Julie & Julia
I watched the 09’ movie Julie & Julia this weekend, true confession …
I never in my life thought a movie about cooking could near on make me cry.
And it’s just so interesting;
Julia Child’s cookbook took 9 years to write, was published in 1961, Julie Powell wrote her blog in 2002, the movie released in 2009 and here I am in 2024 watching Julia Child cook her Feb 1963 Beef Bourguignon in black & white, almost exactly 61 years later. It occured to and amazed me to think that someone could have lived their entire life between Julia Child filming this and me watching it; which is ironic, because Julie Powell, the real-life main character in the movie was actually born 1973 and passed in 2022, and yet her story is the one that connects.
Even more ironic is that when asked about Julie Powell’s blog, Julia Child was indifferent, stating ‘I don’t think she’s a serious cook’, they never even actually met. And I can see how she came to this, having taken an all-men’s cooking course and spending 9 years writing her cookbook, while Julie Powell simply recreated recipes on a blog.
But it really got me thinking as a ‘wanna-be-blogger’, aspiring homesteader and amateur home-cook…what’s the goal?
Is it to be the biggest blog, have the best garden or be a professional cook?
Is the goal to ‘get serious’?
Or is it to grow your own self-reliance, put good food on the table for your family and connect others to the resources they need to do the same?
Is it enough to just share a passion that helps build life, a life, in this world?
Is it enough to share home-grown food with your neighbor, watch your niece & nephew cut flowers to bring home to your sister, to cook your mom pre-made meals to help take the load off, and to teach your children they can grow into this future.
I don’t know if it’s all about getting ‘serious’, but I do know that it’s enough to be a connecting force in someone’s life, those close to you and those that might be watching from a little further out, sharing a piece of that story while writing their own.
-Anna R,
