtiger Apfel) The raw tomato or the cooked tomato? Oh, raw. Yes, although I do liked cooked tomatoes too. I do liked cooked too but I was thinking of raw. (Geschichtsträchtiger Apfel) A red or yellow or green one? Red. No question. Not a cherry. A proper tomato. (Laughter) * Rob sometimes also enriches his dishes, with or without tomato, with freshly picked basil leaves from the bathtub in his garden. Best pesto-maker.
Why are you identifying with a potato? I come from Bavaria, I grew up there and I think my parents cook four times a week potatoes, in every kind of styles. In gratin, purré, most of the times it was salt potatoes, only cooked. And I think potato is a very special root and you can live only with a potato, I think. Every day you can do many things with it. Okay, you must cook it that´s one not such a good thing but it´s okay, and I think it´s a very old root and it´s the first time, it was the first thing I was thinking about when you asked. And, yes, but it´s better to eat it together with other things (laughter). * Sebastian presents all different kinds of dishes, with and without potatoes, to his guests – he is a chef.
I am a radish – and I don´t know why. I remember as a child, in the garden in the back yard, which was not a luxury, it was quite necessary, my two rows I had to tend to were beets and radishes. And I hate beets. And possibly all radishes may hate beets, it could be a natural built-in prejudice, I don´t know … I just thought radishes. You know, that´s about it. I like radishes, I´m a radish.
How do you like to eat them? Straight. I mean, I could just eat a meal out of radishes. I don´t want them to be in a salad. Everything else is distracting. … Just knock the dirt off them, don´t even wash them, a little bit of dirt is good for you. Especially on a radish. * Charlie is working together with a pomegranate: They are “Clay Madness”, ceramic artists. He also paints.
…Du bist also nicht einfach irgendeine Kaktusfrucht?
Nein, hast du ja gesehen. In Peru, die Frucht ist viel süßer und die war so erdig vom Geschmack, so Rote-Beete-mäßig. Und die andere war eher so Wassermelonen-mäßig, die Kerne waren weicher, das heißt die konnte man irgendwie mitessen (…) Kaktusfrucht ist nicht gleich Kaktusfrucht. Weil du identifizierst dich mit welchem Typ Kaktusfrucht? Tuna heißt die in Peru. Und da gibt’s die auch in anderen Farben. Nicht nur in pink, auch in grün und in gelb.
Und warum identifizierst du dich damit? … Die stimmt mich immer sehr glücklich. Vielleicht ist es das: Dass ich auch irgendwie Leute glücklich stimmen möchte… Das gelingt dir so weit ganz gut! Weiß ich nicht (Lachen). Aber genau, diese Frucht ist so ein bisschen … unerwartet weil das nicht so …also als ich in Peru war hab ich noch nie etwas von dieser Frucht vorher gehört und dann war das immer so: „oh ja!“ wieder die Kaktusfrucht oben drauf, wieder die Tuna oben drauf auf dem Fruchtsalat. … so der Hingucker
Die Krönung! (Lachen) Nein, das ist jetzt übertrieben. Aber genau, das hat das alles irgendwie rund gemacht. Weißt du, da war da alles so Apfel, und Pfirsich, und alles so gelb-weiß-lich, eine Weintraube … und dann oben drauf die pinke Tuna. Das hat schon was. Ja, und da geht das Gesicht ganz anders auf. Und das war auch was, dass man bei uns nicht kriegt, in Deutschland. (…) Die Farbe ist wirklich schön. (…) Ja was ich noch sagen kann, was auch anders ist bei der Tuna als bei der prickly pear hier: Das Schälen. Die hier hat eine hauchdünne Schale, wie die Kiwi, und die andere die ist bestimmt so, wie ein Pelz, so ungefähr einen halben Zentimeter dick. Die hältst du so, die kannst du so aufziehen. …Die Schale ist nicht hart (Lachen), aber du musst wissen wie man sie schälst sonst weißt du echt nicht wie du sie essen sollst. Ich weiß nicht wie ich das zum ersten Mal gemacht hab bis mir jemand erzählt hat wie man die schält, so abziehen. Ja weiß ich auch nicht was ich da jetzt mit mir verbinde…. * Hanna ist nicht nur eine Kaktusfrucht-, sondern auch eine Kaffee-Spezialistin. Innerhalb ihres PhDs etabliert sie gerade eine nachhaltige Kaffee-Lieferkette zwischen den USA und Mexico (https://web.asu.edu/slfee/people-1)
Why can you identify with a mushroom? It doesn´t require photosynthesis. It is independent of what most would consider the norm of energy or resources. Self-sufficient? Mushrooms are very self-sufficient, yes (laughter). And you can identify with this? Yes (laughter). Anything to add? Thank you. That was fun (laughter) How do you like to eat them? Anyway they come. * I met Aaron working at the Abby Lee Farm (http://abbyleeaz.com/) stand at Phoenix Public Market.
Because mushrooms … I love the idea of rhizomes, I love the idea of these long tendrils that go through different kinds of soil and allow the soil to live. I aspire to be able to do that. To spread from one place to another, and take ideas from one place to another, and transport things from one place to another and through decades make life happen. Who wouldn´t want that?
*
The talk “The World that Food made” of Raj Patel (http://rajpatel.org/) fell at least in my case on a fertile ground. Let´s see what comes growing…
I am an apple because I prefer when it´s a little cold and I feel that I am reliable and you can take me anywhere. You can keep me in the refrigerator, or you can just keep me out, and – I´ll last. I will survive. …And it´s my favorite time of the year too. I love fall. I think fall is great. Fall, apple picking, when you live down here in the valley you can go up North to go apple picking and I love doing that. I take my daughter, so we do that every year.
*
I did not meet Peter while picking apples but at Phoenix Public Market working together with a strawberry – in fall.
Well because I think I complement a lot of other, I could complement a lot of other vegetables and I like the fact that it´s versatile, like you can ferment pickles, very popular, probably the most popular fermented vegetable. That´s another way to have a cucumber I think, like, I like to be useful in many situation and I guess I can kind of see that. I like the fact, well what else, I like how they grow, with their little tendrils and gripping on to things and I think that´s quite beautiful and I think that I would like to do that if I was a vegetable.
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This young farmer I met at Copley Square Farmers Market, where together with others she took care of the Atlas Farm´s market stand ( http://www.atlasfarm.com/ ).
