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CULTURE
Humans Could Learn a Lot From This Yogurt
But we’re poised to make the same mistake that ended an ancient golden age
As a young mom on a tight budget, I made everything we ate from scratch — even yogurt. I learned I could do a lot of deep thinking while my hands stirred milk, kneaded bread or rolled out noodles.
You can easily turn milk into whatever you want if you expose it to a bit of culture. A dollop of plain yogurt will, under the right conditions, turn an entire gallon of milk into yogurt. But stir in a scoop of sour cream instead, and the whole gallon turns into sour cream. It’s surprising what a big change a little bit of culture can make, and how quickly it can happen.
I don’t know if everyone else already noticed the word “culture” works just as well for human societies as it does for dairy products. But it does, because the same process is at work: Exposure to a culture profoundly and permanently changes your nature, whether you’re a human being or a cup of milk.
Once you start this process, you can go on practically forever if you want. I used to save a bit of yogurt from each batch and use it to transform the next generation of milk into yogurt. It only took a little.
