Fermeditation Friday is a new, occasional series in which I share my fermenty ponderings. The first true installment will be next Friday.
When I was a kid, my grandpa (dad’s dad) used to go into the garden with a salt shaker, grab a tomato off the vine, take a bite, salt it, take another bite, salt again, and repeat this until everything was gone but the stem. He took sublime pleasure in this, but I, and all of my cousins, would make gagging noises and tell him how absolutely disgusting this practice was. “Ewwww! It’s a tomato not an apple! So gross, grandpa!” was our refrain.
While bringing the salt shaker on the roof where I grow my tomatoes isn’t the most practical, I now do the same thing as gramps, because there’s absolutely nothing in this world that tastes better than a sun-warmed tomato, fresh off the vine, specked with a just a few rapidly melting crystals. And I feel a little weird about how much we made fun of my grandpa about that. And I wish I could talk to him about it now and tell him that I do the same thing.
Of course our views will naturally shift and adjust with time, given our peer groups, diversified experiences and the natural maturing that comes with age. But I think that my fermentation practice has dramatically altered (I would argue improved) many of my practices and beliefs, in food and in life. Earlier this week, I shared a few of these life changes with the crowd at Nerd Nite, and it inspired me to finally finish writing this series of posts. This will be an occasional series. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you join in the conversation, but honestly, these are for me. They’re a way for me to ponder a bit and to organize my thoughts about this process and the role it plays in my life.
Topics include (and go beyond) food waste, medicine, cleanliness and death. These posts will mostly be my opinions and subjective experiences. I don’t expect everyone to share my views, and I don’t expect everyone to agree, but I’d love to have a respectful conversation in the comments about your own thoughts on these topics as they are posted. Feel free to share any broader changes that have happened in your life that either led you to start fermenting or resulted from your fermentation habit.
See you next Friday with the first official ferme-ditation!
Karen says
Can’t wait! It sounds really interesting.
Marilee says
Looking forward to it. My dad used to do the same thing — tomato right off the vine with salt shaker in hand –, but I was right there with him.
Kelly says
This sounds great–I’m looking forward to it!
Nicole Novak says
Amanda, you darling!! I have always eaten tomatoes while in the garden–for their juice to revive me, their warmth that allows me to swallow a little piece of the sun, and for the magical flavor that a just picked tomato has over all others. The only thing missing for me was always a bit of *salt*. I’m going to put a little salt shaker in the garden. It’s not too late here in sunny hot California!! Thanks so much for the idea. Now I need to figure out how to make it waterproof!
Rebecca G says
This sounds lovely. Interestingly, a tomato brought down the path to finding a love of vegetables and later fermented vegetables. Between high school and college I spent a year in Israel. That was my first exposure to actual fresh produce. Eating tomatoes like apples fresh from the market is a fond memory of mine. And while I dont tolerate nightshades anymore, I still hold that memory with the favors and textures dear.
Ophelia says
…sounds good…
…as s kid…I would eat tomatoes out of the garden…till I got what they called the “mad itch”… And it was…big red whelps all over my body..,
…today as an ole’ Womyn…,they say I shouldn’t eat night shades…
…I know a belief is just a repeated train of thought…and I can start a new train…
….one of my favorite groups is Munford and Sons…they sing of man being so small and death …sew full…kinda like fermentation…grin…
.. I think with a healthy micro biome… We can eat whole healthy food by choice of appeal…