Culture within, Culture without

Water kefir on the left, milk kefir (more on that later) on the right. Proofs from the dictionary project on bottom.

Yes, I do some of my editing work in the kitchen. Sometimes that's the most time I spend in there of a day. This isn't really a tangent: on the subject of "me in you, you in me," I've been thinking about microorganisms within and without, and of course that takes me to words. "Symbiotic." "Commensal." "Parasite."

It's now understood that nonhuman cells outnumber human cells in our "own" bodies by ten to one. These microorganisms form colonies that can lobby with powerful demands, so that it can be literally true that we are possessed/overtaken by influences within us but not of us. "My bugs made me do it!"

Reflected on the outside: my kitchen, no doubt, is full of uncontained bugs I can't see. I welcome the spiders when I see them, benign weavers and cleaners. But I was horrified by the roaches that showed up. In my kitchen, I also contain and feed several colonies on purpose and strive to ensure they get fed correctly. It's another kind of gardening, in a way, and I do it at least as much to cultivate (pun intended) my spirit relationship with microorganisms as I do to consume the products of bacterial/yeast ferments.
Aside from the two kefirs, I have more kombucha cultures than I can manage (give me a shout if you want one!) -- enough to give some of them experimental diets, like coffee instead of tea (far right) (so far so good). This culture's ancestor moved with me from Hawaii over six years ago, and it seems to be happy back in a warm climate, although I left many of its offspring happy with happy owners back in Alaska.

Both kefir and kombucha cultures are called "SCOBY"s -- an acronym for "symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast." Which I guess we are, as humans, too.
Taking a walk on the wild side, here are two veggie krauts: napa cabbage/onion/ginger, and daikon radish. In their own juices with a little sea salt, these are consumed almost overnight in this climate by wild yeasts/bacteria (i.e. I didn't add a culture; bacteria in the environment came and feasted) and become crisp, sour-sharp, without the overwhelming pungency of those sulfurous vegetables when raw. They have to go in the fridge at this point to avoid "rotter" bactera taking over and composting them.

Sandor Katz, the great fermentation guru, points out that no American has ever died from eating wildly- or home-fermented foods--if something's really "gone bad," your taste buds will protect you.

On the other hand, many "humans," American and otherwise, have died of organisms growing out of control within their bodies, and far more feel helplessly identified with addictions and cravings that are not truly of themselves. There is a way out.

• Whatever I am doing at any moment is practice.
• Whatever I practice I get better at.
• What am I practicing now?

Likewise, 

• Whatever I feed thrives.
• What am I feeding now?

Back to the kefir, since I don't do dairy, I had a problem figuring out what to feed the milk kefir grains. I quickly figured out that they need protein (a la casein in milk) as well as sugar (a la lactose in milk). Soy milk worked great. but I mostly avoid soy too; an almond milk fortified with protein also worked well (and of course I need to get back in the kitchen habit and make my own). But then I almost killed the kefir grains when I got back from my trip by feeding them unsweetened protein almond milk. The end product smelled bad, the grain colony dwindled. They made their unhappiness clear.

A dance away from sugar seems a good idea for me right now (more on this soon), but that doesn't alter the requirements of this age-old ferment culture. Even feeding the kombucha on coffee as mentioned above, or hibiscus tea or green tea instead of black tea as I also do, and with maple syrup instead of sugar, doesn't violate this concept: the kombucha culture needs some sort of simple sugar and a tannin-rich tea medium. Coffee, hibiscus, and other grades of tea all have plenty of tannins; maple or even coconut sugar are simple enough.

Would that it were so simple to figure out the correct fuel mix for the SCOBY that is each unique human, to keep the good bugs happy and keep the detrimental or composter bugs from taking over.

More on that, and on those words up top (symbiotic, commensal, parasite), next time.

• Whatever I am doing at any moment is practice.
• Whatever I practice I get better at.
• What am I practicing now?

Garden Drawing to a Close; Reflections on Self-Love: Out of the Comfort Zone

Almost the end of the week, almost time for us to fly away! And I'm going to Anchorage and back tomorrow, so busy busy… I'm so glad that people are liking the look of my no-sugar energy bars with 'chia-sweet.' If you search for that tag, I've actually done a ton of posts on them, gradually developing it. I'm glad that it's something that seems to work well for me, and hope that it might help someone else too.

Tina asks, "What challenges have you overcome? What goals have you achieved? Let them empower you today!"

Comfort Zone? Trust me, they're all relative! I'm married to a guy who likes to tackle some of the world's roughest seas in a patched-up rubber boat!

And to carry it overland when the sea runs out. And I join him sometimes.

I live in a cold northerly clime with no running water and I don't like to be cold. I used to live in Hawaii, sometimes with no running water or electricity, sometimes with no bug-screen, surrounded by voracious mosquitoes and centipedes, and nigh-lethal nematode-carrying slugs. You get used to it. I've worked bees with no protective equipment at all, and then I've worked bees so aggressive that I was stung all over even through protective clothing.

Humans are so supremely adaptable!

But I have to refer back to my post about persistence and setting goals from last week, in which I told my story about coconut tree climbing, and how it wasn't really an appropriate goal for me. I also think that for me at least, a lot of the 'living rough' that I've done has bordered on disrespectful of my body. Starvation's an obvious example, but so is living in a situation where you can't get cleaned up easily, or have an ant's nest under your bed, or don't have any light to read or write after dark.

My biggest lesson, though, has been that being around people who are not uplifting or kind or willing to work on themselves is not a good kind of 'out of your comfort zone' to be. No matter how kindhearted and well-meaning you are, perseverating in a situation where you are not valued and appreciated is not a recipe for progress nor happiness nor self-love!

I feel so grateful that now I am living with so much love around me, with a small number of friends whom I love and who appreciate me in return.

A smaller challenge that I feel some pride in overcoming today: remember my confession that sometimes I don't take best care of all my fermentation and harvesting projects? Well, today I tidied up all the yarrow flowers, lovage flowers and seeds and raspberry leaves that I had drying, before they lose their potency.(Sorry there's no photo of those.) And then this afternoon, I checked my kraut concoctions and got them covered and refrigerated. It's exciting to be able to think that I'll be eating from the garden even after the ground is all frozen. Proud of myself that I respected myself enough to take care of these concoctions, rather than letting them slide.

Cauliflower kraut-

- and chard and kale krauts in the back there!

Lol for the butter in the foreground - the food that I probably have the strongest aversion to of any food in existence, but I buy it for all the baking I do for Phil and our friends…

What's in the basket today? 

Well, the bottom of it's full of more raspberry leaves to dry - you can't see those. There's a whole bunch of chives, some of which I'll dry, some we'll eat fresh and some will go in kraut or pesto. There's a few sweet little broccoli florets. Back right, a bunch of curly parsley. Front right, stinging nettles to go in my smoothies for my journey tomorrow. Front left, a whole lot of arugula to be made into pesto with the parsley and chives. And a couple little lettuces outside the basket too. Ahhh - enjoy it while we can!