Putting food by...
Today is blueberry melomel day--25 pounds of honey (about 50 million bee-flower connections), around 20 pounds of local blueberries (and a few homegrown berries tossed in for good measure), yeast, and water will join together in a love feast that will result in a few billion yeastie babies, some ethanol, lots of carbon dioxide, and a piece of summer for family and friends to drink when the days grow too short for me to function.
Putting food by...
Your great-grandparents more likely than not knew how to put food by--save the summer surplus for the long days of winter. Drying and fermentation were the earliest methods known. The freezer is a recent invention, and according to the United Nations, 20% of the world still does not have access to electricity (as of 2002).
I hardly put away enough to survive a week, and the stuff I put by is more for selfish, simple pleasures than for any true need. Still, it's an art, one that takes time to learn, and one worth knowing.
If I want blueberry melomel (in any season), I have to make it myself. And I want it. If you had some, you'd likely want it, too.
Putting food by...
I read a haunting story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine 3 years ago July. Hyder Akbar, an Afghani translator, served as Abdul Wali's translator. Mr. Akbar's father is a governor in Afghanistan; Mr. Akbar grew up in the States.
Mr. Wali was asked questions about a rocket attack. He had come to Mr. Akbar's father's office, knowing the American wanted to question him. He told the governor he was innocent, and that he was frightened. The governor told Mr. Wali to go to the Americans, and his son (Mr. Akbar) would translate.
Things did not go well. Mr. Wali had been to Pakistan. The American interrogators wanted to know exactly when. "Exactly when" is a difficult concept for some cultures. People from Mr. Wali's world generally do not keep calendars--"Most of them don't even know how old they are," Mr. Akbar notes.
"I just go to sleep, I wake up and there's a next day," he explained. "I feed myself, I go to sleep and there's a next day."
Abdul Wali, in response to interrogators on why he did not exactly know when he was in Pakistan
Wali's translator tried to settle Wali down a bit Mr. Akbar felt a bit responsible--his father had told Wali that if he told the truth, all would go well.
I approached Wali, and to calm him, put my hand on his shoulder. "Just say the truth," I told him, trying to sound normal. "Nothing is going to happen if you just say the truth." Then I walked out of the room, promising myself that I'd come back and check up on him. He died before I got the chance.
Hyder Akbar, NYT Magazine, July 11, 2004
David A. Passaro, a CIA contractor, was indicted last month for assault of Mr. Akbar.
Putting food by...
The cultural divide between "modern" Americans and much of the rest of the world defies our own understanding. We identify differences by language, by clothing.
Many of us are startled by an Indian who works alongside of us in a suit, by an Orthodox Jew not tripping on a beard, by Muslims in bluejeans. If we cannot get beyond outward appearances, what hope have we of grasping a culture that does not respect the calendar?
Clocks were invented by Christian monks to aid in praying. We worship clocks now instead of the Creator. Much of the world still follows the sun and the seasons--survival depends on it. Our survival here in the States depends on the clock, the calendar. We live in a cash society--no cash, no shelter.
We see the world differently than our forebears did--not necessarily a bad thing. Our productivity (in the short term, at least) exceeds the manna from heaven in the Hebrew Bible. We simply cannot accept that anyone sees the world differently.
Ghandi did not go to University in a loin cloth--he did not rise from the uneducated masses. He was "one of us" who chose a different path.
And what does any of this have to do with "putting food by"?
Putting food by...
Remember your grandmother's cooking? How quaint. Why did our grandmothers submit themselves? Why would anyone slave like that in the kitchen? We are culturally divided from our own history.
We are not "bad" people, but we truly cannot understand a universe where a calendar does not matter--and we are blind to our ignorance.
Putting food by places us back 3 generations. Sloppiness will get you hungry. Neighbors mattered. Corn was picked when it was ripe, whether late July or mid-August.
Some of my hops are ready to pluck. Every book I've read said mid-August is as early as they mature. It's not even mid-July. My life does not depend on hops, but if it did, I'd trust my senses before I'd trust a calendar.
In Afghanistan, my hops would be picked today. Poppies have a better market value. The Afghans know this.
We're still learning.
