Why Bloodroot is Vegan/Vegetarian

A recent issue of a feminist magazine we carry in our bookstore had a brief review of a book called The Vegetarian Myth, which criticized vegetarianism as environmentally unsound and unhealthy for women.  We were offended by the enthusiasm of the review, and returned copies to the publisher, Sinister Wisdom.  They were understanding and graciously requested us to respond and to discuss our beliefs. 

                            Here is what was published in Sinister Wisdom, Issue #85.

Why Bloodroot is Vegan/Vegetarian

I.  How we came to start a vegetarian restaurant 35 years ago, and why our menu is increasingly vegan.

In 1977, several friends and I started Bloodroot.  Why?  Because my change from housewife and mother to lesbian feminist meant that I needed to lead a life outside patriarchal morality away from husband and societal expectations.   I wanted a community with shared values (not all, but most), and I wanted to think and put into practice what was feminism for me.  This has been my 35-year work in progress shared by Noel Furie, and others who have been with us at Bloodroot.

So my "coming out" was not about a sexual choice, though it included that; it was not about getting married to a woman instead of a man and going on to lead a couple's life similar to that of heterosexuals.

It meant trying to lead a life that was better.  Better for people and creatures and the earth itself as well as for myself. *  We hoped for community.  And while of course there have been changes, mostly this choice, these choices have made that possible.

But how could we, Noel and I, keep doing this for 35 years?  We can because it is so deeply satisfying to us.  We like the people who come to be fed by us, very much.  We still like cooking very much.  We can't imagine a different life.  Perhaps it is because it evolved slowly, and perhaps it is because we never chose deprivation.  We never went "cold turkey" (except on meat, fish, and poultry!).  Gradually our menu became more vegan, since we admire the animal rights activists who come to us and we want very much to please them.  I want the food they eat here to be delicious and diverse.  We love the idea of eating what is in our gardens or at the farmers' market this minute, totally glutting on strawberries in June and apples in September.

But we are also thrilled to explore traditional people's comfort foods, and so will search out imported Haitian or Jamaican or Mexican or Greek or Korean ingredients to make the dishes of which our workers and friends have shared recipes.  The result is that we can look forward to each season's menus with many more options than those whose plates center on meat.

Our customers don't have to be vegetarians, and many are not.  But where can they get homemade bread like ours, or soups as satisfying?  We want to seduce them with delicious vegan food, and to encourage them to eat less or no meat.

II. The Vegetarian Myth

We can't help but be disgusted when someone like Michael Pollan who writes so well about the harm caused by industrial agriculture, then writes of hunting and slaughtering a wild (female) pig and how it was the best meal of his life.  (The Omnivore's Dilemma).  We're disappointed when someone like Barbara Kingsolver convinces her 10 year old daughter to not name her "pet" chickens so that she won't mind them being killed to sell so that the daughter can then buy a pony (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral) As you can imagine, we had no interest in reading Lierre Keith's " Vegetarian Myth" – but since I was asked to write about why we didn't want to carry Sinister Wisdom copies with a plug for her book in our bookstore, it became necessary to read it, and what an unpleasant couple of days it was!  Full of half-truths and outright lies, I would have had to spend too much of my precious days picking it apart sentence by sentence.  Luckily some folks have done a more than adequate job on the internet. **

But in general, Keith makes these claims:  First, that the advent of agriculture has gradually destroyed the earth's ecosystems and creatures.  Of course, Jim Mason's An Unnatural Order *** (1993, Simon and Schuster) discussed just this, and further that the rise of agriculture and religion made dominion over women, children, animals, slaves acceptable and right. He contends that animal husbandry in particular created patriarchal rule with these forms of oppression. His book expresses the paradigm of what we, as feminists believe in. So of course he came to a very different conclusion from Keith's.

Keith repeatedly speaks of her own ignorance and arrogance when she was a vegan.  Now that she is enlightened, the rest of us vegetarians and vegans must be ignorant and arrogant, since we have not learned from her pantheon of deniers of the benefits of vegetarianism.  She seems to blame vegetarianism for the huge monocultures of grain and soy (raised to fatten animals), and makes little or no distinction between this "agriculture" and small farms growing broccoli and carrots.

III.  Political Ups and Downs

Secondly, Keith blames her bad health on her 20-year vegan diet.  It would seem that every movement wanting to change things for the better contains individuals who at first are the truest believers and who become angry at any slippage. Then they suddenly become the backlash and despise all that they once believed.  The impossibility of perfectionism can be very disappointing.

We don't know whether Keith was a junk food vegan or not.  There are certainly lots of them, just as there are lots of junk food carnivores, and we know junk food can make us sick.  We also know that there are lots of folks (most often women) who feel virtuous about deprivation: fasting – omitting fats from their diets – omitting all carbohydrates.  Whatever.  It would seem that extreme mortification turns into extreme rejection.  Well, we don't do that.  We love food.  We don't want any deprivation.  We want our food to be sensuous and diverse and delicious.  We just don't want it to be made from members of our family . . . and that goes all the way down (down?) to fish.

IV.  Antidote

Anyway, as an antidote to Keith's book, I reread Jonathan Foer's Eating Animals.  It was healing.

Then I spoke to Jim Mason.  He talked about relative justice.  We can't do everything we might wish to do to make the world a better place. Maybe it is a hybrid car instead of a Hummer.  Maybe it is supporting a local farmer by joining a CSA.  Maybe it's eating meat once a week instead of three times a day.  Maybe it's not buying bottled water or not using plastic bags. Something.  None of us can do it all, but for our own sakes and health, we should try to do something.  As Jim says, “Justice is what equals least harm.”  And we need to consider which gurus we listen to.  If your need to eat meat is so great that you will take any justification, there are plenty of carnistic gurus out there.

I also talked to Lagusta Yearwood, who has been vegan for 18 years, and Stephanie Zinowski, vegan for at least that.  Lagusta and Stephanie used to work here.  Lagusta makes and sells fabulous vegan chocolates and Stephanie runs Wesleyan University's Vegan Cafe.  Their vegan friends are healthier than their carnivore counterparts.**** I am 77 years old and I seem to be physically in better shape than meat-eating peers my age.  Many customers come into our restaurant assuming we are a health place.  I know our food is healthy, but we are not interested in the latest health fads.  We are animal rights vegetarians and our intention and pleasure is to prepare and eat delicious diverse meals that change every season, and to share them with our friends.

We really are lucky!

                                    Selma Miriam

                                    Noel Furie

*  Jonathan Safran Foer (Eating Animals) became a vegetarian when he became a father.  It

    seemed critical to him that fatherhood required him leading a moral life.

**  http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/12/18601536.php

      Lierre Keith's Elaborate, Self-Congratulatory Excuse for Abandoning Veganism

***Re-released in 2005 by Lantern Books, NYC.  Mason is also the author, with Peter Singer,

      of Animal Factories

****As Colin Campbell's' China Study documents thoroughly.  The statistics in his book were

       collected in the 1980's and the diet and disease information therein not relevant to China

       today, but to a China where large groups of people ate very little or no meat.

A Vacation Trip to Istanbul

 

I am an admirer of Steve Sando who grows organic heirloom beans in California, so when he praised a book on Turkish cooking, Turquoise, written by a friend of his, Greg Malouf, I ordered a copy.

This is a coffee table sized book with pretty pictures of food and men. Boys and men. Apparently there are no women in Turkey except for two wrapped in black and huddled in a street doorway. I didn’t like this pretentious book and I barely looked at the mostly meat recipes.

NYT 10/2/11

Then there was a travel article in the New York Times and it showed pictures of people, including women, eating and having a great time. In fact the food descriptions were tempting, and we did need vacation plans. Then a customer came into the restaurant and I admired her scarf. She said she had gotten it in Istanbul. She reminded me that we had run into each other in Oaxaca, Mexico, a favorite city for both of us. Perhaps we had the same tastes! She urged us to go to Istanbul.

With some hesitation I talked to our friend Krystyna, a most intrepid researcher, and asked her to look into the possibility of an Istanbul visit. Besides getting the usual guidebooks, she joined Airbnb, to find us an inexpensive place to stay. She also found us an American ex-pat “foodie”, Kathy Hamilton, who could take us to restaurants and the fabled Spice Market. And another American ex-pat fabric designer, Catherine Bayar, who knew weavers, dyers, and felters. Krystyna even worked at learning a little Turkish, a very different language from anything we knew. Best of all, she has a friend from Istanbul whose family wanted us to come to dinner during our stay.

We went in February; off-season for tourists, and it was very cold and very hilly. But even on the first day, (before we met with either guide) as we wandered around, we found: 

- People were exceptionally helpful, often taking us where we wanted to go whether they spoke English or not.

- The City is startlingly clean. The cobblestone streets all have drainage ditches lined in stone, and not even a cigarette butt is present. 

- There are cats everywhere, and they are as friendly as the people! Obviously because the people feed them and they expect the best from humans.

On later days we reflected that we never saw an obese person. Of course there is a great amount of walking (as well as a very good transportation system).

Most amazing of all, I never saw any sign of public sexual aggression- no eyeing women up and down-no nasty noises or comments….how come?

And we always felt safe walking the several blocks home from where taxis dropped us off, though it was dark and men were about.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I started with a list of 27 restaurants that we might try and actually got to 15. They say you can’t get a bad meal in Istanbul, and we didn’t! We did have favorites though….

Ciya Sofrasi, on the Asian side of the Bosporus (Kadakoy), cooked amazing vegetables like purslane and borage, mallow and dock.

Asitane (Edirnakapi), tries to reproduce Ottoman Empire dishes such as almond soup, dried eggplant with pomegranate molasses and saffron rice pudding.

Van Kahralti Evi

Van Kahralti Evi (Beyoglu), serves breakfast (all day) of cheese and olives and dips like muhammara (roasted red peppers), sour cherry preserves, honey with walnuts, and beautiful breads with water buffalo butter and clotted cream (kaymak). Most everything is shipped in daily from the Kurdish city of Van, near the Iranian border.

And Akdeniz Hatay Sofrasi (Fatih), where wonderful breads emerged from the oven all night. Hatay is a Turkish province near Syria and the cuisine reflected that. The fresh squeezed pomegranate juice and the sweet olives served as dessert were both memorable, as was the waiter’s and the owner’s generosity and warmth.

Also good was Anatolia (Sultanahmet), where we went the first night, and tasted Raki, along with amazing olives and cheeses, and learned about Turkish politics from the viewpoint of the Kurdish owner/waiter.

We also enjoyed Cooking Alaturka, Develi, and Datli Maya, where one climbed the stairs to the 2nd floor, walked through the kitchen and then a few more steps up to the small dining room overlooking a pocket park. There was a little place in the Spice Market where we drank superb Turkish coffee and ate locum, Turkish delight, and many varieties of baklava. And Bizem Ev in Konkapi, for delicious spinach boreks.

Because we so liked the kaymak at Van, we proceeded to visit three kaymak makers for breakfast. Besiktas Kaymakci has been serving kaymak for over a hundred years. The current owner, Pando Bey is 87 years old. We ate his famous kaymak, a rich thick but delicate cream with honey, eggs, fresh bread and black tea.

We went twice to Ciya Sofrasi, and the second time they gave me a small booklet of commentaries about the chef-owner, Musa Dagdiveren. This quote from him leaped off the page when I saw it: 

“I travel all over the country to cook with people in their homes and also study old books to find new leads. I get very excited when I discover new poor people’s dishes, because I believe only poor people can create great food. If a man has money, he can buy anything, but a person who has nothing must create beauty from within.”

Dinner with Fatma's Family

Yes! Exactly what I believe.

A highlight of our trip was our visit with Krystyna’s friend Fatma Nalbant’s family. They made a beautiful spread of dishes – the finest thin-rolled grape leaves I’ve tasted, borek, and kisir (a bulgur salad) made with a little tomato paste, red pepper, and shredded cilantro and diced pickle. When I admired it, Azzize, Fatma’s sister immediately repaired to the kitchen to show me how to do it.


We did see Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque and the ancient Christian Chora Church. We also traveled to a suburb to see the new Sakirin Mosque, designed by Zeynep Fadilhoglu, a woman. It is quite beautiful. 

Sakirin Mosque

We went to a hamam, a Turkish bath. At last I was warm! It was a wonderful experience. We went to one in our neighborhood rather than an expensive tourist version and it was both comforting and energizing.

When Catherine Bayar arrived on our 2nd to last day in Istanbul, she took us to a small weaving studio where they wove plain weave linen, cotton and silk for elegant classic scarves and shirts.

Musa's rug. Now in my kitchen.

Another of Musa's rugs.

Then on to Musa Kazim Basaram, expert natural dyer and designer/weaver of modern kilim rugs.  He and I connected, intensely discussing natural dye techniques. He wants to reproduce my mermaid quilt design in a kilim and I am delighted. He later sent us a container of his delicious grape leaves, which we were grateful to have for supper, since we were too exhausted to go out.




Catherine next took us to Ikonium Studio, where American expat Theresa May O’Brien is partnered with Mehmet Girgic, who makes museum quality felt art. She had antique camel saddlebags and newish large kilim rugs. Before I went there I had Turkish liras left over, but afterwards, I needed my debit card to help pay for the gorgeous, woman-made Nuzumla kilim now in my living room. 

Nuzumla Kilim

The apartment we stayed in is called Helen Suites. It is in a quiet, old neighborhood, a few blocks away from the train, which takes you into the center. The area is called Kumkapi, and is considered conservative. Women in headscarves were always walking the narrow streets, but we saw no women in burkas or chadors in our neighborhood. Our space was comfortable, warm in this very cold weather, and very inexpensive. We were glad not to be in a tourist hotel.

The worst part of the trip was coming home to Kennedy Airport. Understaffed, dirty. We stood in line for an hour and a half, and were yelled at by officials who didn’t possess the wherewithal to care for so many of us with only three customs and immigration staff to check baggage and passports for hundreds. Hateful, after the comforts of passing through Istanbul Airport.

Finally, at home, I looked at my cookbooks. There are a few okay recipes in Turquoise, but much better versions in Silvena Rowe’s Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume. I had acquired Ghillie Basan’s Classic Turkish Cooking in Istanbul and Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook once home. I’m so glad that the Istanbul we saw (and in these cookbooks) isn’t the one in Malouf’s Turquoise! I was able to adapt recipes for sweet potato borek, leek borek and apricot pistachio pilaf from Purple Citrus, making them vegan, and the kesir, muhamarra, and cemen dip from what I learned in Istanbul, and so we served an Istanbul dinner for a few weeks upon our return home. As predicted by many of our customers, we loved the city, its people, and the food.

Once Upon a Time....

Once upon a time, a very long time ago – actually over 35 years ago – I had a dream, an idea of opening a woman’s center, a bookstore and restaurant combination.  It was not common at that time. 

Two friends in our local NOW chapter, Priscilla Feral (who later became head of Friends of Animals) and Jim Mason, co-author with Peter Singer of Animal Factories, urged me to make the food served in the restaurant vegetarian. 

So we did…not out of a heart-felt commitment, but being convinced intellectually that it was right.  And so we started Bloodroot.  But as we went on, that initial commitment became the core of our beliefs.

Jim went on to work on his book, An Unnatural Order.  He did an enormous amount of research on pre-agricultural humans, and how agriculture and animal husbandry changed human character and health.  And how together with the monotheistic religions, a ladder of privilege was established (in contrast to animism and female fertility religions).

The result was layers of contempt for those below god and man: meaning women, people who were different (in color), animals and the earth itself. In Jim’s book, we gradually come to understand that stewardship, the shepherd caring for his flock is a euphemism for the right to construct and shape other creatures and humans to the particular forms and beliefs of a dominant culture. These beliefs went on to enable sexual engineering, slavery and genocide.  Jim met with us periodically as he was writing his book, and what was most impressive was that he always listened, as few men do.

There have been many books since An Unnatural Order was published- books about the environment and animal rights, but no book I know of has such depth and breadth, and is at the same time feminist in its perspective, and in its condemnation of a dominionist mind set.

So we were upset a few months ago, when we got copies of a journal, “Sinister Wisdom”, that we have carried at Bloodroot since its inception. This particular issue had a paragraph raving about a book (The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith) sharply critical of vegetarianism based on health and environmental issues.  It was so upsetting that we returned copies of the journal to the publisher.  They followed up with a request that we comment on the review and on the book.  They were so appreciative of us that of course I had to do it.  Then came the bad part!  I had to read that book.  It took several miserable days to get through the lies and half-truths and I was left depressed.  It’s hard to argue against intentional stupidity and arrogance.  Fortunately other folks did a good job with on-line critiques and I was able to simply write about why Bloodroot is vegetarian (mostly vegan now).  And why these 35 years have been so fulfilling for Noel and me.

But I did need healing from those several nasty days with The Vegetarian Myth.    First, I re-read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.  I felt much better afterwards.  Then I returned to my copy of An Unnatural Order and was amazed at the quality of the research and the intelligence of the prose. At the end of the book, after discussing present day acceptance of the torture of the bullfight, rodeo, and animal use in the laboratory, Jim brings up the slaughterhouse vs. vegetarianism.  And it is typical of him to be gentle in his plea for change. Here I quote from a paragraph near the end of the book:

….”for many, if not most people are simply not inclined toward soul-searching and changing their habits. Age, sub-culture, and other circumstances tend to install a certain inflexibility in many people and it is probably best not to bother them.  But for others who genuinely want to help reconstruct our worldview, our sense of ourselves, and our human spirit, nothing can be off limits for re-examination and soul-searching”

Finally I re-read Anne Cameron’s Daughters of Copperwoman to remind myself of a spirituality/religion that means something to me.

So here is a reading list:  Eating Animals,  An Unnatural Order, and Daughters of Copperwoman

And finally, once Sinister Wisdom publishes the article: “Why Bloodroot is Vegan/Vegetarian”, I will reproduce it for this blog.  Stay tuned!

Food magazines--Reading about cooking

I do miss Gourmet, even though there was too much in it and of very uneven quality.  I would begin by ripping out all the pages with ads on both sides, making the magazine much thinner.  The ads and the lifestyle promoted were abhorrent.  But there were always some interesting recipes.  It was a sort of gluttonous feast.  Nowadays when I get copies of Food and Wine with the same miserable ads, I rip out the few recipes of interest and throw out the magazine since there is so litle in it.
It's a pity about Fine Cooking.  They have lovely food and cooking related ads.  But the recipes are so mediocre that the magazine is of no use at all, and I have given up on it.
So my favorites are Saveur, which always has much of interest, and Cook's.  I used to dislike Cook's. Every article assumed that the recipe to be discussed was deserving of being "saved".  Recreating lunch room nostalgia and the worst of church pot lucks was disappointing, to say the least.  But they seem to have gotten over it, and now some of my favorite recipes have come from the often careful analysis of how food chemistry and technique can interact to make us all better cooks.  Perhaps the best example of this interaction is the recipe for Rosemarry Foccacia.  It is perfect.

I have been thinking about the concept of "talent".  Maybe some folks really are born with special skills, or at least the ability to learn faster.  But mostly, I think, the question is one of intention:  What is it that you want to accomplish?  Then the issue is  for  how much failure can you forgive yourself and how stubborn are you in going back to try again and again.

My intention in cooking is to use food in season, to celebrate diverse people"s comfort food, and most important of all, to make the food be vegan as often as I can.  Sometimes it doen't work, but I do keep trying.  And because we keep trying, it is never boring!  We can always look forward to repeating earlier successes, in season.

   Noel and I teach weaving.  Much of it is difficult, but the principles of forgiving mistakes and being stubborn are what produces good results in any endeavor...my philosophy of the day!

There's No Accounting For Taste!

It is interesting that it can be considerred desirable to dine under rather miserable conditions in the latest big name/association restaurant.  We recently went to one such.  Worst about it was the noise level--constant, for the two hours it took for them to feed us--the worst acoustics of any restaurant in which I have eaten!  We were packed in like sardines.  One had to turn sideways to get out past other tables, in an unattractive room on a drab street.  Not enough light to read the menu.  No bread, no olive oil or butter.  And the place was packed on a Tuesday night.

I'm sure that the servers earn a lot of money, at least I hope so.  It has got to be miserable working there, since the discomfort engenders hostility.  I dont know how  much;  we saw some, and we certainly didn't communicate any of our own dissatisfaction.

Oh yes, the food.  It was good, very good--not great though--and if it had been great, would it have been worth the physical discomfort? I dont think so.  It occured to me that take out was a solution.  however, they dont do take out.

So these diners are the opposite of our customers.  Indeed, we recognized no one there.  We have no fancy named chef who is,of course, not present.  We have space between tables  Very little noise.  A beautiful view.  Home made bread.  Butter.  Good olive oil.  And our customers tell us that the food is good, very good.  To each his (or her) own!

Recently we went to two restaurants that we liked.  We returned to Navaratna in Stamford.  It is an Indian all vegetarian restaurant.  It was comfortable and the food was good.  Stamford now boasts 2 of our go-to restaurants: Fez and Navaratna.

And we have now been three times to Shiraz, in Elmsford, New York.    It is only a half hour from Westport and well worth the trip.  This is Persian  (Iranian) cuisine.  It surprised me in that there were so many differences from Turkish and Syrian food.  Also, ther seems to be a lot that borrows from India, with a slightly different slant.  Lots of vegetarian appetizers and at least five different pilafs.  And they do make the most amazing rice dishes.  Perhaps best of all is the grocery store next door with many kinds of basmati rice, an incredible selection of spices and Iranian cookbooks.

Saving Summer

You likely have your favorite ways to preserve the gifts of Summer; these are mine.

Raspberries and blackberries from the farmer's market are very tempting, and I always buy too many.  The easiest thing to do with the raspberries is Edna Lewis' recipe for sugared raspberries.  Measure your raspberries, turn into a bowl and add an equal amount of sugar.  Use a fork or potato masher to crush the fruit.  Turn into jars and refrigerate.  They will keep a year in the refrigerator and make a delicious topping for pancakes, cake, or ice cream.

I make a blackberry/pasilla chile syrup from a '90's Gourmet magazine recipe.  Remove stems from 4 dried pasilla chilies (available in Mexican markets) and turn into a pot.  Add 2 cups sugar, one and one half cups water and a quarter cup of lemon juice.  Bring to a boil and simmer 10-15 minutes, or 'til syrup, exclusive of the chilies, measures 2 cups.  Meanwhile, puree 1 cup blacberries in a blender.  Strain into a bowl.  Now pour syrup and chilies into the blender and process.  Pour into the strainer over the blackberries.  Stir and strain.  Keep this mixture in the freezer, where it will never be totally frozen.

The blackberry/pasilla syrup makes a delicious Tequila Sunrise.  For each drink, turn 1 tablespoon syrup into a tall glass.  Add 3 tablespoons silver tequila and 1 teaspoon lime juice.  Finish with a half cup orange juice.  Add ice and stir. 

Yesterday I made the first slow roasted tomato sauce of this season....At last we have a plethora of home grown tomatoes!  The recipe is in our  Best of Bloodroot cookbooks, both of them actually.  We really like this easy recipe. Cut up but dont skin the tomatoes, any and all kinds!  Turn into a shallow pan.  Add lots of whole garlic cloves and lots of olive oil.  Bake at 325 degrees for 3 hours, stirring now and then, until tomatoes caramelize.  Add basil sprigs  for the last 10 minutes, and salt to taste.  A whole hot chile may be roasted with the tomatoes.  Freeze, for January joy.

There are lots of hot peppers in my home garden and at Bloodroot.  The best thing to do with them is to pickle them and can them.  Even if you dont like spicy, a pepper from this pickling is a delicious accompaniment to many dishes.  And a jar of these pickles make a great  present for heat loving friends.  The recipe will be in my next blog.

Those delicious fruits of Summer: How to make them last. Maceration!

So many fresh, local fruits at the farmer's market, I cant help it, I buy too much!  It started with strawberries; they were especially abundant and delicious this year.  I bought too many.  After the glut of them with sugar, the rest sat in the refrigerator and it seemed, immediately began to rot.  Then came an issue of Saveur, with a note on macerating strawberries.  The berries I did this with kept, refrigerated, for more than a week.  And they tasted more intensely strawberry, but not sweet.  What a great technique. Great over ice cream or cake, or with yoghurt.

When the yellow, red, and black raspberries had a similar effect on me, I treated them the same way.  The fruits, though still uncooked, lose their substance and are soft, but I figured they would make a great pie.  I strained the copious juices from the fruit, added a little sugar, two tablespoons cornstarch, and stirred the wet mix constantly over a moderate fire (in a pot, of course), until thickened and clear.  Then I baked one of my coconut oil pie crusts completely.  Let it cool, then piled the fruit in it and topped it with the thickened sauce.  Gorgeous and delicious.  The lime and gin accentuate the fruit flavor in a delightful way.

To macerate, here is what you do:  For one pound of fruit, combine in a bowl the scraped rind and juice of one lime, three tablespoons of demerara (or brown) sugar, one half teaspoon of ground cardamom, one half teaspoon salt, and one tablespoon of gin.  Stir.  Add fruit.  Saveur said to quarter the strawberries lengthwise, but halving them is fine .  I didnt do anything to the raspberries.  sliced some peaches, just added a few blueberries.  You can divide your fruit in separate bowls to later arrange them in circles or other patterns in your pie, and combine all the juices to thicken and spoon over.

Now I have to think what to do with the gooseberries and currants waiting for me in the fridge.  I couldn't resist them either!