Gatherings: New flavours, old traditions - Anne Boulton

If you are lucky enough to have a tight-knit community with neighbours that “call,” wave, give advice, lend tools and cups of flour or an egg or two, and collect your mail when you’re out of town, then you may be one of the few.

Not to sound entirely pessimistic, but the trend nowadays is to keep to oneself. (And here’s where I sound positively ancient): ear buds, texting, laptops, wifi in cafes, e-readers — these lovely bits of technology, in which I engage wholeheartedly, tend to create a somewhat solitary here to there.

Even books! The advent of inexpensive books with the printing press in the late 19th century made it possible for people to read on their own, rather than in groups as a social pastime.

One must make efforts to engage nowadays. In my community of friends, we often get together, for whatever reason — rite of passage, birthday, pregnancy, house concert — and share food and drink.

This type of “potlucking” allows for the kids to get to know other neighbourhood kids and creates deep impressions about spending time with others in meaningful and engaging ways.

It may seem all trendy to get together and potluck (as a verb, no less). In fact, there are online magazines (note the irony here) that cater to this desire for people to get together meaningfully, to put down their tablets and break bread.

Kinfolkmagazine.com, a group of young designers and writers, scattered across Canada and the United States, share a virtual experience of “gathering” that makes one yearn for grandma’s sugar pie or for wide open spaces and road trips and flannel wool shirts.

But really, potlucks and the communal sensibility has been around way before we thought we were hip to it. The term “potlatch,” from where the western use of the term “potluck” arises, comes from the Northwest Pacific Indigenous people who believed in the redistribution of wealth. It meant, “to give away,” roughly speaking. This meant food for a large part.

Next was the use of the term (thank you Wikipedia) in 16th Century England by Thomas Nash. A potluck was described as “food provided for an unexpected and uninvited guest.”

But potlucks were also borne out of necessity: in Ireland, poor women who had but one pot, would each bring an ingredient to make a decent pot of stew.

Nowadays, there are spin-offs of the potluck: progressive dinners are an event where in one home, the first course is served, then in another home close-by, the second course, and so on. In fact, my son’s grandmother makes this a yearly ritual with friends. The kicker is, if you are imbibing at each home, make sure you are in walking distance or are prepared to crash on a couch.

I even have friends with young children who spend a day cooking together and then share and freeze the meals, taking the pressure off them to prepare something wholesome each night.

We recently had a goodbye gathering for a friend returning to New Zealand. We packed the house, the kids ran amok and we laughed and talked the night away by the wood stove. And then we walked contentedly home.

Anne Boulton is an avid gardener who lives in Sudbury. Contact her at [email protected] or visit boultonanne.typepad.com/greenboots. 

Posted by Vivian Scinto