"taste memory" news and stories

Some people think that Fall has begun when the leaves start to turn or when the air finally starts to cool down at night. For others it is the start of school or the fact that darkness comes before 8 pm. Here in Philadelphia, it isn't Fall until the Taskykake Pumpkin Pies hit the shelves of our local grocery and convenience stores. What are the food products that mark the the change of the season for you?

I was sitting at my computer yesterday afternoon, mindlessly reading blogs and looking for a little writing inspiration when I picked up a plum that I had gotten from the kitchen just a little while earlier and bit into it. The taste of that particular plum (its brethren are pictured above) transported me back 20+ years and several thousand miles, into the back yard of the house in which my family lived during our Los Angeles years. That house had several plum trees, a really large one in the back and a couple of smaller ones along the side of the house, on the strip of ground that separated our space from the neighbor's.

As a young kid I got a profound sense of pleasure whenever I got the opportunity to pick my own food. It satisfied my longing to be like Laura Ingalls Wilder. My mom often made jam with the plums from those trees, although in those days it was always a little too saucy as she couldn't bring herself to add the sugar required to make it jell. Still, it was always delicious, especially because it came from our yard.

I do love it when a bite of some seemingly ordinary foodstuff gives me the opportunity to travel through time and space. Are there any foods that are similarly evocative for you?

Photo by Marisa McClellan