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Pickling Harmonie
by Sally Singingtree August 2017
It’s pickling season and this year I’ve discovered a variety of
cucumber that makes the best dill pickles I’ve ever tasted. I grow
some cucumbers in my garden and buy the rest from the local
farmer’s market. Most cucumber plants are garden devas— demanding
constant attention. One afternoon they preen with lush big leaves,
a multitude of yellow blossoms, and verdant green baby cucumbers.
Yet for all that glory, by the very next morning the foliage can
look wretched—covered with unsightly powdery mildew or blotches of
scab. Organic treatment options are usually short lived and require
frequent application. This year one of the farmers at the Wednesday
market introduced me to “harmonie” cucumbers —intrepid growers that
deliver without all the ups and downs. The 1
dark green skin is tender and not too thick, the inner pulp
flavorful, not bitter, the seeds are small and the plants are
healthy and beautiful day in and out, thriving on drip irrigation,
lots of sunshine and fertile soil. I enjoy making my own
pickles—it’s something I took up after being inspired by Aunt
Rose’s pickles. I started out using the hot water bath, vinegar
based method, the same process my aunt used. Recently I switched to
the ancient brine fermentation process which relies on beneficial
yeast and bacteria to preserve cucumbers by transforming them into
pickles. It’s a simple technique. The night before you plan to
pickle, boil up half a gallon of filtered water into which you
dissolve 3 Tablespoons of salt; let it cool overnight. The next day
gather the cucumbers, lots of dill, garlic, peppercorns and a few
grape leaves. Once everything is assembled, carefully pack a big
pickling crock with all the loose ingredients, and then pour the
brine solution over everything. The mixture needs to stay submerged
beneath the surface of the brine—it’s an anaerobic fermentation
process — so weight it down with a heavy object (I use a ceramic
stone) and place a cover over the crock. The fermentation process
will take a week or two.
As the cukes soak, mold, scum (sometimes known as bloom) and
weird looking bubbles form on top of the brine. This stuff is kinda
scary looking, similar to the stuff that grows on leftovers at the
back of the refrigerator, but this stuff won’t hurt you. Kitchen
germ-o-phobes and refrigeration police would
Johnny’s
Seeds.http://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/cucumbers/pickling-cucumbers/1harmonie-f1-cucumber-seed-2564.html
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probably freak out at this point if they looked into the brew,
but humans have been preserving vegetables this way for thousands
of years. Every day or so one needs to skim it off. After about 5-7
days soaking in the brine, the pickles are ready to taste. The
first time I did this I half thought I might die, but I risked it
anyway. I took a teeny bite, told my husband so he’d know what to
tell the paramedics if necessary, and waited to see if I survived
until the next morning. I woke up feeling great and ready to take a
bigger bite of the pickles in process.
They were almost ready, just needed another day or two. Once the
pickles reached the still-crunchy, flavorful place I prefer, it was
time to pack them into wide-mouth quart Mason jars and store them
in the fridge. We enjoyed eating them all winter long. The
nutritional health benefits of these pickles is in the probiotics,
a term meaning “for life”. These microorganisms form during the
long soak in the brine. Probiotics have very beneficial properties
for the intestinal flora. Even before science knew anything about
probiotics, our distant forebears knew that eating a little
sauerkraut, chutney, or a few pickle slices with a meal helped to
keep the gut happy.
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Ingredients & Equipment • “harmonie” cucumbers• grape
leaves• garlic• dill • 1/2 gallon water + 3 Tbsp. salt
• fermentation crock
Deirdre Rawlings provides the following description:
“Fermentation happens when microorganisms (natural bacteria and
some yeasts) feed on the sugar and starch in food, converting them
into lactic acid in a process known as lacto-fermentation…
Lacto-fermentation creates beneficial bacteria, enzymes, vitamins,
and various strains of probiotics (live beneficial microorganisms).
An added benefit just happens to be an increased shelf life of
food.”
Rawlings, Deirdre Ph.D.,N.D. Fermented Foods for Health.
Beverly, MA: Fair Winds Press, 2013, p. 6.
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A few Saturdays ago, as I was packing up a late summer pickle
batch, deadly violence was taking place in Charlottesville,
Virginia. The KKK, neo-Nazis and alt-right neo-fascists were
marching to protest the planned removal of a statue of General
Robert E. Lee. Human rights counter-demonstrators had gathered as
well—mostly groups and individuals practicing nonviolence but they
were joined by antifa groups, ready to physically defend themselves
and others from the aggressive violence of white supremacists. The
situation was volatile and turning deadly in an already alarming
political climate. I was getting “breaking news alerts” on my
i-phone every few minutes. The vitriol and brazen incitement to
violence and intimidation that went on that day and that continues
is profoundly perturbing to me; I had mistakenly assumed that our
country’s old wounds were more healed than they are. I wonder, how
will we ever come to a place of congruence where we can all live
together amicably in a dynamic state of harmony among all the
different voices? Sometimes the discrepancy between my hope and
what I hear on the news feels like it’s starting to pickle my
brain! But seriously, sometimes it helps to clarify a situation by
noticing the partial similarities between two different processes.
So, viewing our current socio-political situation via the analogy
of fermentation and probiotics, what can we discern? Are there any
correspondences between the fermenting process and the social
unrest thats been brewing in our country for a very long time? Just
as mold and scum (or bloom) inevitably form on top of the brine
during the early stages of transforming raw vegetables into
fermented food, so to do unsavory human elements break forth during
times of change and disruption of historical norms. Unfortunately,
as we are seeing now, things often get dangerous before they
(hopefully) improve. What we previously assumed was unshakable
progress in the political/social/community environment now seems
threatened. The effect of changing times upon those who feel left
behind creates a backlash of resentment, seething anger, bigotry
and a longing to return to a sugar-coated versions of an idealized
past time. Yet most of us know that it’s impossible to go back to a
former time; the power of change resides in the conditions of the
“here and now”. So, as we move on, it’s important to bring forward
the wisdom gained from lessons learned the hard way in former
times. Absorbing the lessons of history isn’t nostalgia, it’s the
only way we can avoid repeating similar tragic mistakes. During the
Civil War General Lee authorized and personally committed
despicable violence, torture and other hateful actions towards
African
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Americans. Lee and most other confederates were unable to
recognize that skin color is unrelated to human value, that all
people are worthy of justice and compassion, and that torture,
lynching and splitting families apart are depraved actions which
only intensify the problems. After defeat of the Confederacy, after
Jim Crow, after government mandated integration, after a black man
was elected president of the United States— these attitudes
festered in the psyches of many angry, fearful people who felt
deprived of their glory days as top dogs. This is the legacy that
the statues of General Lee venerate. From another vantage point,
the leaders of the Confederacy provided valuable lessons about what
doesn’t work. Mistakes are an invaluable part of human advancement.
Edison had many failures before he invented the incandescent light
bulb. We don't need to build monuments to mistakes; but to create a
better future we must learn from them. Perhaps those empty
pedestals where statues of confederate heroes once stood could
portray newly sculpted figures showing humanity’s hard won progress
along with humanity's ongoing ability to birth inspiring solutions.
Wouldn’t it be great if our public places were decorated with
images of people coming together to work towards a future that
holds pervasive social justice, equal opportunity and satisfying
lives for all? So, getting back to our analogy between fermentation
and the current social/political unrest— what life-affirming
benefits may be aborning underneath all the disagreements, threats,
and violence that we see rising to the surface of things? Just as
probiotics are formed underneath the scum and mold of my vegetable
ferment, I believe that love and compassion will emerge for many of
those who now want only disruption. Once things have pickled long
enough, I believe that we will begin to see more compassionate,
loving and wise grassroots action and public policy.Compassion is
not the same thing as pity; it’s putting ourselves in another’s
shoes and beginning to feel what that must be like. Love isn’t
romantic or sentimental; rather it’s seeing and knowing with the
intelligence of a caring, wise heart. Only when we’ve stewed around
in the ferment long enough to realize that hating and killing
doesn’t bring about anything except more wounding, reciprocal
violence and fear do we realize that what we really want is harmony
instead of dissonance, cooperation rather than provocation.
Clearly, the process we are in is frightening but there is also
cause for hope. While I can’t possibly connect all the dots,
nonetheless I have faith that what is currently brewing in this
alchemical mix of raw betrayal, trauma, confusion, and demagoguery
are eventual developments that will bring healing transformation so
that people in our land can live together in cooperative ways.
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Granted it would be a help if the top leadership had some sort
of moral compass instead of just looking for the ego gratification
of making deals, any deals. Without a doubt, we are in something of
a pickle. Fermenting raw ingredients is a messy, uncertain process.
In the meantime, we can aspire to contribute compassion, wisdom,
and loving kindness into the world around us. We can draw down
deeper than our tendency to rant or blame or retreat and choose to
be a calm presence in the midst of everything. Individually and
collectively an evolution of consciousness is in the works. I have
faith that the healing factors for digesting and transmuting past
evil and hate are beginning to exert some influence, even if we
can’t see it yet. How long will it take? There’s no timetable, and
not everyone will choose to grow and heal; but many will undergo
positive changes. Transformation is possible. I recall the story of
John Newton, self proclaimed wretch, who felt the healing power of
grace carry him into a fresh start. He turned away from his life as
captain of a slave trading ship and chose instead to be an
abolitionist, helping to bring about the end of the slave trade in
England. Deep within the briny slosh of confusion and suffering of
our present time something else is happening. Beneficial strands of
transmutation we can’t taste, see or feel are beginning to form. At
some point in the not so distant future we will step into better
ways of living cooperatively with each other. In the meantime we
are identifying what needs to be skimmed off. And underneath the
slime, we are pickling harmony.
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