Mother (Bacterial cellulose)
Co2 from lacto-fermentation
Co2 from breath
apples
pig intestine
mold
milk
Lactobacillus
slides
Ferment is possibly my favorite word in the English language, Collins dictionary lists synonyms such as a state of unrest, agitation, turbulent change, commotion, tumult, turmoil, excitement. This brings to mind words like foment, political ferment, the act of fermenting one’s own food is a political gesture of reclaiming some agency in the capitalist logic of consumption and a practice of building together with communities of human and more-than-human others. With respect to historian Peter Linebaugh’s proposal that commoning begins in the kitchen “where production and reproduction meet” I in turn propose that it begins in one’s gut, as a performance with a vibrant community of microbial agents.