Farm au’s that I’ve been doing with @servamp234 been on my mind again but more specifically the dynamic between Grace and the reader’s aunt. It means a lot to me.
I like to think that Grace can cook from a box just fine. He can handle those precooked frozen foods that you just need to reheat in a mini oven or air fryer and rices/mashed potato mixes that you just add water to. Maybe he adds some extra stuff for his personal tastes. So when he moves in with you and your family on the farm and ranch he’s throw a little into the deep end when he’s gone from pouring a baggie of mashed potato mix and stirring in water till its done to having to wash, peeling, cut, and mash them himself. But instead of your aunt being frustrated or annoyed she’s just like “It’s okay. You’re from the city. You can just walk down the street and find a place where your meals are made for you, so you don’t know how to do stuff from scratch. I’ll teach you.”. And so she just lays all her from-scratch-farm-wife wisdom onto him.
“Peel with the blade facing away from you, dear. Then you won’t keep cutting yourself while you do it.”
“Stir while counting in mississippis. It keeps you from stirring too fast and messing up the consistency of what you want.”
There are times where she does get a bit tough love with him. She’s the on in charge of the coop for the egg chickens and collecting the eggs from the hens each morning, and Grace is terrified because he’s scared they’re gonna bite him when he has to reach under the hens for their eggs, and she’s just like “Don’t be scared. If you get scared, they get scared and thats when they bite you. They’re like children, they can smell fear.” and thats how Grace gets over it. He just treats them like he would his students. Matter of fact he quickly grows to love them. They quickly go from “the chickens” to “my chickens” and he’s named every single one and learned their personalities. Additionally, Grace couldn’t tell you a thing about baking at first… until his brain was like “Wait this is just chemistry” and your aunt taught him how to properly feed a sour dough start. Now he knows how to make everything. He went from “The recipe is just a suggestion” I-have-no-clue-what-I’m-doing way to I-know-exactly-what-I’m-doing way. Grace has not had the desire to buy a loaf of bread in a long time. if y’all are running low on bread his first thought is bake not buy. Tangent over, sorry.
No doubt in my mind him and your aunt gossip about EVERYONE while they work and cook. Grace is secretly a gossipy bitch i don’t care you can fight me on that. He just keeps it to himself while working at the school because unless it’s something he mandated to report, he stays out of it. But when he and your aunt are in the kitchen or folding the laundry together, sometimes the topic “arises”…. like how Susan from the next ranch over claims that her apple cobbler is all homemade and done herself, but the apples do suspiciously have that from-a-can taste. They aren’t shaming it, they’re just saying it’s best to be honest. And that young man that’s been working on the Dowley’s farm is REAL close with Mrs. Dowley when her husband’s not around. 👀 But I always say that all food tastes better with a little tea.
Grace nearly cries when your aunt eventually gifts him his own apron. (He was previously wearing an old one so him getting his own means a lot to him okay?) It’s like a sensei telling their student “you’re ready”. She’s not retiring yet but she knows that when she’s gone everything will be okay. That house is staying clean, eggs collected, bread always baked never bought, clothes washed and starched the right way, and Susan’s canned apple cobblers forever clocked. This house is gonna be fine.
