Happy Birthday Tasha!

The Rolls for Special Occasion and the Butterscotch Rolls are in the oven for a very late tea, because today we are celebrating the birthday of New England's Tasha Tudor, beloved illustrator and author of children's books. She died this summer and today she would have been 93. Unlike most, I have not grown up with her books and I just stumbled across her a while back. A couple of blogs announced a celebration of Tasha Tudor and I decided to learn a bit more and requested a multitude of books through the library. My mother has been collecting picture books as long as I can think and Tasha Tudor would fit in beautifully, but the books are much less a focus for me, it is more her way and view of life. I am incredibly inspired after reading so much about her and I am in awe about how much she is a kindred spirit. I'd like to attempt an explanation.

In a way Tasha Tudor reminds me of my roots, like the picture of my great great grandmother at the spinning wheel and the way she dressed like my old great aunts when I was little. I am sure that is a big part of the appeal of her life, her art work and her practiced anachronism (Hey, kind of like our visit to Sturbridge below). We live in such a crazy, fast paced, modern and ugly world that we all yearn for the simplicity of times gone by. Of course the apparent simplicity came with a lot of hard work. As Tasha Tudor said: "Don't look for shortcuts; all good and worthwhile things take time and effort." I think that has been the mantra of my mother and my grandmother. I grew up part time in the agrarian world with harvesting, pickling, baking bread, hooking rugs, getting up early to milk the cows, feed the pigs, tend to the garden and so forth. Even though I am not part of this anymore, it made me who I am and I grew up self reliant and with a lot of freedom to do whatever I wanted to do.

Already when I was quite young, people characterized me (lovingly and teasing) as somebody who plants flax for fiber, then weaves it into fabric for a table cloth to be decorated with self cut stamps and home-brewed natural dye, just to adorn a table built from some trees I cut down. Yes, I like making things from scratch. If I look at my mother, my grandmother, my great grandmother; the women in my family have always been like this, may it be arts & crafts, cooking, baking, gardening, landscaping, woodwork, any textile art or whatever else comes to mind. Like Tasha, the women in my family are industrious, the hands are never idle and we take great pride in the work and tasks we do.

Harry Davis asked Tasha to sum up her life in as few words as possible and she said "I was always tired". That made me laugh out loud, because I can absolutely emphasize. People often ask me when I do all my sewing, carpentry, gardening, kitchen arts and so on and I always reply that I do not sleep. I am sure there are a lot of people out there, that feel the same. But I see some other similarities too. When I spoke to my mother today and told her about Tasha Tudor and why I like her so much, she reminded me with a chuckle how I always thought I was born into the wrong time and really belonged to the 19th century. Harry Davis speaks about her dark side also, how she could be a procrastinator and how she could be mean, stubborn, imperious and unforgiving, by her own account. I admit to the very same personality traits.

Even though I did not make it into art school, I always did illustrations and graphic design on the side or full time. I yet have to put some efforts into my own children's books, which have a hard time to actually materialize, partially due to my own business with crafts, textile and paper arts. Tovah Martin says about Tasha Tudor that all the parts of her life work comfortably together - which just this year has become one of my main goals and is part of this blog. I think it is interesting how Tasha despised the word craft and I think I understand why. If you know german, the word 'Kunsthandwerk' is much more appropriate, but it is difficult to translate meaning something like artistic craft, for the lack of a better translation.

The easiest way to connect to Tasha Tudor is in the kitchen. Being the daughter of a chef, I am quite comfortable there and like my mother and Tasha Tudor, most of my recipes start with "melt butter and saute onions" and I use imagination instead of measurements, much to the chagrin of people that ask me for recipes. I absolutely love the idea that she grows her wheat, thrashes and grounds it and after drinking tea for thirty years, I wholeheartedly agree with the importance of tea time. Tasha Tudor made soup every week, huge pots that can feed an army and she pointed out the importance of seasoning and flavor. If you have been to my house, you know soup is a cornerstone of my cooking.

In no means do I claim to be like Tasha Tudor, she was so unique and wonderful and a national treasure - and I don't even have a corgi - but I hope I was able to show why I think we are kindred spirits and maybe allowed a glimpse of why I am so inspired. I like to close this with one of my favourite Tudor quotes that shows up in the recipe for Raspberry Syrup: "I advise reading a book while stirring so as not to waste time."

Thank you for your time, I hope it was not wasted :)

I have enjoyed this week:
The Tasha Tudor Cookbook
Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts
The Art of Tasha Tudor by Harry Davis
Tasha Tudor's Old-Fashioned Gifts

P.S. The Butterscotch Rolls were quite yummy! And though they are not exactly health food, Tasha Tudor also said: "...once a year will not hurt you, and life is too short not to enjoy a few treats."