• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Bio
    • Freelance Writing
    • Media Mentions
    • Teaching and Speaking
    • Contact Me
  • Services
    • Coaching and Editing
    • Clients
    • FAQ
    • Testimonials
  • Books
    • Will Write For Food
    • The United States of Pizza
    • Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas
  • Events
  • Categories
    • Awards
    • Cookbooks
    • Career
    • Contests
    • Ethics
    • Food Blogging
    • Freelancing
    • Literary Agents
    • My workshops and conferences
    • Personal Stuff
    • Photography
    • Promotion
    • Proposals
    • Radio interviews and writing
    • Recipe Writing
    • Restaurant Reviewing
    • Self Publishing
    • Social Media
    • Travel Writing
    • Uncategorized
    • Useful Links
    • Writing
    • Memoir
    • Writing Apps
  • Resources
  • My Newsletter
  • Blog

dads and daughters

Crazy for Produce, from Dad to Daughter

June 21, 2010 by diannejacob

On the prowl for food with my father, Moses Jacob, with me (on right) and my sister.

On Father’s Day yesterday, I thought about my dad, a food-obsessed poet and songwriter who loved produce more than anyone I’ve known.

It sounds funny to say that he was obsessed with produce. But my dad lived for it. He grew vegetables in our Vancouver back yard, specializing in a Chinese green called celtuce. All summer long he cut down the stalks and sliced them into juicy green batons that floated in a bowl of water in the fridge. While other kids ate Popsicles, I fished out those crisp, green stems for a refreshing treat.

In winter, he pickled turnips with beets and carrots, turning them hot pink in their tall Mason jars. We ate them at dinner with meat stews my mother cooked, brimming with bamboo shoots and peas, cauliflower or lima beans.

For dessert in spring, we ate artichokes, at least one for each of us. My father loved how, when he washed them down with a glass of water, his mouth filled with sweetness. For fall dessert, my mother roasted a pan of  sweet potatoes, cooked until the sugars wept out and caramelized in pools around the sides. They reminded my parents of Shanghai, where they purchased sweet potatoes from street cart vendors.

Even when we gathered around the television at night, my father appeared with a dinner plate piled with crisp wedges of iceburg lettuce in summer; slices of apples and oranges in winter.

When I was around 8 years old, my dad convinced a produce vendor in Chinatown to order a box of mangoes from the Philippines just for him. In the 1960s there were no mangoes in the supermarkets, and he ached for the fruit he remembered from China. Once the mangoes ripened in our basement, my parents covered the dinner table with newspaper, then brought in armfuls of ripe yellow fruit. We ate them with spoons, the sicky juice running down our faces.

My dad’s been dead for 28 years, but I carry on his obsession. He would’ve loved the farmer’s market I visited yesterday, overflowing with beets, peaches, cherries and lettuces. I’m still looking for celtuce, though. The last time I tasted it was in China,  maybe 8 years ago. It was a diamond-shaped green served in a breakfast dish, and when I bit down on it, all the memories of those stalks in the fridge flooded back.

Filed Under: Personal Stuff Tagged With: dads and daughters, Father's Day, food writing

Primary Sidebar

My Books





Awards and Honors


Will Write for Food 2022


Will Write For Food 2022


IACP Member of the Year 2022


Will Write For Food 2022


Will Write For Food 2020


Best Essay 2016


2016 Grand Prize
MFK Fisher Award
for Best Essay


Will Write For Food 2016


Will Write For Food 2016


Will Write For Food 2010


Best Essay 2007


Will Write For Food 2005

Member

Secondary Sidebar

Subscribe to my Free Monthly Newsletter on Food Writing Here

Food Blogger Pro Ad
Cookbook Publishing Course

Categories

  • Awards (17)
  • Career (72)
  • Contests (23)
  • Cookbooks (122)
  • Ethics (60)
  • Food Blogging (230)
  • Freelancing (54)
  • Literary Agents (12)
  • My workshops and conferences (35)
  • Personal Stuff (24)
  • Photography (7)
  • Promotion (27)
  • Proposals (10)
  • Recipe Writing (73)
  • Restaurant Reviewing (22)
  • Self Publishing (20)
  • Social Media (23)
  • Travel Writing (3)
  • Useful Links (23)
  • Writing (139)
    • Memoir (15)
  • Writing Apps (3)

Archives

Most Popular Posts

  • Adapting a Recipe Doesn’t Make it Yours 267 comments
  • New FTC Rules on Writing Reviews, Affiliations, and Sponsored Posts 266 comments
  • Is Food Blogging Too Much Work? 237 comments
  • Are You Making These 3 Mistakes on Your About Page? 206 comments
  • 5 Notes to Self for Coping with Conference Anxiety 203 comments
  • Food Bloggers Fight Firestorm of Abusive Facebook Pages 200 comments
  • Should Bloggers be Praised for Recipes They Don't Write? 198 comments

Copyright © 2023 · Dianne Jacob      Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Genesis Sample Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Get Dianne’s free newsletter on food writing and blogging delivered to your inbox!

Subscribe