If, 10 years ago, you had asked food writers to predict the hippest ingredients of the decade, I doubt kale, one of our most ancient vegetables, would have featured on many lists.
But up close, in the sweeping, palatial kitchens of Noma, a floor above the restaurant, the patience, attention, and meticulous care with which gnarled and ancient vegetables or half-rotten weeds are treated is impressive, as is the dedication of the international cast of apprentices who vie for a spot to stage.
The floor is full of boxes of ancient root vegetables sprouting pallid shoots.
This means that if you eat a carbohydrate, it should be a root vegetable, ancient grain or whole grain refined white carbs are out.
Glitzy retail outlets rub shoulders with poky wooden shacks, whose elderly proprietors peddle wrinkly vegetables, ancient sandwiches and the like.
The chef knew that some of the most distinctive carrots in the country come from an area of the Hudson Valley (sometimes poetically referred to as "muckland" or "the drowned lands"), where the deep black soil of what used to be an ancient lake produces vegetables of uncommon flavor and texture.
The silver rush coincided with a pulse event: the trees blossomed unstoppably, wept pollen, and Leapt, eclipsing the minds of these poor humans, who stood no chance against the vegetable's ancient spirit.
Not only does it encompass all the latest food trends like using seasonal, organic vegetables and ancient grains such as kamut and quinoa, but it also taps into our most primitive impulse: nourishing our children.
How did this ancient, humble and supremely nutritious vegetable become a source of suspicion and scorn – so much so that in 140 characters it can be a byword for creeping fascism?
