Cooking course and winter feelings

The branches of the rowan tree in our garden bend under the weight of the red berries and the first snow. Winter has kissed the mountains early this year and the stories of our elders predict a snowy winter with many berries. Let's hope that Jack Frost wasn't too hasty and winter didn't play a joke on us.

Even Voltaire loved gardens; maybe even rowan berries; and he wrote that one should take care of their garden. He didn't mean the loving care for carrots and cabbage literally, but rather the nurturing and taking care of friendships. Now, my own garden is not exactly large in this regard, but it grows some peculiar vegetables and extraordinary fruits. For example, Irene, whom I would compare most to lettuce, because she thrives in every environment and isn't discouraged by slugs. If lettuce had as many stories to tell as Irene, the garden would be a bustling place. I nominate Michl as the tomato, even though there is a love-hate relationship between them. Whether it's ketchup, sauce, or a tomato-mozzarella salad, you can do just as much with Michl as with its plant counterpart. Between lettuce and broccoli, he stretches his tousled head towards the sun, loving himself and full of joy, like a tomato. Marcel, the potato, plants his babies by the ton and is the "potato pope" of Switzerland. Our conversations are as profound as his grown tubers, and his eminence has as many talents as there are potato varieties. Last, but not least, there is Stephi, whose "spirit vegetable" is beets. Once the dirt is washed away, her hidden beauty unfolds in every shade of red and penetrates the soul like beets do urine.

The most wonderful thing about all these tubers and plants is that they accept me, the bumbling gardener, with all my quirks.

With my vagabond life, it's not easy to meet the demands of all the vegetables, so I'm glad that my garden is an organic garden, consisting of robust Pro Spezia Rara plants that can thrive on their own.

But there's one more thing I want to emphasize: when you mix all my friends together, they create a delicious ratatouille that enriches my life immensely.