Anticipation (a pickle story and a life lesson?)

Does it feel a bit like I'm turning this into a food blog? I'm sure I'll get back to whining and complaining about the rest of my life, or — better yet — laughing at the foibles of others, but I'm feeling very upbeat right now about my cooking creations, so I'm sharing them.

I went to my local open-air market the other day and spied some lovely fresh dill being sold in big bunches and about three or four feet tall. I always feel like I see the dill too early in the season for the stuff you might want to use it with, so this was a fabulous coincidence: right product at the right time. I stocked up on that and pickling cucumbers, zucchini, hot peppers, etc. and had a couple of occasions making pickles.

Two views of the ingredients:

(sneaking up on them)


(aerial view)

And two views of the products:

(sneaking up on them)

(labelled view)

So why is this post called 'anticipation'? Because as smug as I feel about how they all sealed and look good (at least to me), I have to wait a few weeks before they will be ready to taste. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before the people responsible for the bread-cheating machine (derisive commentary on the technology) will invent some kind of instant pickle kit to give people the illusion of having made their own pickles, ready in minutes.

This all reminds me of a book one of my sisters was reading about the French surveyors charting where the equator passes through South America. I'm sure I'll get the facts wrong, but the sense of it is similar.

One of the surveyors was arranging to meet his wife, who he hadn't seen in years. He caught wind of news, however, that if he crossed the border into Brazil he risked being arrested because of a conflict between Brazil and France and suspicion about what he was actually doing. So he stopped where he was and sent the boat ahead to rendez-vous with his wife. She was delayed, so the boat waited at the rendez-vous point for TWO YEARS. With other similar delays, they were finally reunited, having been apart for several years, but each waiting patiently for the conditions to align themselves to bring them back together.

Can you imagine, in our own time, anyone waiting outside a cinema for longer than a half-hour for the friend who was supposed to be her/his movie companion?

Our instant gratification culture lacks patience.