Field Notes and Fermentation
Writing
If we are what we eat, does weather and climate's impact on our food change who we are? I spent 14 months investigating this question in the agave fields of Oaxaca, the vineyards of Rioja, and the highlands of the Peruvian Andes.
When I was a senior at Williams, I was awarded a research-travel fellowship just as the world shut down to global travel. Based off the better-known-but-still-obscure Watson fellowship, the grant provides funding for one year of purpose-based travel and learning.
My project proposal was titled, "How climate change and globalization are affecting community scale fermentation." The cheesy subtitle was, "How cultures are preserving their cultures." Fermentation traditions are elements of nearly every culture, arising from the fact they helped keep us alive for thousands of years. As climate change and globalization affect our food systems, how do these changes affect the people who are keeping these fermentation traditions alive?
This question brought me to Mexico for mezcal, Belgium for bread, Peru for coffee, Spain for wine, and the UK for cider. In all these places I worked alongside passionate individuals innovating age-old traditions to adapt to the changing world we're living in, preserving cultures both biological and intangible.
During my travels, I kept a Substack and I've archived the files here for my own posterity.
- Revisiting the Cursed Land of SpainMarch 25, 2024
Days 180 to 190: Tour De Spain, Chasing Cyclists, Finding Cider, Fighting Fires, Making Wine
- Bruxelles, Beer, and Byes (Belgium pt 4)March 11, 2024
Days 170 to 180: Fries in Brussels, Beer and Culture, Mayonnaise (again), Brunch, Belgian Countryside, Stonemasons
- Bread, Pastries, and Sweet Treats (Belgium pt 3)February 26, 2024
Days 170 to 180: Self Conception, Small Pleasures, Self-concieved-pleasures, Decorating Pastries, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Croissant
- Theux part 2 (and Venice):January 8, 2024
Days 160 to 170: Feudal Times, Honing my Inner Pilgrim, Authenticity, Recreating Movie Scenes, Diatribes.
- Baking Bread in BelgiumNovember 27, 2023
Days 150 to 160: Learning about Belgium, Making Waffles, Shaping Dough, Eating Croissants
- Leaving the IslandOctober 19, 2023
Days 130 to 150: Cwm Maddoc to Calais, Country Homes, Coffee breaks, Classism, Croquet, and Cider
- "Stay me with Flagons, Comfort me with Apples"August 22, 2023
Days 115 to 130: Life as a Garden Gnome, Bottling Cider, Thinking about Cider, Drinking Cider, Thinking about Drinking Cider
- Can't Dance, Too Wet to PlowAugust 7, 2023
Days 100 to 115: Madrid, Toledo, Bristol, Wales, Libraries, Existence Tax, and Fun Idioms
- Final Days in MexicoJuly 24, 2023
Days 60 to 100: The last of my time in Mexico, eating egg tacos out of a pickup, staring at little clay men, Paul Mezcal, and reliving the past
- Me, the very satisfied speck of dust, the unelected American apostle of MezcalMay 26, 2023
Days 50 to 60: Where I've been, Where I am, Where I'm going, more mezcal, and a plea for help
- The Golden Age of MezcalMay 15, 2023
Days 40 through 50: Daily life in Oaxaca, the future of mezcal, me stating opinions as facts once again, grand theorems
- "I have this tiny chef who tells me what to do" - Alfredo LinguiniApril 28, 2023
Days 30 through 40: Spirit guides named Richard, drinking mezcal with purpose to find purpose, talking with people, talking with myself, and being the pawn of some little chef.
- Mezcal and Me April 21, 2023
Weeks 3 and 4: Fairs, new drinks, old drinks, me drinking deep, Paz on Mexico, Mexico on me
- Oaxaca by way of wallsApril 11, 2023
Days 1-15: Arriving in Oaxaca, finding friends, getting lost, trying food
- You've made itMarch 24, 2023
This is where I'll keep my musing from my trip. Self-indulgent, Irreverent, often Confused. Misquoting and misspelling.
- If I take one more step, I’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever beenMarch 22, 2023
Four years after writing my initial fellowship proposal, I’ve arrived in Mexico.