I read a recipe for fermenting carrots and ginger. The recipe reads to leave on the counter for 2-3 days and then refrigerate. Little did the author know that my apartment’s version of “room temperature” is a sauna.

Heat plays an important role in fermentation. At the right temperature the bacteria do their magic on what it is you’re trying to change - in my case, a beet. A little warmer and the bacteria have a “Burning Man” style party in the jar and go nuts; too hot and they die. On the other hand, too cold and they sleep.

Recipes are written in absolute ways, yet they don’t take into account for what’s real to you.

A good reminder that nothing in our world is absolute, except the rule that “nothing is absolute.”