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The patato-and-the been (бараболя і фасо- ля) make a great team. Fedchuk personifies the potato, giving it a woman’s voice to introduce itself in this riddle: Я стара, та зі старої перероджусь в молоду, На весні як хтось подбає з хати вижену біду.6 Although I am old, I will create myself anew If in springtime someone tends me, misery and hunger I shall outdo. In another riddle, Fedchuk explains that this vegetable is the one who knows best how to grow, because of all the plants that develop underground, it is the only one dotted with “eyes” and therefore has “vision!”. Although corn is the food of the poor in Europe, it has become a most sophisticated vegetable in the Americas. It is the most perfect vegetable because it appeals to all our senses: sense of sight by its golden grains and green envelope; sense of touch as we peel the secret green chamber and silky wadding to reveal the corn on the cob; sense of smell as we prepare popcorn; sense of hearing as we hear it pop; and sense of taste as we eat it freshly prepared with salt and butter. Fedchuk captures the corn as it is transformed into popcorn (кукурудзяні кокошки). Дали зерно у пательні на вогонь раптовий І мішали. Пах, пах! вибух і присмак готовий. Посолити його трішки, щей маслом поляти І малому і старому буде смакувати.7 They place the grain in a frying pan and over quick fire They shake it. Pakh! Pakh! is heard and the snack is ready. A bit of salt, a bit of butter A treat for both young and old. There is one vegetable that sometimes does not require a gardener. It is the Golden Onion and its family. Often its faithful companion is garlic. In Ukrainian tradition, “a piece of rye (dark) break and an onion or a clove of garlic and it is a meal.” It is a fact that an onion left in the ground from last year’s crop may grow by itself without the help of a gardener. It is the poor man’s ticket to survival. Add a piece of fat lard (bacon) and you have a feast! From my childhood, I remember how my mother used to braid onions with a string and hang them to dry. I also remember my mother preparing onion skins to make a broth in which eggs would be hard boiled for Easter. Their shells would shine in brown, bronze and gold. The smell of fried onion brings to mind my Mother, bent over a wood-burning stove and a frying plan, preparing recipes that to this day make us believers in meatless meals. We did not have much of anything, but onions were what we had a lot of! Later in life I discovered that, culturally speaking, good homemakers were judged by their onions! Not to have an onion in the garden was either a sign of extreme poverty or ultimate neglect and laziness. В хаті гульки, а в городі ані цибульки! Merrymaking in the house, but not a single little onion in the garden!8 Onions are those vegetables that make us all cry, and there are many riddles based on this natural power of the onion. But the riddles bank also on the fact that like the cabbage, the onion has many layers of skin. Має шкір сім, витискає сльози всім. It has six skins and makes us all cry. Іде пані в золотім жупані Хоч жупан той латка на латці Та приймають в кожні хатці. A lady goes dressed in a golden overcoat Although this overcoat has patches over patches She is most welcome in each and every home. Bohdan Fedchuk lists the onion in the same bunch as horseradish and garlic: they complement ordinary foods, giving them a “bite.” Це які присмаки даємо до їжі Аж плачемо, якщо їмо тіє свіжі.9 What kind of complement do we give to our food, If we cry when we eat it when it is fresh? Experienced cooks know that without garlic there cannot be good cooking. Garlic is known for its many virtues, however, it is one of the vegetable garden plants that needs a full year to mature before it can give a head of garlic to be used in cooking. People plant it in the Fall and harvest it the next Fall. For that reason, garlic is sometimes compared to an old man with long, neglected white hair on a beard, dressed in a white overcoat. Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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