CLAY, GRANITE, EARTH

Since elementary school, we have been taught that there are three worlds: mineral, vegetable, animal. We were told that the vegetable and animal worlds are alive, have life inside and undergo transformations. On the contrary, the mineral world is inanimate.

It is true? is it really true?

Today we know that what holds the atoms of matter together is electromagnetic energy. Even what holds atoms “together”, that is, all the particles of which they are composed – electrons, protons, neutrons – are held together by energy. We also know, from an Einstein equation, that matter is the massification of energy, ie energy that becomes mass and that mass and energy, in the end, are the same thing. We also know that photons, i.e. the atoms of light, are matter.

Then?

Then there are the microorganisms.

Micro-organisms can be everywhere, even in the earth and make it organic, that is “alive”, transformable, capable of interacting with other organisms.

Clay is always used to produce containers, especially for food use.

Granite was used for tubs and sinks. It seems that wearing a necklace with granite stones gives strength. In North East Harbor Maine, there are jewelers that showcase magnificent jewelry of polished granite stones set in gold or platinum.

The marble, porous and soft, is still used today for magnificent mortars.

Marble is exceptionally allowed by the European Union in the production of Colonnata lard.

Colonnata is a small village, a nativity scene, on the Apuan Alps, Michelangelo’s marble mountains in northern Tuscany. The marble, the material with which the container tanks in Colonnata are made, with its porosity, allows the passage of just enough oxygen to give the lard which is marinating in a mixture of herbs and salt, a particular consistency and a particular flavour.

As we well know, “regional cuisine” means the use of local food products but also of the cooking and conservation techniques permitted by local materials. We find terracotta pots in central Italy, soapstone pots (with the cooking techniques suitable for these materials) in the Lombardy Alps.

When we talk about food we are not just talking about nourishing the body, but the senses, the soul, the spirit and the intellect, as well as the sense of familiarity between people around a table.

Food is Matter of the Earth, like the materials that receive it, like the bodies that feed on it.

Food is alive and undergoes transformations due to time, temperature, micro-organisms present in the environment.

Fermentation is one of the transformations, perhaps the most common.

The term Fermentation refers to a chain of chemical reactions acted upon by bacteria, yeasts, fungi and enzymes.

During fermentation, the enzyme starts a chain reaction, like a domino effect, giving life to new Microorganisms such as yeast, fungi, bacteria are found in the substance that makes up bread, wine, beer, milk.

Perhaps you have never thought that microorganisms can give life to a world traditionally believed to be “inanimate” like the ground.

The ground and the Earth are alive.

In this regard, you can search for news about my friend Andrea Battiata:

In addition to the microorganisms used to “ferment” the earth which will make the vegetables grow “healthy and strong”, as Andrea Battiata does, the microorganisms can be “kneaded” in the clay. Even if they die in the cooking process, their beneficial properties remain and continue to be “radiated” by the ceramic “outside”: in the air, in the water, in the food they contain.

Always used in Japan, effective microorganisms (EM) are starting to be popular here too.

The artist Isabella Fazzo has been using them in her “pastas” for decades:

Food is a holistic matter: it is made of biology and chemistry; techniques and methods, but also of sharing and emotion.