Got Terroir?

You know the kind of foods that are exciting to me? They are the natural, God-given foods that reflect the climate, geography, weather, and abundance or even lack of at times, of the place they come from. Do you realize how unique certain foods are and that they can't be exactly reproduced, like a factory churning out processed-exactly-the-same stuff can be?

Certain foods reflect where they are from. They taste differently than other foods made the same way in a different place. Even in a close, but different neighborood. That's why cheeses have names often times deriving from a neighborhood or village. You could only get a certain cheese from a certain place, if you wanted it to taste similar every time.

Foods like milk, cheese, honey, wine, coffee beans, and sourdough breads all have different tastes. In the cheese world it's called Terroir, referring to the way somethings tastes uniquely of the place it's from, the grass the animal eats, the weather and climate and all those different things that go into making something belonging to only that certain place, at that time. There are so many variables in nature that we can't control. I think the Lord made it that way on purpose, and instead of enjoying unique tastes, so many of us want the same old reliable flavor and texture in the same familiar package. bleh.

Most people understand that wine is different depending on the grapes the year it was made and the way it was aged, etc. etc. Well, honey is like that too. It tastes different and looks different according to what kind of nectar the bees have been eating. So many delightful differences! So unlike the little plastic bear bottles lined up on any store shelf, arranged in rows of exactly matching honey inside and out of the bottle. In reality, amazing raw honey from the hive can taste different depending on so many things, including the weather and soil conditions surrounding the hive where the bees forage.

Just something I was thinking about as I read today about bees and honey, and pondered as I milked and made a batch of raw milk chevre. The Lord God gave us so many rich gifts.