“How do regular people make this much tempeh?” I asked Ming.
I was in our kitchen, overwhelmed, wishing for advice from anywhere. Repeatedly I was making marinade but running out of space in my pyrex dishes, needing to start another two dishes of marinade in order to accommodate all that copious tempeh.
“They don’t,” Ming said.
It felt kinda harsh. I took it as a blow–it’s that PMS time of month, where I feel others’ words in a critical way.
Then I thought for a minute and realized that Ming is right. Regular people are not making this quantity of tempeh.
regular
Who are regular people?
- a houseless person spare changing
- soccer mom
- janitor
- an elder who lives alone
- school kid
- pet sitter
- a college student living in a sorority house
- our downstairs neighbor with two little dogs
- random auto mechanic
- landscaper
- baker
- IT person
- farmer
- preschool teacher
- oober driver
- line cook
- teacher
- trucker
- medical assistant
- exotic dancer
- scientist
- data wrangler
- person dying of a long-term illness
- recycling worker
Wow, that was mind bending, trying to imagine regular people.
I’ve heard that normal is a myth. Maybe I get the concept, but I’ve felt like an outlier for so long that I’ve developed some crankiness about legibility and power through cultural legitimacy. Normal might not be real, but the hierarchy of perceived normal hurts me every day.
donations
It’s a funny life. I only have that much tempeh because of a local soyfoods factory, a donation to the radical faeries, and a huge capacity for free food, especially free protein. Definitely I’m a dumpster witch.
How many pounds of tempeh will you put up with? I will accept a vast amount! If my freezer is stuffed, I will seek out others’ freezers.
Kinda like the question of how many free apples I’m willing to process. It’s a year for tons of apples and pears–more than I could harvest. I have around 15 pounds of apples from my lover’s tree in my kitchen right now, waiting to be turned into apple sauce, and waiting to be peeled, cored, and frozen for apple crisp for Food Not Bombs.
love
What are you willing to do for love, to feed strangers, and to use the bounty God hands to you? She may or may not take it personally. One way or another it will return to Parent Earth.
I sometimes wish for more counter space and additional arms. Ming wonders how I go through that much tamari, smoked paprika, and olive oil.
It’s an honor to feed people, and every meal we eat made from free ingredients is a dodging of empire, if not a dissolving of it.
Big Grocery doesn’t care about my tempeh endeavors, and I’m a drop in the bucket of normal people. But let me tell you how I do it.
gf vegan baked tempeh for most anyone who can do soy
- olive oil
- sesame oil
- miso
- tamari
- orange juice
- garlic
- turmeric
- brown mustard
- red wine
- apple cider vinegar maybe
- maple syrup or molasses
- strawberry or blackberry jam, if I’m feeling fancy
Bake it till it’s dark brown, flipping it once, keeping your oven temp around 400 or 350 depending.
