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I fell in love with Curio Spice Co. when I was living at Spirit Hill Farm in Sebastopol, California, and found online, through Curio (which is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts), sea salt from both Martha’s Vineyard and Maine. I got to eat my childhood memories in a place that was thousands of miles away from the Atlantic Ocean.
Your memories were of salt, you might ask. Not exactly, Silly, I might answer. I was using poetic license, something that allows me to drive my writing wherever I want to go. The salt reminded me of the Vineyard and its red clay cliffs; it reminded me of the freezing water that used to turn me blue when I was a kid in Kennebunkport. The salt told me: you can have it all. You can live far from your childhood home and still taste it.
The salt also told me someone really cares about flavor. Someone really cares about how other people experience the world in their mouth. I mean, getting the ocean into a jar in a form where someone can sprinkle it over their dinner and then finding a store front to sell it is not a simple process.
During COVID, I went a little Curio nuts. I bought twenty-five small glass jars and labels and bought Sri Lankan Sweet Cinnamon and Lebanese Sumac and Guatemalan Green Cardamon Pods, and Massachusetts Shiitake Mushroom Powder. I bought many other spices, as well. I liked collecting them, but really I had no idea what to do with them. When I left Spirit Hill for Boston, I put my spice collection into storage, because who needs Sicilian Chile Flakes to write a book about the winningest coach in Ivy League history?
I miss those Chile Flakes. I miss all my glass bottles and the labels I’d had so much fun creating, misspelling the words on purpose just to make myself laugh. I wish I had brought them.
But guess what?
I now live less than 15 miles away from Curio and have been there many times. I went to a cheese tasting event where I got teary over the deliciousness of saffron honey. I went to a book signing event and learned about Italian snack foods and was reminded of how thrilling it is to be alive and to make and share delicious food with others. I went to, last week, a spice blending class where I had no idea what to do with myself.
I can order spices and put them in jars so my kitchen looks nice, but use them? Combine them?
Oy.
I will write more about this in a day or so. What I want to say is that this is my first blog post for my new website. At some point, I will pull the posts from the old site I feel are most important and create a book from them, but for now I am reveling in the opportunity to create myself through writing, yet again. I spent about seven years blogging about what it was like to be adopted, and now I’m going to blog about what it’s like to be curious, hungry, and eager to both find the next wonderful thing and to fully immerse myself in whatever thing I am currently doing. To be here now, but to also have a finger out, testing the winds of the future.
I love my new website so much. That’s another story, and I’ll get to it. But for now, enjoy the bunnies. I hope they make you as happy as they make me.