The Saffron Pear Tree: And Other Kitchen Memories

by JohnHall (Illustrator), ZurethaRoos (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $32.95

  Food does more than sustain us; we eat when we're celebrating, we feed those we love, we cook to express ourselves, we bake to impress others, we nibble for comfort, we revisit old recipe titles for memories, we breathe deeper when a stew is simmering just because it's so good to smell it. Food is woven with our emotions. In this memoir the author writes about her life. On the farm her father built after WWII a bolshie sheep is bound for the pot, her mother competes with the other butter churners of the Women's Agricultural Union, her aunt never allows the family to say no to seconds, her sister becomes addicted to hotel bread and a sad young girl tries to cover up her mother's alcoholism by baking a cake for the church bazaar. When Zuretha goes to university a whole new world opens up, which includes an Italian housemate who introduces her to spaghetti bolognaise - in the crockery-challenged students' home it's served in a chamber pot! As a young wife and mother in Johannesburg, Zuretha starts experimenting with other recipes and, overeager to impress new acquaintances, doesn't always get them right. Tragedy strikes and, hoping to get over the death of her one son, Zuretha spends