Today was a strange day. It felt chronologically discordant, off by a few moments and not quite aligned with reality. I completely lost track of time, so much so that when I decided to stop what I was doing to take a break for breakfast, I looked at the clock and was shocked to see that it was 1:30. I was completely immersed in the task of making tamales with Mexican Truffle, and slipped into an alternate zone.
In preparation for a Mexican Truffle harvest, I’ve been watching the corn crops all summer, taking note about which areas were hit by hail, which fields were damaged by the drought earlier in the summer.
I started my day hunting for huitlacoche (aka Mexican Truffle or Corn Smut depending on your perspective) in a field on our farm, where our ground is rented to a farmer who plants corn year after year after year. I walked down the rigid rows with my basket, surrounded by plants that have been genetically mutated in order to make their planting, growing and harvest orderly and efficient. The ears are at exactly the same height. 30,000 plants per acre, a neat 12 inches between each plant. Dependent on heavy fertilizers and chemicals to survive and produce. Each plant is a cog in a giant industrialized machine. As I wonder how many billions of plants are growing on millions of acres in this state alone, I’m struck by how corn has become so far removed from its origins in every possible way. I walked through the field hunting the huitlacoche contemplating that each plant is a living, breathing entity. Pondering the noble origins when they were regarded with reverence and even adoration by the people who’s lives depended on them.
The huitlacoche grows every year where plants are stressed or damaged, a spore working its way into each kernel as it develops and turning it into a silvery fruiting body that soon explodes with its own spores. They are a mysterious presence, a reminder of the cyclical and interdependent nature of all things. It’s a fungus like any other mushroom. An exotic and umami delicacy or a scourge to corn farmers. I love the way that it colors everything that it touches with it’s darkness, including tamales. I really love hunting for it, walking along the edges of fields and down rows, looking for telltale signs of stress or damage to the stalks. Hitting a pocket where it’s taken hold, sometimes yielding a few clusters and sometimes one or two and sometimes many. I always ask them if they want to be picked, and always leave some behind. If hunting and harvesting wild food is approached as a contemplative practice, the plants will speak to you. The huitlacoche always has a lesson for me, a story; it’s not just food. Today it told me that it’s important to understand that time isn’t always linear. It readjusted my perspective.
The reason that I decided to make tamales with this harvest is because I could freeze them and share later with loved ones. Tamales are a always a lot of work, and today particularly since I was foraging ingredients, including leaves and stalks to wrap them in. I then cleaned the huitlacoche, cutting and rinsing. Then I made the masa, then the filling, assembled and finally steamed them.
The tamales also had something to teach me today. When they are traditionally made for special occasions or festivals, it’s almost always by a group of women. Maybe even more important than the delicious treats themselves is the surrounding ritual. The camaraderie, cooperation, sharing and passing along of wisdom and knowledge. The community and bonding and chismes and laughter. The tamales told me that they are not meant to be made in solitude. Not only because the labor is overwhelming. But also because their gift -their essence- is about the magic of a circle. They are the links of a continuation, not an end-all. The result isn’t simply food. It is love, tradition, and connection all folded into beautiful little pockets wrapped with the gift wrapping of Mother Corn’s vestiments. I live in a very isolated world, and I miss my family and that kind of community. As much as I don’t want to acknowledge it, we are dependent on each other, the way that the huitlacoche is dependent on the corn.
Today I found a thread in the form of a silken tassle that started in ancient times when thanks were given for food and the dark mystery of the huitlacoche. The thread wove families and culture together for millennia. I hold this end in my fingers; bearing witness, acknowledging, and understanding that my connection with my loved ones is a continuation of that thread.