Salt of the Earth

 

 

You are the salt of the earth.

 

But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

 

It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

                                                                                            -Matthew 5:13

I take carrots, shred them, sprinkle them with salt, and mash them into a jar. 
I take lemons, cut them, sprinkle them with salt, and mash them into a jar.
I take cabbage, shred it, sprinkle with salt, and mash it into a jar.

And then I wait.  It takes a few days.  I check it, looking for signs of fermentation.  After a few days, I see the magic, the bubbles forming at the bottom of the jar, between the leaves of cabbage.  I see them slowly floating up to the surface.  And when I open the lid and finally taste, I can see and taste the transformation.  What was cabbage, firm and peppery is now sauercraut, soft and sour.  What was once lemon rind, hard and bitter is now a delicacy, soft and citrusy.  What once was carrot, crunchy and bland is now a relish. 

How to Make Yogurt, or Laban

Tangy, cool, and poured from a one liter jug.  Or sometimes from a bucket.  That was the laban, or yogurt that I grew up with. 

When we ran out of our store-bought jug of yogurt, my mother would often make yogurt.  I always knew when she had a batch of yogurt going because I would come home to a find a blanket-swaddled mass in my parent's bedroom (the warmest room in the house?).  Do NOT touch those blankets, girls, my mother instructed us.  So, we dutifully stayed away until she was ready to peel back the warm layers of flannel quilts and open up the pot to reveal the miracle:  milk into yogurt.  We always had to taste spoonfuls of warm tart warm yogurt, even though it would be better after a few hours in the refrigerator. 

In Palestine, where I grew up, yogurt is savory, never sweet.  Spooned next to spiced rice and ground lamb, or stirred with cucumber and garlic or mint.  Yogurt is how you eat rice, really.  Rice and lentils with yogurt.  Rice and meat stuffed vegetables with yogurt.  At almost every dinner table, we had a bowl of yogurt on the table.  My American father sometimes sprinkled sugar on his yogurt and my mother allowed us to stir home-made strawberry jam into our yogurt for an occasional treat, but other than that, we ate it like Arabs:  plain. 

Lentil Rice Pilaf, or Mujadara

Lentil rice pilaf, or mujjadara, is poor man's food in Palestine.  Affordable or otherwise, I find it delicious and homey.   A complete protein, and nutrient-dense with its powerful combinations of bone broth, rice, and lentils, it is a satisfying and nourishing meal all by itself,  served with a scoop of yogurt and a chopped cucumber and tomato salad.   A meatless dish, Arab Christians often eat this during Lent. 

My uncle, who grew up in poverty, ate this meal so often as a child that as an adult he banished it from his home.  But I love this meal so much that I once wept when my mother made it after I had dental surgery.   Like Esau, I would give anything for a bowl of lentils. 

Where we begin

It was about a year ago, when I saw my picture with my new family and saw that I was more than just tired.  I saw it in the eyes of the woman smiling back at me, in the dark circles below and the faded skin.  I felt it in the way I moved about, that there was something missing inside, that no matter how much I rested or tried to care for myself, something was missing.

This past year was a journey into wholeness, into health, and not in the lose-ten-pounds-so-that-you'll-look-awesome-this-summer kind of way.  Through it all, as I read and learned and experimented in the kitchen, I found peace.  Peace with my own body, as my strength started to return.  Peace with my world, as I could say something about the food industry in the way I spent my food budget.  Peace with my roots, as I found myself eating the same foods that my mother and my grandmother fed me.

Peace, as I bowed my head to thank God for my food.  And when I asked Him to bless it and to allow it to nourish our bodies, I was finally asking for this sincerely. 

I believe in nourishment.  I believe that nourishment is about feeding the soul as much as it is about feeding the body.

I believe that the foods that nourish our bodies are the foods that have have grown generation upon generation of peoples into strong healthy nations, not the food that our grocery stores are trying to sell us. 

I believe that there is something mysterious about the way food sustains and feeds us.  As much information as you can find about food (and there is a lot!), I think that we still eat by faith, much like the Israelites did in the desert, when they ate the bread of heaven and called it "manna," or "what is it?" 

I know so very little.  I have so much to learn.  I hope that you will join me, teach me, nourish me as I walk down this path.  I could use the company.