Making Mistakes and Learning From Them
Why using white vinegar and white sugar was a mistake
After taking a long pause of about 18 months from the practice of Korean Natural Farming(knf), I went back into it heads first. Using my old notes and (faulty) memory, I started sharing my experiences on Instagram and various blockchain social medias about 2-3 months ago. However, I caught the eye of a few notable knf practitioners when I used the knf tag for the first time on Instagram. In the post I just mentioned was all about my purchase of bulk white sugar and white vinegar in hopes of preparing for a big fermentation of Fermented Plant Juice extracts and redoing of a Water Soluble Calcium Phosphate extract I made months earlier with a more proper charing of the bones.
Quickly, I had few notable knf practitioners commenting on my post. They were trying to correct my mistakes in choosing White Vinegar and White Sugar over the standard Brown Rice Vinegar and Unprocessed Brown Sugar.
After some back and forth from myself and the practitioners, I knew I must have written down and forgot key information when taking the Cho Global Natural Farming class in Idaho back in 2017 with Chris Trump. Fortunately, Chris has been extremely active on Instagram and has been very responsive to me of late. So I tagged him @soilsteward in hopes of trying to clear up my miscommunication or misunderstanding. I even sent him a message expressing my discouragement that had me second guessing my memory and what I actually learned.
Thankfully, Chris Trump, my teacher appeared on my post to clear up my misunderstanding. He also messaged me to encourage me to keep going. This really meant the world to me as knf is perhaps one of the few things I have left in this world that excites me and helps me look forward to tomorrow, while attempting to stay grounded in the now.
Chris mentioned that white vinegar is made with a 'different grain mix' than rice vinegar is without going into too much detail. Luckily, he was on an amazing podcast called Burning Fire with Shango Los
the next day. On that podcast he talks with Chris Trump about the differences between White Vinegar and Brown Rice Vinegar.
Chris explained how Monsanto actually developed the typically common modern day process of white vinegar, in which it is made into an ethanol alcohol first and then converted into vinegar.
After taking in how I made some really stupid mistakes, considering I was trained better, I swallowed my pride and accepted my failures as an opportunity to learn and grow. Having support from Chris made this easier to do.
Even as I am writing this post, a huge weight is still weighing down my ego but relief is found in my soul from the love and compassion that was expressed through my teacher's grace. Plus, I even made some solid connections, most notably with an account called Institute of Natural Farming
Naturally, I rushed back out to return this white sugar I had mistakenly bought at Costco for C&H brand of Pure Brown Sugar but kept the White Vinegar for cleaning. Costco did not have Rice Vinegar so I went to a local Filipino market to acquire the Rice Vinegar. I made a Instagram post about this as well.
With this lesson learned I moved forward with making new Water Soluble Calcium and Water Soluble Calcium Phosphate in which I will need to redo my previous posts or rather recreate my blockchain posts to reflect the changes.
My Instagram
Most up to date progress on my Korean Natural Farming
Discord for Natural Farming
(*Formerly Dynamicsteemians)
- Inter Natural Farmers