Joshua’s is, to a large extent, the culmination of our 35 year history in Maine. Joshua was born and raised here on vegetables and protein raised on the same soil from which much of the food served at Joshua’s comes. Over the years we have collected quite a family of friends. One of the things that has made bringing this dream to reality more fun than labor is working with our friends.

Barbara wrote a cooking column for the Maine Organic Farmer and Gardener for a couple of years. This is her column for the January/February 1981 issue.

Spoons and Spiders

By

Barbara Mather

            Josh and Caitlin, aged six and four love to work in the kitchen. They have their share of play dishes, pans, utensils and such, but for the most part, the dishes, etc. have ended up as bath time dippers, swishers and splashers. No miniature rolling pin or egg beater seems to be as satisfying as the real thing that is used to prepare real food for family and friends. It takes a lot of patience (which Mort and I don’t always have) to let the children work with us or to let them do it all by themselves. When they want to help, my first thought is always that I can do it much more quickly, efficiently, and neatly by myself. My second thought is that if I don’t let them help and teach them now when they’re brimming with enthusiasm, I’ll be constantly annoyed by a couple of lazy lugs for teenagers with big appetites and no wherewithal for preparing decent food for themselves and others. So with long-term dividends in mind, I grin with their delight in having fixed their own lunch, and I bear the loaf of bread that has been sliced on a 60 degree angle, the little shavings of cheese all over the floor, and the bits of peanut butter floating around in the honey pot.

            Helping to make bread, particularly to knead, is a favorite job. When Cait was too little to push around the big blob of dough, I’d give her a small piece of her own to knead, roll out, cut up, and usually tote around in her hot little hand for the rest of the day (hopefully, we would remember to take it away before she got into bed at night). Breaking eggs is another satisfying task. If worried about too much shell ending up in the cookies, one can fish the bits of shell out of a cup into which the eggs have been broken before going into the big bowl. It’s amazing how quickly an adept egg-cracker emerges.

            Making salads is a good way to start a child’s involvement in preparing a family meal as they can do the whole thing solo, there is no need to worry about a hot stove, and he/she can be quite creative without disastrous results. We’ve had some very tasty and some rather unusual salads prepared by Josh’s hand. If I had made a salad of carrot peels, parsley sprigs, and unchopped chives, it surely would have been rejected; but Josh, the creator of such, ate it with gusto.

            “Something blended” is often what Josh requests for dessert. I suggest some possibilities like banana, yogurt, milk, carob, berries in season, peanut butter, etc., then let him devise his own concoction in the blender. Flipping pancakes, breaking eggs into the frying pan, making toast are all simple tasks and good ways of gradually allowing a child to become accustomed to actual cooking. Chopping vegetables and grating cheese for pizza is a fun way for him/her to begin learning about the use of sharp tools in the kitchen.

            Through all of Josh and Caitlin’s culinary endeavors I’ve learned to think positively, and mostly, to speak positively to them. When Josh was a toddler Helen Brigham once suggested to me that a child gains a lot more confidence and concentrates on a task more intently thereby avoiding accidents when one says, for example, “Carry the glass of water very carefully” rather than, “Don’t spill the water.”. When we feel our kids are old enough to handle a particular job, we assume that with our guidance they are capable of using the tools for that job safely and carefully. “Work slowly with that knife; keep you fingers out of the cutting line,” gives them instruction and something to concentrate on. “Don’t cut yourself,” does not.

            There are still many days when having much to accomplish and my mind on too many things, I give an arbitrary “no” when asked, “Can I help?”. However, Josh is at the point where his assistance in the kitchen is truly a help so, I usually try to take a deep breath, re-examine my priorities, set aside my strong Virgoan sense of order and say, “Sure, go wash your hands”—in the hopes that they’ll be baking half the family’s bread needs when they’re ravenous teenagers or at least, capable of avoiding starvation when they’re on their own.