Further adventures of Zukemono

We know you have all been waiting for it- folks, Andy Gladstone….

they force their way up through hard crackling ground, desperately seeking the scorching nutrients of a dazzling New Mexico Sun.  each aspiring seedling carries the genetic design of the entire universe within its miniscule cellular walls.  for those that succeed, in this ultimate of Darwinian contests, there’s no doubting the breakthrough moment of their herculean effort.  as they first feel the fiery wall of dry heat, capable of searing the struggling lungs of active breathers, the chilies reflexively relax, & passively, cellularly, absorb the carbon dioxide-laden atmosphere and oooommmmm out the most delicious of oxygens.

Thus commencing the life-long symbiotic journey of chili peppers and their far more rapacious pre-existing lung-powered earthly cousins. These chilies, imbued with the natural, life-sustaining forces of Mother Earth herself, smolder in the blazing sun.  capturing the heat, absorbing that fearsome passion, and permeating all foods fortunate enough to rest even momentarily by their side, with their scorchiocity.  they bring such green, they bring such heat, they bring such a spicy tango of exotic flavor that chili-heads frivolously ignore the protection racket threats of rattlesnake venom, tarantula strikes, wild boar charges and gila monster bites to select the finest of these amazing fruits.  small wonder that Peter Piper (once he’d learned to pickle these prized peppers), jumped over the moon, came tumbling down and couldn’t be put back together again.  but wait, softly, is that brightest of lights, discernible to the east, even under the most brilliant of suns, not Zukemono, exploding into oblivion the shade beneath yonder chili plant?  what creative culinary synapsual firings have led her to pursue, plant by plant, the finest available offerings to be had under this crackling heat?

In an instant, Zukemono dematerializes and softly vanishes from the leathering, anhydrous desert.  within that self-same moment she’s comfortably ensconced in her cool moist overflowing playground of a kitchen.  her movements are testimony to a powerful and loving embrace of the all-encompassing reality of Now.  The picked, being pickled, peppers are mostly just bobbing in fragrant fermenting juices, though, a concentrated focus reveals that several seem to be enjoying a leisurely swim (freestyle, naturally) around their bottled pool.  splashing, laughing and simply celebrating their escape from the fearsome forces of the blistering desert.  Exhaling their celebrated capsaicin chemistry, into the breathtakingly flavored pickle bath and inhaling the remarkable emanations from their briny basin.  A partnership of flavors and natural wholesomeness thus accomplished, these playful frolicking capsicums relax into family form; dry off, slip into their pajamas, and don their ever-present nightshades.