It’s Capetièmpe in Abruzzo – that special time of year from all hallows eve for about twelve days when the kitchen table is laden with delicious food from harvest time and places set for both the living and the dead. When there are candles and bonfires of endings and renewal, picnics in cemeteries and masked children go to each house collecting treats from the laden tables to share with their poorer families.
Whether it’s called Capetièmpe, Samhaim, Halloween, Totenfest, Day of the Dead or other names in different countries or parts of Italy, it’s about remembering those from the past especially loved ones, honouring nature’s cycles and keeping in mind that time isn’t necessarily linear. It can also be a circle, an endless cycle of events, the sun and moon constantly rising and setting.
Dawn, day and night. Rain onto land, into rivers and the sea, then up into clouds again. In church frescoes, old photographs, recipes cooked over and again. The cypresses in so many cemeteries, planted because they represent eternity, endurance, resilience – reaching from the earth to sun and sky. Nature’s calendar always a part of life, whether in rural or urban places, modern or ancient times. Remembering and honouring who we’ve known, what we have and what may come. 🖤🌿
On the kitchen table… a couple of pumpkins we bought from a farmer’s roadside ute near Esk. I love being able to buy straight from a farm ingredients that are in season at their peak and pumpkins even have autumn colours! These will help make many meals but my first thought was pumpkin and ricotta crespelle with crispy sage leaves and a little Parmigiano on top. (Luckily Roger is a fine maker of crespelle, crepes, or scrippelle as they’re called in Abruzzo.)
Zoë Boccabella 