Fostering Community and Fermenting Cultures

Or more accurately, fostering cultures and fermenting communities. Both require simple, wholesome ingredients mixed with care and left to work their magic. With the watchful eye you would give to the weather reports you check it occasionally, test it cautiously and don't believe the forecast until you see it yourself. How do you know when your results are successful? When you've created something beautiful. And as the cliche goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Last week started with the simple task of entertaining myself and while eating my breakfast so I wouldn't experience the rude shock of rolling out of bed from the weekend right into the work week. Before my first cup of coffee could leave me questioning the lingering remains of the nights dreams I typed the letters "bur" into my search bar and was then left with a quandary. I had to choose a 4th letter to type to take me away to a website that would leave me with inspiration for the day. Good old Google popped up two options for me, www.buresberrypatch.com or www.burningman.com. If your reaction is "hello weird combo you silly hippie" my response would be "here, have some coffee, it tastes fantastic."

Bures Berry Patch represents the growing and gathering of food in our local communities, the connected network of people and friendships we foster through those communities, the beauty of our landscape, and the self reliance of growing and preserving you own food. The essence of Burning Man is the coming together of many different people for the pursuit of building connections, spreading ideas, self expression, reliance on yourself and the community around you, and the giving and receiving inherent to this.

Growing and preserving food takes simple components and mixes them together with care to create something beautiful. A seed with nutrients, water and sunlight will grow into the unfurling leaves of a cabbage plant. That head of cabbage when chopped and mixed with salt in a crock will ferment into a complex blend of sweet, savory, salty, tangy sauerkraut.  Thousands of communities of bacteria enacting a change on the simple pale green leaves in a way you couldn't re-create with any artificial assemblage of ingredients.

Now take thousands of communities of people not afraid of self expression. Feed them with
creativity, open hearts, and the gift of sharing and creating. Now leave them in an arid desert and watch the transformation. Much like a crock of sauerkraut wouldn't you say? A little sweet and savory yet a salty and tangy edge that only comes from life experiences. A person cannot simply be told to be open or to bring happiness to others, they must come to it themselves when provided the environment that fosters that fermentation process. Nothing can be forced to provide the deep beauty that the right elements can create on their own.

Now do you see? I may be a silly hippie but the combination is not weird, it's serendipitous.

Mmmm Citrus

My canning supplies have been feeling under loved recently. I try to tell them that winter is the sewing machines turn for some loving but the canning pot is just so darn self centered. I finally caved and obliged it's need for attention with some delicious citrus-y recipes.

First up was decidedly not citrus but in season none-the-less. Pomegranate Syrup, yes, it tastes as decadent as it sounds. In my search for a recipe though I discovered that Grenadine was historically pomegranate syrup, then occasionally cherry, and now present day high fructose corn syrup and food dye. Yaaaaay modern innovations. We added a touch of juice and zest from a meyer lemon to cut the sweetness. At a 2-1 ratio of pomegranate juice (cooked down berries with enough water to cover) to sugar it still turned out sweeter than we expected. It will be used with mixed drinks (clearly) ice cream, yogurt, french toast... goodness the options are endless.

Next was Grapefruit Syrup, nearly identical process but at a 1-1 (or a bit under) ratio of fruit to sugar. We cooked down the chopped sections with the pith still attached and ran it through a food mill giving it a bit of thickening but not cooked enough to gel and that bitter edge you'd expect in a marmalade. So far this hasn't made it farther than pancakes and french toast but that's only because I'm afraid if I let it be known that it will taste good on pound cake or ice cream there might not be any left.

Last up was Lime Marmalade. This turned out much more bitter than I expected. I soaked the slices (fruit and rind) first but used the soaking liquid instead of dumping it and adding fresh water to cook. In retrospect I would have liked the flavor better if I'd used fresh water but it does taste like a typical bitter marmalade even though it's a bit thin. We've used it already as part of a marinade for chipolte-lime chicken burritos and it was more than fabulous. I think it may find it's way into marinades, glazes and dressings more than anything else.

Still to come in the next month will be Orange and Cranberry Orange Marmalade. Now those I can't wait for, and I'll try to remember and use pectin this time...

A Rant on the History of Injustice

What started as a Facebook post regarding the Federal overturning of Proposition 8 quickly turned into a reflection on societal persecution throughout history. It is truly appalling the amount of cultural, religious, racial and gender persecution that has occurred. Looking just at the history of the US, and putting aside the thousands of years and hundreds of cultures the human race has existed, the examples are still astounding.

The pilgrims left Europe to seek religious freedom, to found a civilization where their values and rituals were not punished and demeaned. The only problem was that once their new found freedom began to flourish they became what they had fled. They cultivated a fear of Native Americans, or "savages" as colonists referred to them, the same people that helped them survive their first years in the wilderness are now the enemy (who they would conquer through disease, theft and trickery). You have different religious veiws and have superstitions or special charms you use? Must be a witch! Don't want to do all your own work now that you have money? Indentured servants! Slaves!

Now that we're a gentrified civilization and have cities all along the coast it's time to really get down to business with our persecution. Slavery in itself is a terrible concept, a human being as property that is not allowed to have thoughts or actions of their own. To make it worse was the disregard to family and social connections. People were pulled out of their villages and away from their families with brutal violence and no warning to be brought to an entirely different world (the Native Americans proved too susceptible to disease) where they were treated worse than animals. The ending of slavery was resisted by so many the country was nearly torn in two but the persecution still didn't end. For decades segregation was rampant and blacks were still treated as second class citizens, if they were treated as citizens at all.

Women didn't have it much better, not until 1920 did women even have the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th amendment and the Equal Rights Amendment expired without gaining enough ratifications from individual state. They fought for a position in the workplace, protection from abuse, and their reproductive rights.

As a country we look back with horror and shame on how we treated people of different cultures, religions, races and genders but have we really come so far? There are states fighting to keep out immigrants from Mexico and other Central and South American countries. Many immigrants, whether legal or illegal, are treated poorly and not given the protection and rights they deserve (not to mention the many immigrants that have faced similar situations in the last two hundred years). Women still fight for equal pay in the workplace and a voice for their reproductive rights. People are voting to ban gay marriage and make it illegal, can you imagine not being able to share your life with the person you love?

Will we look back in 25, 50, 100 years with the same horror and shame? I hope we don't have to. I hope our country will come to it's senses and see that this is another act of discrimination and persecution on a long list of misdeeds. If so many people are worried about the "sanctity of marriage" look at the families torn apart by slavery, war, epidemic disease, domestic abuse, and infidelity. None of those issues care if you are a woman and a man, two men, or two women. They have had, or still have, the potential to affect any one of us and the person we choose to spend out lives with. Lets all come to our senses and end the discrimination.

Home Office

Yup, working from home now. New digs, new job, new mess. I'll forever have a hopeless mess of some sort that isn't cleaned up or organized. I've converted my bedroom into a combo bedroom/office and so far so good. Lugged the filing cabinet up, dad built me new shelves, things are coming into place. My only disappointment is that I didn't have time to paint the walls first because at this point getting it arranged to paint is more trouble than it will be worth. That's what we have cool lights and pictures for though right? Plus how am I expected to be able to match a wall color to a dresser that is teal and bronze and curtains that are maroon lace? It would be an act of futility.

The true highlight to working from home though isn't rolling our of bed for the two step commute to my desk but the ability to stop working when I have nothing to do and start again when I can focus, at ANY time of the day. No one cares when you're writing up quotes to filling in spreadsheets when it's just you at your computer. Now I can drink too much coffee until I'm so over caffeinated I can't function, take a break to climb in the basement and eat lunch (yup, climbing wall in the basement, you can be jealous) and still be back on my computer to answer emails during "normal" business hours.

Don't worry though, you can ask me again in 6 months if I'm still as productive as I think I am now ;)