A is for (Fermenting) Avocados

Avocado juice, avocado hair mask, and avocados fermented in brine.

First, a huge thank you! You are reading this because you paid real money to support this writer and believe in what I do. Truly, thank you.

It was late December 2016, Christopher, our two youngest children, and I stepped off a bus, that had seemed much too large for the roads it was traversing. After many hours of snaking up steep mountainsides and white-knuckling on the downhill portions, we were happy to be on solid ground in the mountain town of Kalaw, Myanmar. An old hill station, Kalaw is now a popular jumping-off point for hikers. We were there to meet tea farmers who fermented the leaves into laphet—but that is for another day. The hotel we stayed in had been a colonial-era resort as Kalaw had been popular among the British during their colonial rule for its cooler climate. Our room was on the second floor. As soon as we entered the room, I was drawn across the space where the long dark leaves of a substantial old avocado tree reached just inside the open window. I found myself looking into the heart of the tree, it was much taller still, and loaded with full-sized avocados, which were so tempting and so out of reach.