ZOE LEONARD

shoes

eggs

grilled cheese with sauteed leeks

UMEBOSHI

Like many of Japan's ancient medicinal foods, the origin of the pickled plum is obscure. One theory traces it to China, where a dried smoked plum, or ubai, was discovered in a tomb built over two thousand years ago. The ubai is one of China's oldest medicines and is still used for a variety of medical purposes such as counteracting nausea, reducing fevers, and controlling coughs.

The oldest Japanese record of pickled plums being used as a medicine is in a medical text written about one thousand years ago. Umeboshi were used to prevent fatigue, purify water, rid the body of toxins, and cure specific diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, and food poisoning. Slowly, extensive folklore developed about umeboshi's ability to prevent and cure certain diseases.

During Japan's furious samurai period, which lasted through most of the Middle Ages, the pickled plum was the soldier's most important field ration. It was used to flavor foods such as rice and vegetables, and its high acidity made it an excellent water and food purifier, as well as an effective antidote for battle fatigue.

Almost 200 years ago, the Japanese began experimenting with ways to concentrate the healing powers of umeboshi. Finally, a dark liquid called bainiku ekisu (plum extract) was developed. To make the extract, sour green ume plums are slowly cooked down to obtain their most active ingredients in a highly concentrated form. The resulting dark, sticky, thick liquid is usually mixed with hot water and honey and is drunk as a tonic. Dried plum extract is also formed into pills, called meitan. In both plum extract and meitan, the plums' citric acid content is concentrated tenfold, which is equivalent to about twenty-five times the content found in lemon juice.

STAND STILL LIKE THE HUMMINGBIRD

“From the earliest times man seems to have been endowed with a conscience. When we penetrate the wisdom of the truth-sayers we discover that conscience was not meant to be a burden, that it was to be used instinctively and intuitively. It is only in periods of decadence that truth becomes complicated and conscience a heavy sack of guilt.

He need not and should not think of making a good living, but rather of creating a good life for himself. The wise men always return to the soil; one has only to think of the great men of India, China and France, their poets, sages, artists, to realize how deep is this need in every man. I am thinking, naturally, of creative types, for the others will gravitate to their own unimaginative levels never suspecting that life holds any better promise. I think of all the budding American poets, sages, and artists because they appear so appallingly helpsless in this present-day American world. They all wonder so naively how they will life if they do not hire themselves out to some taskmaster; they wonder still more how, after doing that, they will ever find time to do what they were called to do. They never think anymore of going into the desert or the wilderness, of wresting a living from the soil, of doing odd jobs, of living on as little as possible. They remain in the towns and cities, flitting from one thing to another, restless, miserable, frustrated, searching in vain for a way out.


Each one of us has a totally different life to lead. We should not strive to become like Thoreau or even like Jesus Christ, but to become what we are in truth and in essence. That is the message of every great individual and the whole meaning of being an individual. To be anything less is to move nearer to nullity.” Henry Miller

lunch.

champagne oysters mussels and rose, soft egg pizza and asparagus with crème fraiche and sand dabs with onions and capers. Coffee and strawberry shortcake, rhubarb tart with ice cream, tangerines and dates.