Status Updates From The Book of Difficult Fruit...

V - Vanilla
(Yes I read all the other letters and just didn’t post about them) A meditation on performing femininity in terms of the girlish teenage vanilla scent, specifically the one from Bath & Body Works (we all know the one). I never wanted to be that girly. I wanted to be tough, and stoic, and capable, much like the girls in my favorite books. But I still love a slinky dress and vanilla - best beware of boxes

S - Sugarcane
I would love to see Kara Walker’s work - The Marvelous Sugar Baby sounds like an amazing piece that truly captured the horror and blood and life tat went into the sugar industry in the Caribbean

R - Rhubarb

I knew that rhubarb leaves are poisonous and bad to eat, but what I learned here is that rhubarb’s roots are a powerful purgative or alternatively a cure for diarrhea. What a powerful plant.

Q - Quince
Thought by many Jewish scholars to be the fruit of good and evil from the Garden of Eden, as it has a strong, rosy, perfumed fragrance but an extremely astringent and sour taste. It also has so much natural pectin in it that people would make hair pomade (an early hair gel) from the excretions of its seeds in water, in high demand by hairdressers.

P - Pomegranate
Considered a fertility helper by the ancients, but in reality inhibited it.

Osage orange - I first saw one of these “monkey brains” in Prospect Park and found it terrifying yet awesome. Who could have guessed that nature makes Frankenstein’s brain? I learned here that they are inedible, good for nothing, and that Martha Stewart thinks they’re cute. I think she needs to get her eyes checked.

N - Norton Grape
The only wine grape native to America. Useful recipes too (how to make red wine vinegar? Yes please)

N - Norton Grape
The only wine grape native to America. Useful recipes too (how to make red wine vinegar? Yes please)

M - Medlar
This fruit is only ripe once it’s rotten and was a Shakespearean term for slut. I think that’s enough.

L - Lump
This is a chapter not about a fruit of the vine but a fruit of the body, as the author typifies it - cancer. The body ripening in a way it is not supposed to. She writes of a friend whose 2 year tumor was at first mistaken by the student health center as a pregnancy, and her own cancer scare felt like a blueberry tight beneath the skin. Thoughtful and kind.

K - Kiwifruit
Renamed for the bird, who knew? And to avoid customs confusion over its original English name, Chinese Gooseberry (I suppose we’ve been putting tariffs on China forever). And it can be used as meat tenderizer because of an enzyme it contains? Fascinating. I enjoyed the vignette about working at a nursing home with her mother too.

K - Kiwifruit
Renamed for the bird, who knew? And to avoid customs confusion over its original English name, Chinese Gooseberry (I suppose we’ve been putting tariffs on China forever). And it can be used as meat tenderizer because of an enzyme it contains? Fascinating. I enjoyed the vignette about working at a nursing home with her mother too.

J - Juniper Berry

I wouldn’t have expected a chapter on abortion in this book, necessarily, especially in a chapter where the author continually cannot find much information or evidence of juniper being used for abortion. Still an interesting read, especially when the zine on using herbal remedies to abort suggests that a woman could feel guilty for a non-natural abortion. We really shame women for everything.

I - Italian Plum
This tree fruit is not so difficult- it requires very little active care to fruit - except that if you do not tend it’s harvest, it will rot and attract flies and vermin. Technically, like the author’s former paramour, it asks for nothing, but in reality, it needs care and attention.

H - Huckleberry
My favorite of the last few chapters. Huckleberries cannot be domesticated and are inherently wild - the easiest way to harvest them, raking and ripping leaves and branches, also means that next year’s harvest will be poor. The best way to harvest is by hand, peeking under each leaf. However, huckleberries do better after fires, so the indigenous people would set controlled fires to feast.

G - Gooseberry
Like most, I’ve only ever heard of these in the context of Snow White’s gooseberry pie. Apparently they are very sour and also full of pectin, the fruit starch that helps jellies gel and pie insides stand up straight. Judging the pies made at the state fair, the author tells us that the secret ingredient to a gooseberry pie is sugar. The ice cream recipe sounds amazing though.

F - Faceclock
Faceclocks are the names for the dandelion buds. Are dandelions fruit? I wouldn’t be so sure… but they certainly are difficult. The chapter deals with her struggles with neighbors, of which dandelions could certainly be considered some. The recipes included coffee (apparently dandelions can have a similar diuretic effect) and a stew which reminds me of one I made that my boyfriend hated.

E - Elderberry

I am of the opinion that all the elderflowers should be plucked since who cares about this bitter terrible berries when the light and pleasing elderflower flavor can be had? Elderflower is something I will always love and always order when I see it on a drink menu.

D - Durian

The author says over and over that if it’s a book of difficult fruit she has to include durian, and indeed, this read like a forced school essay topic your teacher assigned because it seemed “fun.” I do like the recipes here though, with the ridiculousness of durian lip balm and the fact that the author did un fact succeed in inuring herself to the taste of durian.

C - Sweet and Sour Cherries
I do know this difficult fruit myself, having pitted it for a sour cherry pie without a putter. Fascinating to learn that the almond extract in that cherry pie is meant to imitate the flavor of cherry pits, which contain trace amounts of cyanide when consumed and processed by the body.

C - Sweet and Sour Cherries
I do know this difficult fruit myself, having pitted it for a sour cherry pie without a putter. Fascinating to learn that the almond extract in that cherry pie is meant to imitate the flavor of cherry pits, which contain trace amounts of cyanide when consumed and processed by the body.