Golden light
Food as memory, summer picnics and a recipe for fermented piccalilli brined curry eggs.
In this newsletter I reflect about a dear friend, golden light, summer picnics and the curried eggs my mum used to make. I’ve been reminded how food contains memory. This week’s newsletter follows those threads, ending with a recipe for fermented piccalilli brined curry eggs that celebrates colour, comfort and the people who shape the way we cook.
Hello fermenting friends,
I wrote most of this newsletter almost two weeks ago now, but had to pause on sending it. Its been a whirlwind couple of weeks - of children’s birthdays, alongside friend and family gatherings - but also, the news that a dear friend of mine had died.
I got to know Penny years ago when I worked in a local wholefood store where she frequented as a customer. She then became my acupuncturist. Skilled as a counsellor and a healer, she also gave excellent advice in herbal tinctures, flower essences and Chinese Medicine. In the first week of lockdown she left a tincture in her garden for me, which I’m certain saved me from ending up in hospital when I was struggling with a chest infection.
The tincture contained Goldenseal, a powerful plant that requires care and respect in its use. It is a vivid golden yellow, and that is how I have been remembering her this week: as a bright yellow light.
Penny lived a wonderfully diverse life. With our joint love of the arts, we talked often about her career in the professional theatre as a stage manager. This week’s newsletter is a dedication to her. It’s about theatre, it’s about simplicity, it’s about appreciating what you have here and now, and it’s a recipe for the best fermented picnic eggs you will ever eat!
Thank you for sharing your light with me Penny.
We went to see Othello recently. I love this play. Partly because we studied it at school, but mostly because I got to know the text intimately when I played Desdemona for my Grade 8 speech and drama exam.
“Right, I’m off to watch a woman get strangled!” I announced to my daughter as I left. It was my slightly dramatic attempt to make her feel better about not coming. It worked. She groaned, rolled her eyes at me, and said she might wait until she’s older (which was fortunate as I hadn’t got her a ticket anyway).
But Othello isn’t just about Desdemona’s death, of course. It’s a tragedy of deceit, self-undoing through suspicion, vulnerability to insecurity, jealousy and miscommunication. Multiple lives are destroyed because nobody stops, takes a breath, and questions the stories they are telling themselves.
During the performance I wanted to scream out: “Stop overreacting! Pause. Take a breather! Sit down over a cuppa and just talk about the situation. Surely we can sort this out!” But, of course, I didn’t. Shakespeare had written the ending over 400 years ago, and unfortunately they weren’t taking revisions from the audience.
We sat on fold up chairs that we had carried from the carpark with views of an exceptionally simple, yet beautiful stage which sympathetically blended into the landscape. For once I was grateful of the parched grass as it blended beautifully into the set. Highland cows with horns grazed under the shade of the trees in the distance, sometimes distracting the audience from watching the play itself.
Then everyone opened their picnics. There were murmurings and sideways glances. Hushed assessments of other people’s food. My Sister-in-law turned to me and asked “Who had the poshest picnic”, which set me off giggling. The people beside us were clearly well prepared. They had brought a mosaic-topped table in its original box packaging, no less!
I pointed this out to her, imagining the effort of carrying such a thing some distance from the carpark and through the grounds in the heat.
But then out came all the salads and the sparkling wine. Their little table, suddenly changed their simple snack to a feast. They reclined in their chairs, satisfied. I regretted my initial doubt, which was promptly met with similar envy to Iago. Jealousy…of a little mosaic table…while I sat in a rusty legged chair, food on my lap.
I paused, hearing a voice in my ear. Hang on - wasn’t THIS the message?
That’s right! Don’t let the thing you don’t have distract you from what you do have! Forget the table. Pay attention to what you actually have! Look at what’s on your lap!
I looked down at the box I held. My mother in law had done a beautiful job preparing individual salad boxes. Crisp lettuce, tomatoes, spring onion, creamy hummus, hot smoked salmon, Cooked beetroot, boiled eggs. We dolloped my blood orange kraut on top and it was bliss.
I realised my hands were shaking. Id been rushing around - bottling kimchi, trying to stack too many things into the day - I hadn’t eaten enough. I’d drank too much coffee (again). I was also excited for the the play. I kicked off my shoes, planted my feet on the grass and I took a moment. I held my first forkful in my mouth, breathing through my nose and letting the flavour take over. Beetroot and eggs - simple,seasonal food. So perfect. I could feel my nervous system easing.
It got me thinking of the curried eggs my mum used to make for picnics. She would scoop out the firm yolk and mix it with curry powder, mustard powder, butter and mayonnaise (I think). A retro hang up from the 1970s. We would eat these on a wooden picnic bench surrounded by native trees at Peel Forest. A bottle of Sprite snd a bag of thick crinkly salt and vinegar crisps (or chips as they say in Aotearoa New Zealand ) to accompany ‘the healthy stuff’. We ate this greedily after our returning from walking for hours through the uneven rooty forest tracks.
Some of the best food I’ve ever eaten has been simple, and in the outdoors. There’s something special and transformative about eating el fresco. Removed from the routine of your home environment, and exposed to the elements, you can take a simple salad and elevate it to a higher realm.
Back to Othello and my mouthful of food. Eggs and beetroot. A perfect combination. I swallowed and looked down at my salad - the beetroot staining the eggs and reminded myself to always have kvass eggs on hand for outdoor eating situations.
I’ve written about kvass eggs before, and today I’m opening that post up for you to read. I implore you to make these for your Summer picnics!
Friday ferment #16: beetroot brined eggs
Before you start scrolling…I have an announcement listed after the recipe. If you have ever been on one of my classes (or you want to go on one) make sure you read this!
This week my mind is wandering. I’m thinking about the simplicity of picnics and eggs. I’m thinking about my mum and her curried eggs, which she learnt from her mum, my Gran. I’m thinking about colour. I’m thinking about the sun and golden evening light. I’m thinking about Penny. I’m thinking about sunsets.
Penny was a poet too, and I keep returning to this haiku she wrote:
How silent
The sunset —
A pause between breaths
— Penny Lowery, The Daily Haiku
If kvass eggs are incredible, imagine how good kvass curried eggs would be: eggs pickled in leftover piccalilli brine, then stuffed with the yolks just as my mum made them.
I boiled some eggs and brined them over night in fermented piccalilli brine. The next day we baked potatoes and had these eggs with salad. My son, a mustard lover ate half of them. I should have made more.
Penny, I’m not sure whether you would have loved these eggs it not - you weren’t one for lots of spice. But you did like turmeric - and at the very least, you would have appreciated the colour.
How to make a golden brine to pickle eggs:
Making these pickled eggs is a three part process! You firstly need to create a brine. This is done by fermenting cauliflower florets with spices. Once you have your jar of fermented cauliflower you can strain the brine to pickle your eggs. You also will have fermented cauliflower florets to eat in the side!
I have detailed this three-stage recipe in this document:
Notices
A pause in paid subscriptions:
I’’ve decided to pause the paid subscriptions in August (through to the first week September) to give myself the space to develop the next chapter of this publication.
If you’re a monthly subscriber, you won’t be charged during August. If you’re an annual subscriber, your renewal date will simply move back by just over a month.
I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has subscribed over the past year. Your support has helped me invest in mics, improve the quality of what I create, and feel like there is value in the time it takes to write these newsletters . My hope is that, as this publication grows, it will also help fund free workshop places so that more people can experience the joy of fermentation and seasonal cooking, regardless of their circumstances.
Thank you for believing in what I’m building here. I hope you’ll enjoy what comes next.
Events
SEPTEMBER
The full-day fermentation class at Shillingford Organics on 27th September is SOLD OUT. If you want to go on the waiting list get in touch.
OCTOBER
Sunday 25th October: Support Your Digestion
I’ll be teaming up with Zoe Rosenthall for an afternoon exploring fermentation and acupressure for digestion.
Through hands-on fermentation and guided acupressure, you’ll discover simple seasonal rituals to support yourself and your digestion as we move into the colder months.
Leave with practical skills, a jar of your own sauerkraut (that you made!), acupressure points to support digestion and a deeper appreciation of how food, touch and the changing seasons can work together.
Tickets are limited, and on-sale NOW via Eventbrite. You can also email me to book directly and save the booking fee (redearthferments@gmail.com).
If you are curious, and want to hear more Zoe and I will be hosting a Substack Live together on 10 August, where we’ll chat about the inspiration behind the workshop, what we’ll be covering, and answer any questions you might have. I’d love you to join us.
Zoe is a Shiatsu and bodywork practitioner with over 15 years’ experience helping people connect with their bodies through therapeutic touch. Her training includes Shiatsu, Advanced Clinical Massage, Myofascial Release, Cranial and TMJ therapy, Oncology Massage and Acupressure Facial Therapy.
I’m really excited to work with her, and weave the practice of fermentation into bodywork.
NOVEMBER
Saturday 7 November: Demo and tasting
I’ll be presenting a fermentation demonstration and tasting at the Exmouth Healing Centre where I’ll show you how to make your own sauerkraut, plus you will get to taste plenty of ferments and have lots of time for questions.
07 Nov 2026, 14:30 – 16:00
Exmouth Healing Centre, 37 The Strand, Exmouth, EX8 1AQ
Tickets are through East DevonAlive: Fermentation Demonstration & Tasting Presented By Rose Whitehouse - 7th November 2026 | East Devon Alive
I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!
As always, I love to hear from you, and see what you are fermenting! I’d also love to hear ideas from you what you are wanting more of in this newsletter. Please leave your comments below.
Love and kraut,
Sorry to hear about your friend Penny.
Curried eggs, this brought back memories, my Mum I think still makes them and they're everyone's favourite. Probably similar recipe and also passed down from Nana. And probably also in the CWA (Country Women's Association - Australia) cookbook which I just saw was from 1937!
What a wonderful way to remember Penny and fond food memories