Last week, while at the farmers market, a women came up and begin pointing to things asking “what is that?”, “how do you cook it”, and “is it good?”. I patiently humored her through the process of making flowering bok choy, rapini, their flavors and what I like to cook them with.
Working at large farmers markets you have the ebb and flow of being mind boggling busy followed by the brief calm before the next rush, she caught me at the latter. Towards the end of the day, the sun was out on another late winter morning that was confusingly warm, and I had the patience and luxury of time to go with it.
When she began to point to beets, I stopped her and began asking the questions “what are you looking for?” and then got the startled blank look of fear. She gathered herself again and told me that she just listened to Doctor Oz and he had told her to go out and buy some fresh organic produce, she came to the right place, but she didn’t know what to do and that she doesn’t cook much. To gain perspective I asked her what she had for dinner last night and when she replied that she is scared of her kitchen and had a bowl of cereal I wanted to scoop her up and run to the kitchen and hold her hand as we make some food together. We will see if that does end up happening.
I gave her carrots and Rapini along with careful instructions of the most basic operations of the kitchen and sent her off with the processing words of “you can do this” and “we will make a farmers market er out of you”. She smiled and told me will find out if I ever see her again, and I hope I do.
As I sit in my sunny living room I reflect on this story and know how many people are afraid of doing things new to them, cooking being one of them. Shameless plug, I offer cooking classes and shopping consultation both in private and in groups. I can help liberate your kitchen space, and teach you about your local food resources. But more in general, we as people are terrified of rejection, of failure and let our ego get in the way of pursuing things. So do it for yourself, and don’t be afraid of looking silly or asking stupid questions. The only stupid question is the one left un-asked. Try something new and explore this magical world that we live in together.