We had the privilege of collaborating with Professor Wen-Te Chang during a workshop held as part of the Museum of Edible Earth exhibit at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts(NTMoFA). This inspiring event offered participants a unique introduction into earth eating practices, enriched by the knowledge and healing philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
Photo by Wu Chi-Yu
Prof. Wen-Te Chang still remembers the curious look he received from visitors when he first introduced Gypsum as medicine. “Most people assume that Gypsum is used only in construction or sculpting,” he smiles, “but they have also eaten it – in tofu!”
“Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on thousands of years of observation, experimentation, and empirical knowledge,” notes Prof. Chang. “The earliest texts date back to 200 BCE. These foundational writings include not only herbal and animal based medicines but also extensive use of mineral substances sourced from earth.”
Photo by Siang-Wun Ye
TCM has long embraced the healing power of natural elements, including a wide range of minerals. Over 200 minerals have been recorded and some of them are actively used in treatment today. These minerals are prepared in various ways: some are ground into powders, others boiled with herbs or transformed into medicinal pastes, some can even be consumed raw.
“How are minerals evaluated and understood within TCM practices?” masharu inquires. “Each mineral carries its thermal energy – cold, cool, warm, and hot. Further they are categorised by taste – sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or pungent. These qualities determine their therapeutic effects,” remarks the Professor.
During the conversation, Prof. Chang introduces six minerals commonly used in modern clinical practices:
Gypsum (Shi Gao) is known for its cooling and anti-inflammatory properties. With its cold and sweet-pungent flavour, it helps to clear internal heat.
Talc (Hua Shi) has a smooth texture and a mildly sweet taste. It cools the body and promotes urination. Ideal for relieving summer heat.
Calcite (Fang Jie Shi) is valued for its ability to detoxify the body and aid with heat release. Though it tastes bitter with a hint of pungency, Prof. Chang offers a surprising comparison: “It is crunchy – almost like biting into crystal sugar!”
Sample Talc (Hua Shi) Photo by masharuSample Calcite (Fang Jie Shi) Photo by masharu
Red Halloysite (Chi Shi Zhi) is a warm and astringent mineral known for treating diarrhea and absorbing toxins. Many people compare its distinctive spicy, earthy flavor to that of traditional Chinese spices.
Furnace soil (Fu Long Gan) is harvested from the burned bottom of traditional wood-burning stoves in central China. With a warm nature and bitter-pungent flavor, it is used to treat internal bleeding.
Actinolite (Yang Qi Shi) supports reproductive health, treats impotence, and strengthens kidney function. It carries warm thermal nature, reinforcing the idea that warmth stimulates energy and vitality.
Sample Red Halloysite (Chi Shi Zhi) Photo by masharuSample Actinolite (Yang Qi Shi) Photo by masharu
Although in TCM, the consumption of earth is an integrated practice due to its potential beneficial properties, in the Netherlands it can be considered unusual or off-limits.
“Maybe it is time we change that to: eat earth for your own health!”, Prof. Chang asserts.
Interview with Heiner Cuhls, Founder of Native Power: Exploring the Potential of Earth Consumption, composed by Despoina Koukouve
We had the privilege of speaking with Heiner Cuhls, the founder of Native Power, an association based in Germany, focusing on sustainable heating solutions in composting. In this conversation, we delved into the intriguing world of consuming earth derived substances, leonardite, humic acid and zeolite, as well as their potential impact on human health.
masharu & Despoina: Can you tell us about leonardite and its significance?
Heiner Cuhls: Leonardite is a remarkable substance derived from stone pits, an oxidized version of lignite, a mineraloid rich in humic acids. What makes leonardite so unique is its rich composition of beneficial compounds, like humic and fulvic acids as well as minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron. This substance is harvested by workers who are trained to identify its presence in the stone pits. After extraction, leonardite undergoes a specialized process, from purifying the material to grinding it to a powder, to make it usable in various applications, as human supplement, soil supplement because it is rich in humic acids, complex organic molecules formed from the long-term decomposition of plant and animal matter, that play a crucial role in soil health and plant growth. Its benefits are not just limited to soil improvement but also extend to human health, offering an interesting perspective on nutrition and well-being. It’s not something you come across every day, as it’s pure form is not readily accessible to the average person, but the processed product is widely more accesible.
masharu & Despoina: You’ve experimented with consuming supplements derived from earth materials. Can you share your experiences?
Heiner Cuhls: Yes, I’ve been quite interested in the idea of listening to what my body needs and consuming supplements with the purpose of improving my health and the way I feel. My curiosity led me to try supplements like leonardite and zeolite.
Over a six-month period, I took leonardite and zeolite supplements and noticed subtle yet notable improvements in my overall well-being. While I can’t claim any drastic changes, I believe these supplements contribute positively to my holistic health regimen. The key is ensuring that these supplements are bioavailable and effective in the body, which means that they are prepared in a way that the human body can fully absorb them and they don’t go to waste.
masharu & Despoina: Can you describe how do you consume leonardite and if it is possible to eat it in its pure form, without additional preparations?
Heiner Cuhls: Leonardite is grinded very finely and it is more or less a powder. So you also can drink it. For example, this powder you can consume with any kind of smoothie or breakfast drink. Just mix it into water and take a shot of this, and it contains a lot of humic acids. The humic acids are then responsible for the distribution of minerals in the body, so that is then the kind of combination, between food grade and humic acid, which is giving you the most impact on your health, especially if you use additives.
You can eat it in a pure form, however, it will dry out your mouth and it is also a little bit crunchy in texture. Thus, if you want to munch it, you will have the feeling of a spoon of sand in your mouth.
masharu & Despoina: What are the potential benefits of consuming earth-based supplements like leonardite?
Heiner Cuhls: The potential benefits of these supplements lie in their ability to augment our mineral intake. Leonardite, for example, is rich in minerals and humic acids that are essential for our bodies. By providing these minerals, it can help foster vitality and resilience. Additionally, I believe these substances can play a role in detoxifying the body and improving overall health by aiding in the distribution of essential minerals throughout.
masharu & Despoina: What led you to explore the consumption of substances like leonardite and zeolite?
Heiner Cuhls: My interest in this area comes from my extensive research into soil health and its benefits. Understanding how soil health impacts plant health naturally led me to consider its implications for human health. This curiosity drove me to experiment with different types of soil and mineral supplements. Because of my personal philosophy, I have a relatively healthy lifestyle and have not visited the doctor in more than 40 years. Therefore I cannot attest to experiencing dramatic changes. However, I believe these substances have the potential to improve health in subtle but meaningful ways, possibly playing a major role in my personal health journey.
masharu & Despoina: What are your final thoughts on the potential of earth consumption for human health?
Heiner Cuhls: While the concept of consuming earth-based substances might seem unusual, I believe there’s potential for health benefits. The key lies in proper research and ensuring that these substances are safe and effective for human consumption. By exploring these unconventional sources of nutrition, we might discover new ways to enhance our overall well-being.
Soil Health and Its Broader Impacts
masharu & Despoina: What are your thoughts on the current treatment of soil and its impact on crops and animals?
Heiner Cuhls: The current treatment of soil is concerning. Intensive agricultural practices and the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have degraded soil health significantly. Healthy soil is the foundation of our entire food system, and when it’s compromised, the health of crops and animals suffers too. Poor soil health leads to nutrient-deficient crops, which in turn impacts the animals that feed on those crops and ultimately affects human health.
masharu & Despoina: How do you believe we can improve soil health?
Heiner Cuhls: Improving soil health requires a shift towards more sustainable and regenerative farming practices. This includes reducing the use of chemical inputs, incorporating organic matter, and utilizing cover crops to protect and enrich the soil. By focusing on restoring soil health, we can produce more nutritious crops, which will benefit both animals and humans. It’s a holistic approach that ensures the sustainability of our food systems and the health of all living beings involved.
Regarding the upcoming ‘Compost as Superfood’ project
masharu & Despoina: After discussing ‘Compost as Superfood’ with you, could you clarify your stance on compost’s role in health?
Heiner Cuhls: I think the idea of making compost edible for human consumption is interesting but perhaps misplaced. Compost’s primary purpose is to improve soil health, which in turn supports healthier crops. I believe the focus should be on enhancing the nutritional quality of the soil rather than consuming compost directly.
masharu & Despoina: Do you see any potential in developing compost as a superfood?
Heiner Cuhls: While the concept of compost as a superfood is intriguing, I think it’s more practical to focus on how compost can enhance soil quality and thereby improve the nutritional content of the food we grow. By ensuring our soil is rich in nutrients, we indirectly support better human health through the consumption of healthier crops. The real potential lies in using compost to create a more sustainable and nutritious food production system. We need to bring our knowledge which in many cases is unconscious into consciousnes and need to remember how close our blood molecules are to the plant chlorophyl which is the plant blood. That is giving us the all-important answer: “healthy soil, healthy plants healthy animals, healthy humans”
My birthplace and childhood home is the seaside city of Dar-es-Salaam, which is located in Tanzania, East Africa. It’s a city rich both culturally and economically. This gave the opportunity to experience different aspects of the world while growing up. A brief history of Dar-es salaam before I talk about soil eating; it was considered to be a part of the Swahili Coast, which was a civilization that came to flourishment in the first millennium after the Common Era (Bita et al, 2022). As a result of assertions that it had connections with the Roman world as a trade route connecting Roman Empire and Asia (Beaujard, 2010). Additionally, Dar-es-salaam is a port city and because of this, numerous individuals from inner regions and those from far lands made it their home and perhaps soil eating tradition came to Dar-es-salaam through migration.
In a local market of the city, or “Genge”, they sold red soil called “pemba” as a snack. This soil is usually hard as rock, and it’s made in block shape. I don’t know how it is prepared but soon as you bite the rock it starts to melt in your mouth and this earthy aroma of rusted iron takes over. I grew up eating this soil not regularly but at least once a month. I found it very tasty. Pregnant women were the biggest buyers of the soil, and thus it became an indicator of being pregnant. When I went to buy soil in the market, the trader asked: “Are you pregnant?” One day I asked my mom why pregnant women eat soil, and she told me that it makes them and the baby strong due to its high level of iron and calcium. I took my mom’s word for it, and my love for soil eating grew. In 2020, I moved to the Netherlands, where I initially struggled to find red soil until I came across the Museum of Edible Earth through an online search. The museum is based in Amsterdam, which is not too far from my school premises. I reached out and was able to contact the owner who introduced me to many different edible soils from across the globe. At first I thought there must be an historical connection for all these places that practice this tradition. May be in the future I can work on preparing an ethnographic study of soil eating cultures because there not many available in academia. I wholeheartedly suggest to anyone to try soil eating practices at least once. Not only does it make me feel good, it also uplifts my energy and vibration.
BEAUJARD, P. (2010). From Three Possible Iron-Age World-Systems to a Single Afro-Eurasian World-System. Journal of World History, 21(1), 1–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20752924
Bita et al., (2022). Sociocultural and economic aspects of the ancient Roman reported metropolis of Rhapta on the coast of Tanzania: Some Archaeological and historical perspectives, International Journal of Environment and Geoinformatics (IJEGEO), 10(1):028–040, doi. 10.30897/ijegeo.1119368
Evoke the history of colonialism between Indonesia – Netherlands; this project tries to respond it with approach of food and social design. As we know that colonialism started by the searching of spices, sugar, coffee and tobacco (for food purposed).
We collaborated with independent artist, masharu, and ceramist, Lonny van Ryswyck, from Atelier NL. The core of our collaboration starts with clay, which is related to issues linking to the earth, soil, dirt, land, and ground. I call this movement ‘Claynialism’. This is an effort to re-design ‘clay’ with all its particularities as a ‘cool yet humble identity’, especially for youth. This project is not an effort to occupy land or region; rather, it is a collaborative effort between districts and countries
Hampo – traditional clay snack sold in Jatiwangi.
Jatiwangi is one of 16 subdistricts in Majalengka Regency. Since 1905 Jatiwangi recognized as the biggest rooftile producer in Indonesia (probably in Southeast Asia). For Jatiwangi, there is a metaphor that Jatiwangi people eat from rooftiles (means they’ve got a money from rooftile business industy). Meanwhile there is an ancient tradition in northern Java that people eat roasted clay as a snack and medicine. Few people is still eating clay and sell it in the traditional market.
Traditional clay snack Hampo, sold in Jatiwangi market.
Geographically; Majalengka is a small town in transition of the colossal construction project neither government or private. Majalengka have several big project such as; Kertajati International Airport, garment and textile industry, Jatiwangi Square Shopping Area, Jatigede Big Dams and Toll Road Cipali (Cikopo – Palimanan) as a connection between Majalengka and Jakarta. Now by new toll road, we only need about 2 hour from Majalengka to Jakarta (before we need about 5/6 hours). Garment factory come and slowly seize the rooftile workers to move to the garment factory. For now, not a few people in Jatiwangi have no contact and touch with clay anymore. This is all about land, earth, ground, dirt and clay.
Since 2005 we start to make several project and activity in the artist initiative named Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF) such as, artist in residency, workshop, exhibition, festival, radio and TV community broadcasting, monthly discussion, etc. We make musical instrument from clay, rooftile, ceramic and material around the village. We held Ceramic Music Festival; involving the villagers to make music from clay we made together.
All things we do in Jatiwangi is trying to make people and neighbor in Jatiwangi happier and get in touch again with the clay as their identity. Hope they can be realize by themselves the bad and good impact to facing the colossal construction in full consciously and happiness. We also want to tell the Jatiwangi people that clay as an identity of Jatiwangi still has a dignity.
Jatiwangi art Factory, 2016
Claynialism is a regional development strategy with the collective consciousness based on dignity of its homeland identity. Claynialism presented by the Agreement of Bilateral Design between Majalengka and Eindhoven. Claynialism will be implemented for consideration of Majalengka regional development.
The project was realised in 2015 within Age of Wonderland, a social innovation program by Hivos, Baltan Laboratories and Dutch Design Week addressing the intertwined and complex issues around our global food system. Curated by Arne Hendriks.
Today we meet as teacher and student(s). We, hungry for more information, opened our mouths to the indescribable taste. Not many have consensually eaten Earth before. Putting a chunk of clay into one’s mouth challenged the tasting method, enforcing more intention on the seemingly similar nuances.
“Have you ever eaten Earth? Enter at your own risk.”
I HAVE NO TASTEBUDS
76.85 percent of my personality assumes that I have good tastebuds. I trust them so much that I got them involved in my artistic practice, yet I cannot tell apart the chalk from rural Ukraine and the one from the shores of England. (Upon further reflection, I remember the Ukrainian chalk tasting smoother and more pleasant.) The rest seemed hardly different from each other. I found myself to be most attracted to pink and red clays. The majority I have eaten were white. There was one Indian baked clay that looked like blue cheese gone punk. I like its black (goth) embellishments and smokey taste.
Taste < Texture
Tiny clay grains could easily travel down a river, not always assimilated by size. Surprisingly fizzy.
Two discussions were happening: One about food safety and the other about cyclicality. From dust we rise, to dust we return. Of course, this is a rather romantic notion: I would consider myself a hydrofeminist , and water being the interconnective carrier seems attractive. Here, however (and very naturally), the idea of earth/clay(/perhaps even Gaya) became the main connector between (living) matter. A while ago, I encountered the thought of food consumption as a method of reincarnation. Based on what I have heard today, this ritualistic outlook is connected to earth consumption on a large scale. Food, however, being a more mundane subject, is not viewed through a similar-looking class. Cells communicate with the molecules within their proximity.
One of the dangers of eating Earth (as pointed out by masharu, as well) would be the cause of mineral deficiency when consuming too much. Osmosis is a powerful tool. Our blood is a saline solution, a carrier of minerals, all bound together with water.
During a lunch break, it is easy to become critical of tasting unpasteurized clay with living organisms still buried within & consequently proceeding to take a bite of a supermarket sandwich. Hypocrisy is splendid, and our one-dimensional way of food perception is marvellous.
Perhaps the biggest lesson I could take away from today would be a critical view of western food culture. 100 grams of purified edible clay is being sold for 10€. EU bans on using the word “edible” while describing clay while openly selling foodstuffs with skyrocketing amounts of sugar is pure ridicule. Sitting down with a group of strangers eating “inorganic” matter (as my chemistry teacher in primary school would describe it) arose a strange feeling of open doors towards completely new nooks and crannies of the (in)edible surrounding world.
Everything is edible, some things just once.
(written on 5th of March, 2023)
Going into this project week, I had no idea how influential it would become on my artistic practice. Over a year later, I still reminisce over the magical experiences masharu and the whole group mediated. Lately, I have been thinking about the story and act of becoming, how food and the things people eat play with the ideas of becoming a part of an environment (I have been eating a tremendous amount of Icelandic diary in the form of Skyr as an attempt to become Iceland). The realisation and dynamics I nowadays maintain with my practice and environment have a tangible origin within this workshop.
A grounding culinary experience: Museum of Edible Earth founder masharu visits soil cuisine restaurant by Toshio Tanabe
For more than 10 years, Ne Quittez Pas has been recognized in media for their highly praised soil-based menu. After thoroughly enjoying Tanabe’s flavorful and earthy cuisine, masharu sat down with the chef himself to talk about the background, challenges and insights behind their respective projects.
The natural craving to eat earth
Tanabe: So, how did you find today’s soil course?
masharu: Wonderful! From the soil soufflé au foie gras to the main dish with rice and typical Japanese tubercles like gobo (edible burdock), everything was delicious. And I liked that some of the courses were presented in unglazed ceramic plates and bowls.
Tanabe: I find that the ceramic helps enhance the earthy taste.
masharu: Definitely! I also noticed the different temperatures, textures and aromas. Some of them reminded me of rain, wood, or even licorice. It has been one of the best moments of my trip to Japan. I have wanted to come to your restaurant since 2013, when I first discovered your soil cuisine while researching earth-cooking practices. I have brought some of my samples for you today. Please try them if you’d like!
Tanabe: Thank you! These are mainly clay right? From Congo, France… They taste good… Why did you start eating and researching earth?
masharu: It all started from my own desires, I just had this urge to eat soil myself. Looking back, I think it may be connected to the fact that I’ve lived in cities for all of my life. Only in my childhood I spent summers in the countryside. Eating earth was an intuitive craving to be more connected with nature, with our planet. Since I started the Museum of Edible Earth project, I feel that I finally live life being true to myself. My work is something I believe in, not something I do just for money or to make a living.
Tanabe: For me, the idea of tasting soil came naturally, too. When I started as a chef, I traveled all around Japan together with an agricultural specialist, searching for the best quality vegetables. He would always talk about the soil, its quality, composition, and how it affects the food that we grow in it. He also told me that it could be eaten. For instance, when you plug out a carrot, it has soil on it, right? If you shake it lightly, the sand comes off, and then you can eat it just like that.
masharu: Did you start using it in your restaurant from the beginning?
Tanabe: No, I first introduced the soil course 10 years ago, when I was asked to present an unusual menu in a TV cooking contest. The idea came to me suddenly: I boiled soil and prepared a sauce with it. Not only did I win the prize, but from the next day, I received daily calls from people from all over the country telling me: “I want to try your dish!”. That was when I learned that there are many who are interested in soil and earth.
What we do to ourselves, what we do to our planet
masharu: I have been investigating earth-eating practices and traditions in many countries, and in most places, people just consume it in its pure form. This is why your soil cuisine is strikingly unique.
I have collaborated with cooks only a few times. Once, I worked together with an artist to produce clay ice cream, but earth is not recognized as a food product in the Netherlands, so we could only label it as an artistic performance and the ice cream could not be sold to the general public. In my earth-tasting workshops, people can taste the soil at their own risk, but it is nothing like a restaurant.
Tanabe: The soil we offer in our restaurant comes from very specific places in Japan and goes through very strict tests. It is also thoroughly heated. We only cook with black and white topsoil extracted from 5 to 10 meters underground in Tochigi prefecture, and just recently started experimenting with human made soil produced by Kanazawa Bio laboratory in Kyushu. The ground in Japan is polluted with pesticides, wastewater, and so on, so it is very hard to find edible soil.
masharu: It makes you question what we are doing to ourselves, and what we are doing to our Earth.
For instance, there is extensive debate and research on whether it is healthy to eat earth, but we can easily buy clearly unhealthy products in any supermarket. Sometimes I feel both self-destruction and planet destruction are very normalized in our societies.
The Museum of Edible Earth makes even more evident the ongoing destruction of the natural environment. For example, the collection includes many Ukrainian samples from extraction places that have been terribly polluted because of the war. It won’t be possible in our lifetime to get them anymore, at least not for human consumption. We take the Earth’s immutability for granted, but it changes faster than we might think, and us humans have a significant impact on our environment.
A citizen of the world
Tanabe: I agree. And I think that what and how we eat definitely shapes our relationship to the environment. Even if we tend to forget it, humans are natural beings, and the act of eating connects us to the natural world.
masharu: Eating earth evokes in me this feeling of being grounded. It makes me feel connected to different places so that I become a citizen of the world. When I talk to people who eat earth, most mention traditions, cravings… But some also experience transcendental experiences, like dreams and memories. As humans, our roots link back to the African continent. We have changed since then, but the whole process is ingrained in us. The fact that I was born in Russia or now live in the Netherlands is just the last bit of the whole story, the most superficial layer. In the end, our roots, our planet, everything is shared.
This is also why it is so important for the Museum to be mobile. It is a collection of samples from all over the world, so I find it’s not right for it to stay in one place. The element of exchange is also essential in this project, which is why I have brought samples for you today, and would like to ask for some of your soil in exchange!
Tanabe: I will gladly give you some of my soil, of course! I’m glad it will become part of your collection. It means many different people will get to know about Japan’s soil, and my restaurant.
masharu: Yes. The mobility of the Museum allows it to reach out to literally any type of visitor. It goes out to the people to meet them! Part of the target audience is the people living in the cities, people making the decisions who sometimes don’t touch ground a lot, but in reality, it is open to everybody. Everybody is important because we are human and we are held by the planet earth. Earth is something that should not be exclusive.
Tanabe: No matter what culture, nationality or background, we all came from the Earth in the end, just like the rest of living beings. Whether we eat it or not, it is a fact that we cannot live without it.
masharu: Yes. We are walking this Earth, we live on this Earth, we will go back to Earth.
In 2021, I graduated from Academie Minerva and I was eager to get into an art scene that is related to art and science. I approached and met with masharu who has a very unique artistic narrative relating to the culture of eating earth. Wanting to start an internship with them, I studied about the Museum of Edible Earths and the collection of earths that was collected from many countries. Interestingly, learning about this has led me to remember about a unique kind of earth found in Thailand and also research into the cultures and usage that many Thais and I have forgotten.
When I first entered and viewed the collection of earths on the Museum of Edible Earths website, one of the earth samples caught my attention. That sample is Cascarilla Havana from Cuba. The earth sample is white, has a chalk like texture, and shaped like ice-cream that was squeezed out from a machine. I realized that it looks exactly like a kind of earth product that is widely used in Thailand, a material that I have forgotten since I left my home country to study in Europe.
This Thai earth I was talking about is marl clay, or what we call “Din-Sor-Pong“ in Thai. For most Thais, Din-Sor-Pong is widely known for its cosmetic usage, and the culture of dissolving the earth in water and applying the mixture on the skin to cool down the body temperature. The marl liquid mixture is also used in many kinds of activities and ceremonies such as applying a small mark on the forehead of a wedding couple, or applying the clay on people’s bodies as an act of playing during the Songkran festival (water festival). In my personal experience, I was always fascinated in how Din-Sor-Pong is one of the artistic mediums in traditional Thai art. In the Buddhist elementary school that I attended in Bangkok, I learned the technique in which a drawing on paper can be transferred to other surfaces, such as walls or gongs, using the white marl powder.
Since Cascarilla Havana is one of the edible earths, I was curious if Din-Sor-Pong is also consumable. I began researching the place where most of the marl in Thailand is harvested, a province called Lopburi. I soon learned about the salted Din-Sor-Pong duck eggs. The duck eggs are covered with the mixture of marl clay and salt as a preservation technique, and this is a popular product exported to many parts of Thailand. However, when the egg is consumed, the shell and salted Din-Sor-Pong layer are removed. In this case the earth is only indirectly consumed.
Beside this, I found two interesting stories about Thai earth eating from unreliable sources on the internet. The first one is about a poor family that couldn’t afford normal food, so they consume Din-Sor-Pong as a replacement. Another story I found is about an old Thai medical book that talks about mixing marl with herbs for consumption. This information led me to search for a copy of the book and find out about the evidence of earth eating in the past.
The medical book that I was looking for is called “ตำราโอสถนารายณ์” which translate to “The Medical Book of King Narai”. It was published in 1917, and I was doubtful about finding this evidence online. Luckily, the entire book was uploaded into Wikipedia and I was able to download and view it. On page 18, the book contains several recipes for keeping the body hydrated during a fever. One of them states “add sugarcane pulp, Frankincense, Golden Shower heart wood, and grated Rose wood to a pot filled with boiling water. Then, add grilled Din-Sor-Pong to the mixture to finish the preparation. Let the patient slowly take sips from the drink will help keep the body hydrated.” This piece of text shows the evidence of how marl was once a medical ingredient added to a drink and directly consumed into the body.
Din-Sor-Pong is mentioned in recipe number 36, page 18, in the Medical Book of King Narai.
The information that I found in The Medical Book of King Narai has led me to the conclusion that Din-Sor-Pong is edible and also suggested that there might be medical benefits to the body. Scientifically, it seems that little is known about the effects of eating marl. I believe that there must be more to the earth eating culture and knowledge that we have lost over time. To me, it was amazing that learning about the Museum of Edible Earth has inspired me to research and discover the information that many Thais never know. I hope that the artistic research of masharu will also inspire many scientists and researchers in Thailand and also other parts of the world to further study about this inspiring topic and reveal the truth of the forgotten earth eating culture. This research effort would eventually raise awareness of the public about the value of uncontaminated nature which is fundamental to the long run sustainability of our environment and bodies.
It is said that there are areas where you can eat “soil” casually like a snack, all over the world. I’ve heard that there are cases where people instinctively want minerals and eat them due to anemia, but it was the first time to hear that people enjoy eating earth as a luxury item. If you look at your feet, there is so much ground, and wouldn’t you be excited to think that you can eat all of this for free?
A long time ago, I read in Hiroshi Motomiya’s manga “Great Famine” about how to survive the famine by drinking something called “earth porridge”, which is made by extracting only nutrients from the soil. I found it incredible that the ancestors had devised such a method from experience in the days when it was not possible to learn academic basis. The soil porridge is a wisdom to eat something that is not originally edible, which is called famine food to overcome emergencies where food cannot be secured.
At the same time Ainu people (native folks in the Northern Japan) use “diatomaceous earth” as their daily food. Diatomaceous earth is the Ainu word for “chi-e-toy,” which means “we, eat, and soil.” This “earth we eat” is boiled in water. After the petioles of Hanaud, young stems of urajirotade, and scales of black lily are crushed and added to it, along with animal or fish oil. This dish is known as “chikaripe” in Sakhalin. It seems that it was called “retaskep” in the northeastern part of Hokkaido and “rataskep” in the southwestern part.
The fact that the dishes are made with the same ingredients but have different names means that people in each village have noticed that diatomaceous earth can be eaten, and have evolved to suit their tastes by using the flora and fauna that can be harvested in that area as a “local dish”. They said the dish was “sweet” and “there is no better treat than this.”
In the tradition of Ainu diatomaceous earth is often mixed with edible wild plants. Using diatomaceous earth is effective in removing wild grass lye and neutralizing animal fish oil moderately. Furthermore, diatomaceous earth is said to have the effect of adding “thickness” to the soup.
I personally imagine that this “thickness” contributed to the feeling of fullness with a small amount of ingredients, as well as to maintaining the the soup warm, especially in extremely cold and difficult to keep enough food regions. In any case, I admire their experience and wisdom to maintain life in grueling conditions for surviving.
I am a geologist – the earth is my business. As a soil science student, I remember tasting soil as a formal practice, part of the obligatory curriculum. Soil is a mixture of three components – sand, clay, and organics – the latter often called humus, not to be confused with hummus. Sand is very different from clay. It is not possible to bake bricks from sand. Sand needs a far higher temperature in an oven, and it inevitably would melt and end as slag material. Contrary to belief, a cat’s litter box is not filled with sand – sand does not absorb excretions. There is a special type of volcanic clay for that purpose, called attapulgite.
The flesh inside the mouth is sensitive and can distinguish different textures and materials well. It is easy to discern clay from sand in the mouth, because of the mineralogical difference between the two. Clay produces a slick sensation, while sand, on the other hand, scours the gums – the latter is even proverbial in Dutch.
With practice, it is possible to become a professional soil taster, discerning percentages of clay in a sample up to the 10 percent level of precision! I have known may soil-tasting researchers and none experienced any side effects. Nowadays, professional tasting is replaced by objective laboratory analysis. Courses on the subject by oral intake are obsolete. Soil tasting had a long history, though, before it was taught in academies. The clay content of agricultural topsoil was, for many centuries before the introduction of fertilizer, a measure of eld quality. Clay can absorb, and subsequently relinquish, not only water, but also essential nutrients for crop growth. Soil tasting, therefore, was a standard procedure in assessment of land value for taxation, sale or inheritance. This is still reflected in the Dutch word slikken, signifying as a verb “to take in” and as a plural noun “mudflats.” The singular noun slik means “mud,” but in many Dutch dialects also “sweets for sucking.”
Soil-tasting looks like wine tasting; do not swallow after rolling the sample around in the mouth, but, rather, spit it out. There is however one drawback in soil tasting; the humic organic component, is not easily detected, apparently because it is experienced by the mocusa similar to vegetable food. And not being a mineral, it may contain germs and (even worse) the eggs of organisms. It was these eggs that up to a half century ago posed a severe health risk to half of the country.
The Netherlands can be roughly split up in a clay-half (the northwestern part) and a sand-half (the southeastern part). It turned out that about half of the inhabitants on the sand-half suffered from permanent infection by intestinal worms, Ascaris roundworms. This parasitic worm can migrate through the human body causing all kinds of complications, some of them fatal. In those days, there were, of course, ef cient cures to get rid of these unwelcome fellow travelers. I do remember one medicine in particular because it was chocolate avored, a rare treat during the war. A common practice at the time, was to fertilize kitchen gardens with human manure, replete with Ascaris eggs. An unwashed garden harvest subsequently re-infected people with the Ascaris worm Ad in nitum. This plague did not affect people from the clay-half of Holland. As a consequence, people living on clay ground were proverbially prosperous Dutchmen.
The cause of this difference must be found in the hygroscopic properties of clay minerals. Worm eggs from human manure will be rapidly desiccated in clay environments. So it turned out that people living on clay grounds, once cured from a worm infection, were not re-infected.
I do believe in the benefits of soil in food is caused by the hygroscopic function of clay minerals. From times immemorial onward it has been daily practice for humans to eat unclean roots and vegetables, as well as meat seasoned with ash and accidental contaminants. Conventional cleaning habits are a recent introduction. I am not convinced that the so-called “paleo-diets” are a real boost to human welfare; but clay soil may be a very real, if minor, constituent of healthy, human food.
In this context, I would like to draw attention to a peculiar additive that has been on the market for more than a century – Luvos – here on the desk. Heilerde (healing earth) has been continuously on the market since 1918. What is Luvos? In fact, it is a type of soil called löss in German and Dutch. Widespread in middle latitudes, from Northern France and Belgium eastward to middle Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and central China; it also covers extensive parts of the American Midwest and Argentina. In fact, this sediment is the most common superficial soil stratum on the land surface of the Earth. It is ubiquitous because deserts have been characteristic of the Quaternary geological period as much as ice caps. Desert dust has been and still is transported worldwide by storms, especially during the ice ages, but also currently- red Saharan-dust regularly colors car roofs in Amsterdam, and it fertilizes green roofs on buildings. Dust deracination is only absent in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. But it fertilizes all seas and oceans, and is an important factor in the ecology of marine life. Löss dusts, like Luvos, consist of two distinct components: partly clay mineral, partly tiny splintery quartz sand grains – it is not pure clay. The sandy fraction makes it less slick than pure clay and easier to swallow.
Eating Luvos to prevent, or counteract, intestinal problems follows much older traditions of soil consumption in the part of Holland where the topsoil consists of löss. This holds particularly true for the consumption of soil at St. Gerlach’s in Limburg.
Who was this St. Gerlach? He was a repentant hermit, a holy man, living in a hollow oak tree around 1200. He became a local saint and was officially recognized by Pope Benedictus XIII in 1728. The Saint’s grave was excavated at the side of the Geul River, in löss soil, and people started to collect soil from this spot for consumption in the belief it should give them good health. In the course of time, a monastery for noblemen was built near the site, and also in 1750 a church was erected in Rococo style, which housed an impressive tomb for the Saint. Underneath this tomb, a space filled with soil was created. This St. Gerlach soil can be collected in little samples for personal or veterinary use. Nowadays, this is not the löss soil anymore in which our Saint was interred. Present day pilgrims are provided with hygienic fine-grained white limestone sand from the cliffs bordering the Geul river valley to the south. The substitute completely lacks the absorbing properties of the preceding löss. Fine-grain limestone, i.e. chalk, is a well-known additive of rhubarb recipes to prevent kidney-stone formation. Prudent modern churchwardens knew the new chalk as an innocent mineral substance, harmless, when consumed. The continued provision of St. Gerlach soil in the church is now a manifestation of faith in sanctitude, and belief in the tonic values of tradition. These values also interact with practical medical effects of edible soil in the Netherlands.
We live our lives surrounded by invisible limitations; what is socially acceptable is dictated by an ancient, ambiguous, unquestionable source. These uncanny barriers can sometimes be obvious and bolstered by practicality or logic, and other times their roots are unclear. The result is that they tend to slip beneath the radar.
The simple absurdity of eating dirt was a huge novelty for me. Despite all its connotations as an act committed by children who don’t know any better, or as an unhappy accident, I experienced it as a surprisingly wholesome act of mindfulness. It’s impossible to remain on autopilot when raising a piece of clay to your lips, and it inspired a kind of wakefulness in me – as well as the kind of rebellious joy that comes with doing something that you’re not supposed to. As the tasting workshop went on, I found myself better able to discern between the different flavours and textures. As my descriptive vocabulary grew, so did my capacity for noticing nuances in my experience of eating the earth.
I believe it’s worth trying to eliminate the “binary preset” from my experience of things. Instead of having an experience and immediately designating it as either good or bad, I’ve been trying to nurture in my life the concept of a more ambiguous spectrum – to me this means escaping the X-Y axis of reductionist judgement and trying to allow for a more open, 3-dimensional perception of the world.
masharu’s workshop enabled me to practice a kind of mindful inconvenience, purposefully acting in a way that I have been programmed not to, by any number of influences. For me, this was a hugely liberating act that inspires me to look at closer, more domestic sources for these “programs” that I am unknowingly subscribing to. What shouldn’t I eat, what should I wear, how should I act in a classroom, these could all be important questions to address. However, I want to be the one addressing them, rather than taking the answers I was taught for granted. I want to nurture a state of constant revision, learning, and questioning the world around me.
If the availability of the option to eat, and even benefit from, soil has slipped under my radar, what else has?
I’ve been a Storyteller my whole life. I love to communicate. My second passion has everything to do with taste, to be more specific the taste of happiness. Marketing Communications and Account management have always been my work fields since receiving my Bachelor’s degree, in Banking and. As from 2008 I’ve been attending events in Art and Culture and started to build a network of professionals and artists.
As from 2010 I felt the urge to play a part of telling inspiring stories from African diaspora people, which are of meaning for all of us. Midst 2016 I was invited to the studio of the sculptor Nelson Carrilho in Amsterdam. In bits and pieces I learned more about Carrilho’s craft and vision. The meaning and layerd reasons regarding the artwork Mama Baranka / Moeder Rots / Kerwin Monument, 1983 Vondelpark and the Dragers van Verre / Carriers from Afar, Westerpark 1989, intrigued me. The fact that so many important African Rooted stories were not at all known by a broader audience triggered me. Carrilho wished to connect new voices, especially youth in the Netherlands and abroad, to these art pieces. As from 2017 – until currently I realised different gatherings and dialogue venues in Carrilho’s studio in the Jordaan, as well as outdoors around the sculptures.’
Photo by Anna Zamanipoor, 2020
Mama Baranka literally means ‘Mother Rock’ in Papiamento, a Creole language spoken in the ABC islands. It relates to the universal symbol of Mother Earth. Nelson Carrilho was commissioned in 1984 to produce an image as homage to Kerwin Lucas Duinmeijer, a 15 years-old Dutch teenager of Antillean descent who was murdered in an act of senseless violence against his skin color. Instead of producing an image of the boy, Nelson Carrilho decided to use the image of Mother Earth to spread a more universal message of vigilance, steadfastness and eternity instead of a protest against racism. Mama Baranka takes place in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam.
Photo by Anna Zamanipoor, 2020
Mama Baranka is standing with her feet in the soil. She carries darkness and solidness. The cracks are visible in the Mama Baranka statue in the openings of the bronze. They represent pain, but one also can see light coming through them. Since 2019 I started an inner dialogue with myself through bringing flowers to the Mama Baranka in the Vondelpark. My ritual brings also to life a dialogue with the people passing by and reaches to reflections around interculturalism, race and personal grounding. My experience of self mental healing through connecting to Mother Earth is a strong vector in my life.
The project EARTH(ING) in collaboration with the Museum of Edible Earth investigated the monument of Mama Baranka as a place of power, connecting to it through a participatory, sometimes ceremonial, performance. The earth was placed in various forms around Mama Baranka, as well as on the sculpture itself, and played the role of an offering and a connecting tool with the audience. By bringing earth to the sculpture the visitors intensified its power and generated a wave of grounding for the people around. The focus was ‘earthing’ or ‘grounding’ as a healing tool during Corona times. Like flowers, as humans we come to life, we blossom, and we go back to earth.
I was born in a Hindu family in India, and grew up on stories of Krishna, one of the millions of deities from the religion. One of the stories involve baby Krishna getting caught eating mud by his mother. She is naturally concerned and makes him open his mouth to check. As he does, she sees in there the entire universe—planets, galaxies, and even various dimensions. Overwhelmed, she faints.
In 2021, I came across a Museum of Edible Earth exhibit at the World Soil Museum in Wageningen, The Netherlands. I was intrigued and skeptical. “This has got to be a gimmick,” I thought. I went back and read up on geophagy, and was fascinated. In the process, I was also reminded of stories of me eating mud as a toddler (I do not personally remember doing that myself).
I contacted masharu, founder of the Museum of Edible Earth, and asked if they would be interested in doing an interview as part of a short video on geophagy (I like to capture stories that intrigue me on video). I also interviewed Stephan Mantel, a soil scientist and director of World Soil Museum.
From masharu, I learnt that eating soil is widespread, found in cultures across the length and breadth of the earth. It was particularly fascinating to learn that edible soil could be found very close to home—in supermarkets here in The Netherlands. Stephan assured me that geophagy is not some primitive cultural practice to scoff or smirk at—it has scientific basis. “Certain kind of soil from certain places, when eaten by people with certain physiological makeups, can provide certain benefits,” he said, while cautioning that people should not just go around eating all kinds of soil.
While working on the geophagy story, I could not help but think back to the tale of the earth-eating baby Krishna, and the less miraculous accounts of the earth-eating baby-me. They tell the Krishna story as one that reveals his divinity. I think that the story highlighted in equal measure the humanity of his human incarnation—a god born as a human pining for soil the way some humans are known to do. At a less spiritual level, the story was also a reminder that some humans are known to hanker for soil for a long, long time. By doing the interview and editing the video, I immersed myself in a fascinating story with cultural and scientific dimensions, and came out much enriched. And isn’t that what living is?
The tasting of the three earths left me with somewhat mixed feelings. The brown dirt provided a familiar feeling – memories of being on the beach, the sensation of putting on clothes that are full of sand, of washing myself and the sand from my hair, of dropping a piece of fruit on the ground and not cleaning it properly. I thought of activities in the open, of finding a small brook and drinking from it with cupped hands. It was pleasant and reminded me of the things that over the past year have been so scarce. Of being in the open, being wild and experiencing bodily sensations out in nature.
Green clay and white chalk evoked more complex feelings. Touching them was not very exciting – it was only when they began leaving stains on my fingers and pants that they made me smile a little. Tasting them started out equally unsatisfying. A part of this is certainly that I’m utterly lacking these specific ways of experiencing things and people and just life more generally. In that sense, the dull sensation of, I guess, absence or emptiness, was not surprising.
Following someone elses suggestion, I put the entire piece of chalk in my mouth. The taste, or lack of it, did not change. But the sensation did. The chalk dried up my mouth, acting somewhat like a sponge, and coated the inside of my mouth. This coating and the dulling of sensations was somewhat emblematic of how I experience things. Often, the description or verbal cues elicit stronger responses than the thing itself. To illustrate this, the way in which masharu described the different pieces of earth caused a stronger reaction than the tasting itself. I remember their choice of words – crispy, tasty – and the way in which they pronounce them more clearly and vividly than tasting them myself.
The text was created during Summer School in Hands-on Anthropology & Ethnographic Storytelling in 2021, curated by Younes Saramifar www.handsonanthropology.org
The white envelopes with samples of earth were sent from the Netherlands. They traveled to different parts of the world and were to be tasted during the international summer school. Because of the worldwide pandemic that was going on already for about a year and a half, the class was meeting on a virtual platform – each from their homes, towns or cities, and countries in front of their computers. The class opened the white envelopes with 2-3 different samples of earth taken from different places. The class was asked to taste those samples. People in their little screens on the virtual platform were tasting, feeling, and thinking about those little pieces of the earth for half an hour. They were experiencing the smell, taste, and texture of the earth in their mouth or their fingers. Not all could taste or smell as some of those who recovered from the global virus lost these abilities, or they got weakened.
I tasted earth on purpose probably for the first time in my life in this workshop. It was a weird experience as I am one of those who recovered from the virus with fewer abilities to smell or taste. The lack of it just reminded me how, in the end, we are affected by this. Our bodies lose the abilities to feel the world. And we made it happen. It was even weirder to think about the travel of earth, because earth is everywhere, and we get it packed in envelopes sent from the Netherlands. I am in Lithuania, and I got a sample of earth dug from Lithuania, but it already traveled so much to reach me again. I guess it also shows how “far“ we are from the earth, in some sense. The fact that it was edible made me think about the food system. These samples of earth were traveling just like food products do – all around the world, from different places, many going to be wasted, contributing to climate change and making this earth a little bit less livable every day. And if the earth would be edible just like any other food product, would it be wasted just the same? Would it be packed and traded until there would be only dug holes left in some places or regions? Would we literally just eat the earth until it‘s gone?
June 2021
The text was created during Summer School in Hands-on Anthropology & Ethnographic Storytelling in 2021, curated by Younes Saramifar www.handsonanthropology.org
In Indonesia, eating earth is an old traditional habit, which is still present in some villages. Geophagy, the action of eating earth and soil-like substances, is present either as a spiritual practice, or as a cultural cuisine – in a form of a smoked snack, or even as a medicine. For instance, it is considered to strengthen women’s fertility, and moreover, to be good for pregnancy. Unfortunately, it is more and more sinking into oblivion, especially among the young generation.
A part of a research trip in Indonesia Muhammad Sibawaihi and masharu have been visiting the Dusun Bentek, Pemenang Barat Village, Pemenang District, North Lombok Regency. It is in the place of the Kingdom Lembah Sari, known as the lost kingdom. According to the legend, as a response to the colonization attempt, the kingdom disappeared from the material world and still exists in a parallel reality. Sometimes the locals can enter the white streets of the lost kingdom. Also, the grave of the king Lumendung Sari is still visible for the common people. One must enter the grave space with respect, barefoot only.
Apart from the information about the Kingdom Lembah Sari and the king’s grave, people also told stories about the edible soil Batu Ampan. They notably told that Batu Ampan is especially loved by pregnant women and as well can help against stomach problems. Also, people used to eat it after the meals as a snack. This soil is possible to find in the local ground around the village or on top of the hills.
Muhammad Sibawaihi and masharu went together on a search for Batu Ampan, which they found on the top of the hills, as they had been told.
Later, they have been sharing what they learned from about traditional geophagy with the members of the Pasirputih Fondation, in Pasirputih, Lombok. The Pasirputih Foundation is an egalitarian non-profit organization based in the Pemenang, North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. It was established on December 29th, 2009. The organization focuses on the development of media literacy knowledge, arts, and both social and cultural studies. The Foundation works by facilitating social education and culture, especially the arts and media, through collaborative activities and involving local residents in the Pemenang District in particular, and North Lombok in general. Its members were not aware of the Indonesian habit of eating earth and therefore were very surprised to learn about it and curious to discover it by practicing. The workshop COOKING VOLCANIC ROCK has been organized in the Pasirputih Foundation. Using the Batu Ampan we found in the Pemenang Barat Village, we cooked this volcanic rock using Indonesian traditional ways. With this experience, the participants have been reconnecting with a part of their national heritage, and we all enjoyed a sharing moment together.
Citation of the performance ‘Surpassing the Beeline’ directed by Abhishek Taphar in Frascati Theater, November 2018
After 11 years living in the Netherlands, I still do not feel completely Dutch. I will always be an immigrant. At the same time, I do not feel Russian anymore, still asking myself, who am I? I went back to eat white chalk from the sacred mountains where orthodox churches and monasteries are located. I really desired that chalk, and even though it seemed pure and sourced directly from nature, I was getting stomach pain, but I couldn’t stop eating.
For the past year, I have been in the practice of collecting and eating earth from across the world. Sometimes, it makes me feel like a world citizen. I started mixing different types of edible earth from different countries. This material has memory and keeps history of what the land has experienced. To make sense of who I am, I listened to these materials. It experienced shifting homes, wind, turbulences, love, loss. It would inform me rather than I inform it. Earth knows better than I do. I wanted to map the right composition of the material, which would sustain, and could represent me. However, different types of clay repel each other, and remain fluid. Of course, I still take pieces of ceramics and eat them.
Here are ceramics cups produced out of mixture of clays, edible earth found on the Dutch market, face masks, clays from my country and possibly some local Dutch earth. You are welcome to have a bite or taste them by licking. I am sharing with you my practice, and it’s up to you, if you take it or not. Maybe the cup already broke, while you were drinking tea, as all of these cups are at the verge of breaking. This project is living on a breaking point, which is negotiating between different soils, between different social/political histories and memories.
Muchenje is a sweet clay product moulded by the activities of hodotermes termites which are worker and soldier termites. Their name is derived from hodos (Greek) meaning travelling and termes (Latin) meaning wood worms as they are a very restless and busy genus of insects.
Restless but highly organised, this entity of living things which manufactures edible earth viz Muchenje, a name interchangeably used to refer to these insects also, falls within the kingdom of animalia, phylum of of anthropodae, class of insecta, order of blattodea and the infraorder of isoptera.
Hodotermes termites are distinguished by the serrated inner edge of their mandibles, functional compound eyes and a distinct and characteristic head. They occur in such vegetation physiognomies as Woodland Savanna, Grassland and Deserts and their range includes the Middle East, Savannas of Africa, South West Asia and Australia. They nest by excavating in the soil and form spherical hives or termite mounds above the ground and may be as deep as 6metres. Particles are brought to the surface and are dumped at various points around the nest. These termites produce initially and damp conical mounds on soil with sufficient clay content which hardens with time. Hodotermes tend to gather clay particles for mound construction in Savannas, cementing the soil particles with variable 6 quantiles of salivary secretions and faecal excrements.
This process increases organic matter, carbon, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and nitrogen and ensures higher aggregation of soil than the surrounding areas (Ruggiero and Fay, 1994).
Termites feed on above ground litter, wood and soil. They break down and recycle organic matter such as dying wood materials and mammalian remains even dung and lichen.
They produce enzymes and microbial-rich faeces and hence contribute to the soil microbial-rich faeces and hence contribute to soil microbial pool and to nutrient redistribution ( Joubet et al, 2011).
As in the making of honey the termite mounds so formed are savoury and sweet to the taste when broken off and eaten casually. They are chewed as a soft brownish powder or if crisp are broken off and chewed as just like pieces of hard biscuits. When chewed it assumes the colour of chocolate in the mouth. Affinity for Muchenje varies from person to person and can be addictive at times and is mostly favoured by pregnant women and girls.
The quality of this product varies from area to area but it has a countrywide distribution in Zimbabwe and its availability is ubiquitous. It is also highly affordable.
At the market place one has to specify that one is in need of Muchenje as there are other edible earth products generally called dhaga awash on the Zimbabwean Market. Some animals such as elephants enjoy eating Muchenje.
Muchenje is famed for medicinal and therapeutic qualities as it is believed to have welcome relief to flues, colds as well as stomach ailments. It is also said to be rich in such trace elements as iron, potassium, calcium etc.
Geophagy is the act of eating earth and soil-like substances, and four years ago I would have probably laughed at this statement, however, I now eat earth almost every day. Kaolin, or white clay, especially one that I order from France, my country of origin. The more time that passes, the more I find ways to bring the clay into my eating habits. Be it for the taste, its curing properties, its texture, or simply for the decoration: the ways to use clay into the world of cooking are extremely numerous. I want to share here some of my ways with you, as well as give you a little bit of context to how geophagy has entered my life.
In 2017 I moved from Paris to Amsterdam to start working for masharu. I had found their work through the internet and got captivated by how they are able to address art, science, and spirituality at the same time. I was also very excited to discover a new city, a new country, and to leave my home nest. The excitement made me very permeable, eager to discover and stretch to any new horizons that would come upon me. Back then was also the start of a life-long health problem. As no good things can come without its counterpart, I was discovering the hard way a set of intolerances in my stomach and digestive system. If these were not treated carefully, it would result in drastic pains, seemingly acidic problems. It led me twice to the hospital where the doctors had sedate me. Even until now, no doctor has been able to make a proper diagnosis and I have been developing my own treatment, while listening to my body and feeling what is right and what is not. In the beginning of 2017, I discovered these problems, at the same time I discovered geophagy. By the time I started to work at the masharu studio, they proposed me to taste some of their earths, which I gladly accepted. I soon had an intuition that clay would be the aid to soothing my pains. This intuition would partly come from facts I knew, such as existing soil-like medicines used for those pains or also the absorbing property of clay, but my body was also asking for it, making me want to eat it. The body often knows what it needs, and for those who are ready to listen to it, many good outcomes are to be expected. My pains were so strong that I trusted this intuition to be true, and it was. The first striking example was coffee. Previously, I could not drink coffee, or I would instantly feel a burning pain in my stomach. Mixing clay in the coffee would take away its acidity and would allow me to drink it safely.
Since then I have been trying many new earth samples through working with masharu. I have been developing ways to use the clay reiterating them in my food habits. I am now only drinking coffee with clay, most likely kaolin. White clays have a large amount of calcium, it grants them a very soft structure, and when mixed with a liquid they become very creamy. Using white clay with coffee feels to me like drinking a coffee with mineral milk. The beverage has a similar soft and creamy structure like would any other milked coffee (cow milk, almond milk, soja milk etc.). But it also has a subtle mineral after taste. White clays’ taste is very light, the strength of the coffee mostly overruns it, but to whom pays attention, will arrive this mineral presence within the creamy structure that makes it so special. And of course, in addition to the taste comes a real health benefit. Coffee is indeed very harsh for the stomach; its acidic composition often causes people to have stomach burns or acid reflux. Even if the pain is not felt, it remains hard to handle for the digestive system, the clay has the power to make the coffee more digest and less harmful.
From this first experience of clay, I have been using it in other ways. For instance, I use it instead of cream and when cooking something that has a cream-based sauce, I am now using clay instead. The difference is subtle and yet strong. Cream gives a taste of fat, and with it comes a heavy consistency. Clay also brings everything together and gives it a more consistent structure, makes it creamier, but it will not add this taste of fat that normal cream has. It brings the structure in the mouth, in a stickier way, but does not bring the fat and the difference is striking. I really enjoy it because it allows those foody experiences and yet spares the heaviness. Using the clay as a sauce requires the preparation to already possess some liquid, if the meal is somewhat dry or at least lacks some juice, it requires to add something first before the clay. One of my favourites is the coconut milk. It has a quite watery structure, mixing it with clay will create a delicious cream that plays with a coconut main taste and a mineral after-taste. Furthermore, powdered clay can also be used as a fancy last touch if you sprinkle it onto your meal when ready. It adds this beautiful snow-like coverage, and eventually also helps to make the meal more digestive as clay is always a good facilitator for the digestion. When mentioning the clay above, I only talk about refined clay powder, cleaned and ecologically produced.
An example of recipe: the vegetable clay-wok (vegan)
• Boil rice noodles of your choice, keep them ready in a bowl (add a pinch of oil of your choice to avoid them gluing to each other, I advise sesame oil)
• Slice zucchini (or other veggie of your liking) and grill them in a pan with coconut oil, add spices such as nutmeg and cumin, grill with strong fire for a few minutes. Move them often to avoid any burns.
• When the zucchinis are grilled, lower the fire, add the prepared noodles into the pan, mix.
• After a minute or two, add a bit of coconut milk with it. A nice addition at this state can be dried cranberries/dried prunes. Put a strong flame and keep one last minute in the pan, keep everything in movement.
• When the minute is passed, take out of the pan, mix clay with it to unite everything together and bring the creamy texture.
• Serve, with a bit of fresh coriander on top.
Disclaimer: I tried adding the clay during the cooking, but I personally did not appreciate the result, it creates a weird reaction that makes small hard pieces, as if the clay was solidifying .
Using the clay for cooking purposes is a world of experimentation and new possibilities. Those are not new at all, they are in fact very old. On the scale of human history, soil was part of all food cultures at some point, often relating to spirituality as well. Many cultures, especially the globalized west, have forgotten about geophagy. Eating earth has been connected to poorness, when brutal slavery and colonial structures have denied access to food to the slaves who had nothing to eat but the soil under their feet. It eventually became in English “dirt”, relating dirtiness to earth. However, health instances have conducted research and uncovered negative impacts of eating earth on the human body.
Bringing back clay and soil-like substances into our eating habits also brings a questioning onto what is considered edible or not, and who decides of it. Are food systems purely social constructs? To what extent is what we eat a result of our cultural background and environment? Using earth into my cooking has been a claim onto my body. I am what I eat, and I decide who I am. At a certain point in time geophagy has crossed my way, and I included it into my habits. For many it sounds like a weird trendy practice, for me it simply feels good.
