We are entering the moist warm season where little tiny microorganisms love to grow, especially after all this rain. Most of think of these little beasties, like bacteria, fungus, and yeast, as bad actors because they cause disease. But if we take a larger look at them, these little guys can be our friends and allies.
Bacteria are one celled organisms, responsible for plague, strep throat, staph infections, but also normal gut flora, fermentation( turning wine into vinegar), milk to yogurt or cheese, and lacto-fermentation ( preserving cabbage as sauerkraut and kimchi). They are used to manufacture insulin!
Yeast are one celled organisms, responsible for athlete’s foot, swimmer’s ear, thrush, but they also are the magic ingredient to convert sugar to alcohol in beer, wine and cider, or make bread “rise” with CO2.
Fungus are chains of single celled organisms that can cause ringworm, other fungal dermatitis, and even some systemic fungal diseases like histoplasmosis, blastomycosis, cryptococcosis, and coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever). But the good one create culinary and medicinal mushroom (the fruiting body of the colony) like shiitake, button, oyster, and psilocybin (magic mushrooms). They also help recycle dead plant material in the forest and create rich soil for more plants to grow in.
These tiny creatures do more than cause disease. We don’t want to kill them all with strong antibiotics, antifungals, or disinfectants unless we have too. I love harnessing them in my kitchen for sourdough bread, sauerkraut, wine and mead!
