BRATTLEBORO — My sister's birthday is Sept. 19. She is a triple Virgo, meaning her sun, moon, and rising signs are all located in Virgo. What that means to non-crunchy-granola Brattleboroians is that she is a Very. Reliable. Person. She's the one in the family who demands that everyone call her when arriving home, to assure they are safe and sound.
September is the month of serious-minded time, less frivolous Virgo energy. We've been playing all summer, la-de-da, and having a grand swell time. But now it's time to hunker down and return to work. We put away our boogie boards and order cordwood. Leaves change color, and nights grow colder. Crops clamor for harvesting.
September is a time of abundance. Gardens explode in a crescendo, a cornucopia of product demanding to be dealt with. We can only eat so much, bless our hearts. The rest must be put away: freezing, drying, canning, and pickling.
My favorite way to preserve is with live-cultured fermentation. I recommend The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World (Chelsea Green, 2012), by Sandor Katz, the Johnny Appleseed of pickled products, who continues his valiant vocation in spreading the gospel on the value of cultured food.
* * *
Psychology Today ran an interesting article, asking us to consider, “Is Kimchi the New Prozac?” It discussed the theory that we have a second brain located in our digestive tract.
This bundle of neurons functions independently from its home office, upstairs. The gut does not seem to be a franchise of the mind; it appears to have an agenda all its own. Most notably, it seems to receive otherly information in the form of intuition, sensory, and visceral responses, and what might be deemed paranormal, meta-sensory, or beyond-our-conscious levels of cognition.
Think of it as science versus religion: The brain values sophisticated science, whereas the gut is “stuck” receiving the wacko, primal religious stuff.
Only the tides are turning. Thanks to bridge-building pioneers like Candace Pert, Antonio Damasio, Richard Davidson, and yes, even Dan Brown, faith is making a comeback.
When you get that gut feeling - for example, when you receive an “ick” response when meeting a person - science now validates that this information, while non-cognitive, is still a form of knowing. This information, like facts and feelings, transfers electronically, through energy waves, and processes chemically, through particles. This type of information appears to be handled more efficiently through the “Office Down Under.”
* * *
What does this have to do with cooking?
Look. We hire the chambermaid to clean all the hotel rooms, not just the penthouse suite, right? Maintaining a healthy digestive system promotes a healthy second brain. We want to keep all the rooms clean, upstairs and downstairs.
One way we keep the office down below clean is through culture. No, I don't mean “culture” as in culinary acts of aesthetic presentation or incorporating local cuisines. I mean live cultures: friendly bacteria (probiotics), the workhorses of the intestinal system.
Probiotics are the difference between good customer service and being put on hold for 47 minutes. They do so much that it would take another book to recite their deserved credit.
But here are a few: they stimulate digestion, increase nutritional absorption, promote regularity, decrease allergic reactions, improve immune system function, repair and rejuvenate healthy cells, identify damaged or malignant cell structures and influence destruction of said cells, balance blood-sugar levels, balance hormone levels, and regulate mood through neurochemical balancing.
Remember how we cook with intuition? This is the place where intuition resides. Nourish it!
Sandor Katz's fantastic books offers dozens of fermented and live-culture recipes from around the world. In honor of intuition and our second brain, I offer one real-live recipe, adapted from his 2003 book Wild Fermentation (see sidebar).
* * *
Along with turning our attention toward the harvest, September also offers a time of reflection and atonement. The Jewish holiday Yom Kippur marks the symbolic beginning of fall (this year, Sept. 13-14). It is a pause button in our lives, a time to reflect and redirect.
We ask ourselves, what fruits would we like to harvest? What do we want to change? What do we want to remain?
It is a time for gratitude and acceptance and of letting go of that which no longer serves us well.
In my experience, the part of the body that helps me the most in discerning these messages is ... the intuition.
Feed it, well. Happy pickles, to you.
Now, get to work. And call my sister, when you get home.