A new friend of mine, Blake, recently introduced me to a book that is literally changing my life: Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Ellix Katz. Another friend handed me a printout from some website on "fermentation" a few months ago, but I basically ignored it (turns out it was from the author's website). Then Blake showed me the book from the website and insisted I check it out. As soon as I read that the author is gay and a "long-term survivor" (LTS) of AIDS, like me, I knew this was exactly what I needed for the next stage of my life.
Here is a short list of things I quickly learned from this book—things I wish I'd known years ago:
- Leave unpasteurized, raw apple juice in an open jar for a week or two and it becomes apple cider; a little longer and it becomes apple cider vinegar.
- Scrape some horseradish root into a bowl, add a little vinegar and salt and let it ferment for a few days to make what grocery stores charge $5 to $10 or more (for the good stuff)
- Flour, water and a pinch of yeast make sourdough starter; add a little to a bowl of salted flour, let it rise and bake and you have sourdough bread—a virtually-unlimited supply of bread for mere pennies
- Honey and water ferments to become "mead," the oldest fermented brew in history
- Shredded cabbage and salt becomes sauerkraut in only a few days—real sauerkraut, not the 'cabbage and vinegar' crap they sell in plastic bags
What the hell! I had no idea this kind of good, wholesome, literally-homemade-from-scratch food would be this easy, and this cheap! And I've only scratched the surface! I've been trying to do similar things at different times over the past 30 years—temporary "phases," if you will—but was never in the right place or "mind space" to really pull it all together; now I am, and I'm going all-out! Besides, it's incredible fun, and it's extremely satisfying seeing something you made with your own hands turn out so well that even your friends can't say enough good things about it! All I can do anymore is smile, and that's all kinds of healthy!
I strongly recommend this book to anyone, anywhere. You can check out some of Mr. Katz' recipes at www.wildfermentation.com.
With much of our shopping-store food supply virtually inedible—what with salmonella, Ebola, mad-critter disease, deadly pesticides, radiation, man-eating-cow syndrome, you name it—this kind of food is not only much healthier for you, but it's ridiculously cheap! The only "downside" is the effort it takes to make it, especially when it comes to kneading dough for 30 or 40 minutes; but is that really a downside? The morning after I kneaded and baked my first sourdough bread, my arms and chest were sore...from "working out" kneading dough! They were still sore this morning, so I decided to make another one today, and prepare a batch for tomorrow. If I knead and bake a loaf each day, I'll be getting a regular workout each day, which may serve as a springboard for more organized workouts so I can regain some of my upper-body strength.
So, my "new way of thinking" is not only cheaper, it's healthier—if for only these reasons:
- my body grows fitter from kneading
- my soul feels better as I pour it into the creation of my own food
- my spirit grows calmer as I work out my frustrations on the dough
- my body gets healthier from eating better food
- my soul feels freer as I enjoy the work of my own hands
- my spirit soars as I see my friends enjoying my creations as much as I
Yes...I think I like this new lifestyle, and I can feel in my bones that my "new religion" will extend my life a little further—or at the very least, make it a life worth living.
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