“A piece of space-dust falls on your head once every day… With every breath, we inhale a bit of the story of our universe, our planet’s past and future, the smells and stories of the world around us, even the seeds of life.”
― Pablo Picasso
Hello friends and fellow fermenters,
Often, I experience the art of cooking both as an expression of individual identity and as an expression of community connection. Nourishing food, with its colors, aromas, sizzling oil, flame, and tastes of home, is aesthetically pleasing in its physicality and deep cultural meaning. I think we put so much of ourselves into our cooking because food brings together family, community, place and time. Cooking has always been, not only an artistic social ritual, but also an artistic expression of individuality. Using kitchenware created with traditional materials and techniques to make and serve food created with traditional ingredients and techniques, is my contribution to a 29,000-year-old history. Cooking and pottery, each a unique artistic expression, have a reciprocal relationship.
Fermentation occurs in vessels created from stoneware and formed as both an individual piece and as part of a harmony of shapes. Glazed with locally- sourced ash and fired at 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours. The crock is then cooled for 48 hours and carefully removed from the kiln. At that moment, the powder clay (ground rock) — Picasso’s “space dust”— has become both artistic expression and the nourishing “seeds of life.”
Please join me in one of my up-coming fermentation workshops for a fun and hands-on experience. We will discuss the history and culture of fermenting, the benefits of probiotics in our diet, and the art of preparing fermented foods. You will have the opportunity to choose a discounted ceramic vessel, and create your very own fermented vegetables, while tasting the delicious fermented foods and beverages from my kitchen. Kombucha mothers will be available as well.
Click on my workshop page to sign up for one of the workshop
Saturday June 9, 2018 2:00 PM-4:00 PM
Sunday August 5, 2018 12:00 PM-2:00PM
In the next newsletter, I’ll discuss the relationship between ancient pottery and ancient fermentation techniques. The fermentation of beverages, vegetables and fish in ceramic vessels is thousands of years old. In ancient Mesopotamia, there was a long tradition of fermenting salted vegetables and fish paste. A Chinese method for fermenting rice and honey beverage is at least 9,000 years old!
Wherever you are, enjoy the arts, and I hope to see you soon, online or in person!
Hadar