The Season of Berries & Our Ceramic Colanders
Growing up my parents owned a home in the countryside of Helvetia, Oregon. As the warm weather cycled in each year, the manure from the neighboring farms would linger in the air. Now nostalgic and refreshing, my kids remind me of how foul I once thought it smelled.
The return of that scent each year marks one glorious thing for me– berry season.
We would visit our friend's small farm each year to kneel in the dirt and fill our colanders full of the softest and sweetest strawberries (blueberries too). We’d fill our colanders to the brim to carry them home then forge in our own garden for stalks of rhubarb. Before breaking out our recipes, our dirty colander would make its way to the sink with all our new gatherings for a good wash.
My mom would cut up all the strawberries and rhubarb and step by step mix in each ingredient as followed in the recipe. My mom always made the best strawberry rhubarb, which I feel like is just a “mom thing”. Each year at this time in our home, we collect our strawberries and rhubarb and I carry out the tradition of making the same recipe on my own with my girls.
This year I’ve created one more piece from the memories of berry season– Our Ceramic Colanders. I have thrown each one of these colanders and punched out each hole hoping to create a tool that celebrates both form and function.
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