Saudade (soh-dah-duh) especially with reference to songs or poetry: a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament. An English translation of this word would best be replaced by ‘missingness.’
“Her songs are based on love poems and evoke a melancholy known to the Portuguese as saudade.”
(n.) “yearnings, saudades, those sonorous fruits grown for overripe hearts” or “the love that remains”
A Portuguese and Galician term that is a common fixture in the literature and music of Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, and beyond. The concept has many definitions, including a melancholy nostalgia for something that perhaps has not even happened. It often carries an assurance that this thing you feel nostalgic for will never happen again.
“A pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy.” ~ Portuguese writer Manuel de Melo.
“No matter where I wander, I’m still haunted by your name
The portrait of your beauty stays the same
Standing by the ocean wondering where you’ve gone
If you’ll return again
Where is the ring I gave to Nancy Spain?”
~ Barney Rush in his example of saudade in contemporary Irish music.
Image by Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior via Wikimedia Commons.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is Erin McBride!
Erin McBride (notathreatinsight, #3762) has received a certificate of achievement in Cleaning Up for earning a Beginner Level Water Conservation Merit Badge!
“I checked for leaks from our faucets, toilets, and shower heads. I didn’t find anything that needed to be fixed. Since we live in an old house, that was a pleasant surprise.
Some of the ways I’ve found that we can conserve water as a family are to turn off water while brushing our teeth, turning the water off in the shower between soaping up and rinsing off, being conscious of how often the water is running needlessly at the sink in the kitchen, and operating the dishwasher and washing machine only when they are full.
I must admit that my husband already implemented most of these water-conserving strategies, and he’s been on me for a while to pay more attention to how much water I waste. I have really tried in the past couple of months to be more mindful of how much water I’m using. Since I have small children, putting these ideas into practice falls mostly on me. I’ve tried to emphasize to them the importance of water and that it is a resource that we need and shouldn’t take for granted.
By implementing these water-saving plans I estimate that we have saved weekly 250 gallons of water from running the dishwasher and washing machine only when full, 670 gallons a week from “navy showers,” and 250 gallons a week by turning off the water while brushing our teeth.”
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,466 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,836 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life…
For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Table Talk Expert Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I enlisted all three of my fab favorite kitchen minions: Andy, Nora, and Piper. After all, they were all ready to earn this badge and a bird in the hand is worth three in the kitchen. Or something like that.
Anyway, they got to work planning out their menu, since this Expert Level badge was all about making dinner and being adventurous about it, to boot. Adventure is in these kids’ blood, I tell ya, so this was not going to be a problem. At least, that’s what I thought.
Trying to get them to agree on supper plans was pretty exhausting and time consuming. I needed a snack just to keep my blood sugar up. Finally, after some serious arguments, tiffs, quarrels, and squabbles (not to mention arm-wrestling matches), they decided they would each pick out a dish. After all, it was going to be a full meal deal, righto?
Going with their spirits of adventure and trying new things, I steered them away from standby favorites, such as macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, and pizza. I let them browse through my cookbook collection and scroll through Pinterest, and they came up with some pretty interesting menu ideas.
Okay, so they didn’t flow together all that great, but we decided to call it A Trip Around the World Buffet. Andy chose fish tacos, Nora picked Savory Crepes, and Piper had her heart set on Ratatouille.
photo by Arnold Gatilao via Wikimedia Commons
I wished I had a bigger kitchen.
I ate another snack.
Piper’s dish was going to take the longest to prepare and cook, so I let her get started first. She learned how to use a mandoline (no, not the instrument, my peeps—that’s a mandolin, but the slicing kind). The bounty from my garden was getting some serious lovin’. We used eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, red and green peppers, fresh basil, garlic, plum tomatoes, and red onion. The smell was divine! She artfully arranged all our slices in a beautiful pattern and we put it in the oven.
Then Nora was up with her Savory Crepes. Crepes are fun for everyone because you can put anything inside of them. Nora took this decision seriously and really got her knickers in a twist over the pairings. She finally decided on mushrooms, pesto, and turkey. We made a simple batter and I must say, she got pretty darn good at flipping. One or two or seven might have ended on the floor, but practice makes perfect and she figured out her crepe-making mojo.
Then we let Andy back in the kitchen, and he was a whirling dervish. It was like the Tasmanian Devil was whipping up the fish tacos. Back and forth he went, stirring his Sweet and Spicy Chili sauce, dipping his halibut in salt and pepper and cumin, heating up his corn tortillas, and chopping up lettuce, cilantro, and radishes.
At the end? We had a feast of epic culinary proportions. We were all so full, it felt like we had eaten Thanksgiving early!
And the state of my kitchen?
Don’t ask.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
