Kombucha, my heavens!

Kombucha, kombucha - a story for my SF roomies and their kombucha

On the way back from Pondicherry we stopped in Auroville. It was a town started by Mother and Sri Aurobindo in 1968 with the hope to realize human unity. The idea was that it is a nation for all nations where people would come toghether to work, learn and teach. Sounds nice. Anyone want to go stay for a couple weeks and let me know how it is?

We arrived too late to see the golden sphere, Matrimandir, at the center of the town, but got to indulge in organic food! I was in heaven. Smoked tofu salad - oh my! I thought it was a side salad. That it was not. It was a main plate full of lettuce and tofu. Suzie got a tomato salad that was about 5 bright red, tasty tomatoes piled high.

We couldn't finish all the food, but I couldn't bear for it to even be composted so scrounged up the plastic that they tomatoes came in and a paper bag to take the tomatoes and wheat bread.

There was also a shop where I stocked up on peanut butter, vegan cookies, organic shampoo..... the list goes on and I understood how Auroville supports itself. The best surprise was kombucha!!!!!! Made me think of my roomies in SF and the large bottles of homebrew.

Here is a picture of Paula with the kombucha headed for fermentation with sweetened tea and the paddy Bacterium xylinum and yeast cultures.

Later at the airport we were in waiting in the restaurant. We confused the staff of 10 who all waited on us because there were only 1-2 other parties in there. Mahin ordered 2 soups, I ordered just a fresh lime soda, and Suzie and Liz shared a stuffed parantha. I pulled out the tomatoes and bread. The waiter came over and asked, 'Is this food from your country?" I thought he meant that I'd brought it off the plane.

When we went to go through security, my bags got stopped. "Wine, wine," the guards proclaimed, pointing at the kombucha bottles. 'No, not wine... Kombucha," I explained to the blank stares. Learned that it was not allowed to take in liquids - I suppose I could of guessed. So then I was stuck because I didn't have a bag that zipped or closed up. I was told I could have a box, but was denied by the check-in counter and the scanners. About the same time I realized that one was leaking, so it needed drinking. I got a lot of stares as I wandered around looking for paper while chugging kombucha from a bottle that was seemingly a wine bottle to the average Joe.

To deal with the other bottle, I asked a guy sitting next to a 2 foot tall pile of paper for a foot stack and he gave me about 10 pieces. Between that and some newspaper on a chair, it got all wrapped and taped. The baggage handler was very nice and carried it rather than dumping it onto the conveyer belt. So I crossed my fingers, continued to chug and ran towards the security gate to avoid missing the flight.

The efforts paid off. The kombucha arrived safely!