Noble Rot

The other night Ben (the head of research and development) and Long (a stage from Noma) were hanging out at the Lab (which is also my home) after hours. Ben was writing a speech and Long was helping Ben prep meat for the Dream Haggis he is making. 

Around 8:30 or so the Noma guys brought over small container of the most delicious black currants and the sweetest little black cherries we have ever tasted!

Ben was typing away totally in the zone, when all of a sudden he stopped, looked up at Long and I, and asked us if we wanted to do a little project. With no questions asked we agreed.
Our task- to build a Noble Rotting Chamber.

And that we did. We found an unused metal self, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and built a door to keep the moisture in. 

Ta-daa

Now you might be asking yourself (or google) what is Noble Rot??
Nobel rot is a benign form of gray fungus called Botrytis which has been known to affect wine grapes. The fungus thrives in moist conditions and then becomes known as noble rot when the grapes are exposed to drier conditions which cause them to partially raisin. These grapes are then picked and are made to produce a sweet wine.

Here at the Lab we have some Noble Rot in a jar. We created an inoculum by blending up the fungus laden grapes with some water and then staining it. We then dipped the cherries and black currants in the inoculum and hung them to rot in the Noble Rotting Chamber.

We are not sure what we will do with these fruits once then have rotted but that's the beauty of the Lab, we often learn and experiment as we go.

I'll keep you updated on how the process is going so check back for more on the Noble Rot.