Trying a sample in the Edible Earth Museum
David Parry/PA media assignments
Eating earth (geophagy) is classified by the American Psychiatric Association as a mental health condition—unless it is part of a cultural practice.
We can further explore this paradoxical relationship as Edible Earth Museum coming to London’s Somerset House (until April 26).
While visiting the exhibition, I found about 600 samples of soil commonly consumed around the world, collected by the founder of the masharu museum. There is red ocher from South Africa (a source of iron) and black nakumatt clay used by pregnant women in India to relieve nausea. Only two are officially available for tasting as they are accredited UK supplements.
Luvos Healing Earth for digestive problems comes as chocolate sprinkles, but tastes more like grits in unwashed leeks. I preferred Mexican diatomaceous earth, ground into a silky, slightly acidified flour. But more than its taste, I enjoyed imagining the aquatic organisms that fossilized on this earth millions of years ago.
Thomas Lewton,
Features Editor, London
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