Friday, January 8, 2010

Meyer lemon marmalade

I am very lucky.

..and quite humbled.

It was with a certain breathlessness that I picked up my mail after a two week hiatus from my Chinatown (long story) post office. Thomas had sent me a note asking whether a parcel had arrived. And then I remembered my dream: Meyer lemon marmalade. I lusted after it the minute he posted his pictures of the marmalade he made from his little Meyer lemon tree, in freezing Massachusetts (indoor lemon tree, need I add?). And then I dreamed about it.

At the post office, inside a box, swaddled in a lot of bubble wrap, was a little jar. I opened it at once (it was very well sealed, Thomas!), and sniffed. I made Vince sniff. I think the whole post office sniffed.

At home, it was breakfast on the little white milk rolls. Delicate and clearly yellow, and softly citrus in the way only a Meyer lemon can be.

I couldn't help wondering at it all. There I was in Brooklyn, in bed, eating marmalade made by someone I have never met, from a little tree he has tended lovingly in a climate in which it will not survive. The Internet, blogs, and the kindness of strangers.

It echoed so sweetly Ellen's quince jelly of some weeks ago, and they both go a long way toward convincing me that the world is not bereft of meaning. Meaning comes in small jars of exquisitely set jelly and marmalade, pale pink and pale yellow. It tells of fruit and time, and technique, and desire. And of disinterested friendship, the best of human qualities.

Even the cat was moved.

Thomas, thank you!

7 comments:

  1. How very sweet! and quite the miracle of real friendship facilitated by the internet. (The contrast in colors with Estorbo's paw is fantastic.)

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  2. I'm glad you liked it Marie! I'm so happy to have gotten to know you through your writings and photography.

    Thanks for being a true friend!

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  3. I read Thomas' post about Meyer lemons over at Simple Green Frugal Co-op in November and dropped a few hints around Christmas time. I actually got an IOU, and so we are ordering one today. Can't wait to grow "local" citrus in CT!

    What a treat to find homemade marmalade in your mailbox, eh?

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  4. Hi Paula - Estorbo says he wants a kitten. Called Marmalade. I don't know...

    Thomas - what you said :-)

    Karen - where are you getting yours from? I was looking at White Flower Farm, but I'm greedy and want a bigger one.

    Yes - a huge, huge treat.

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  5. Four Winds Growers, linked on Thomas' post over at SGF today!

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  6. Whenever people rant about the Evile Internet, I recall stories like this. I have encountered more unsolicited kindness since I started blogging than in the preceding 35-odd years. Either food blogging attracts unnaturally nice people, or the world is actually not going to hell in a handbasket. How I wish I lived somewhere that Meyer lemons were readily available! I did not undersand what the fuss was about till I tasted some Meyer lemon curd. OMG.

    *Love* the pic with the marauding black furry paw!

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  7. Tanks Karen!

    Jeanne - can you grow one in a pot?

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