It’s a tale of two cities right now.

Here in Oxford it’s a weird start to spring. It’s beautiful out there, but we can’t go out to enjoy it. As harvest time nears, there’s a lack of food on the supermarket shelves, and a shortage of fruit and vegetable pickers.

Back in January we were worried about family and friends in Tibet. The Chinese imposed very tight restrictions on peoples’ movements, and villagers were putting up barricades to prevent the virus from making its way in. Today everyone is able to move freely. Yeshi’s mum (pictured) is out enjoying the first peach blossom of the season. But now she’s worrying about us. Family in Tibet know that they virus has spread, and that we are at a greater risk of catching it in the city than they have been in their rural area.

While we struggle to find the raw ingredients that we need to keep our deliveries service active, as well as the free meals that we have pledged to deliver to Oxford’s NHS, for family in Tibet it’s business as usual. This is the busy season: Yeshi’s brothers are up on the mountains taking their yaks from one pasture to the next. The vegetables and fruit are growing, sometimes planted, sometimes wild. Everything is working as it should.

We should have been in Tibet, of course. Instead, we are using what free time we have to put together recipes and finish up our book proposal. Let us know which recipes you’d like to see in The Tibetan Table and we will get to it!

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