Cabbages is beautiful
"Receive. Save seeds. Write recipes. Savor the bite of brine and kimchi and kraut.
The title is taken from a farmer in Edna Ferber’s novel So Big
who repeats “cabbages is beautiful,” laughing and “shaking
with slow, solemn, heavy Dutch mirth” at the thought of
someone finding it so.
“Adam had to subdue the earth… he must cultivate it, open it up, and so cause to come up out of it all the treasures which God has stored there…”
– Herman Bavinck
In cabbage, each leaf laid
so closely against another,
creation is unfurling.
The goodness given
develops in kohlrabi,
kale, and collards.
And in Brussels sprouts.
It unfolds in human hands
and nature’s laws. Coleslaw.
Receive. Save seeds.
Write recipes. Savor the bite
and brine of kimchi and kraut.
Cultivate. Revel in what a
bud of a leaf or flower can be.
Culture unwraps the gift
growing in the garden. In
the kitchen, let flavors meld
into music. And if you hear a
trumpet, if the brass occurs
like heaven coming down,
heaven’s reign down here,
sing along to the steaming
pots stinking up the kitchen.
I love the poem (and the illustration, too).