I can’t look after more than four starters. My ginger bug Mary Ann, my kombucha SCOBY Etheldreda, my sourdough starter Eleanor and my buttermilk Betty all need regular feedings or they’ll die. I take care of this little family in addition to fermenting all sorts of other foods that don’t require starters—kimchi, dill pickles, chutney, […]
Fermentation
Fermentation 101 Online Workshop
Every time I post pics on Instagram of my table set up for class or the food we make or short videos of my students working away, people ask me if I will do an online version. After hearing this over and over, I finally got the message and set up a new class: Fermentation […]
Fermentation Tools, Equipment and Ingredients
You can spend lots of money on tools and gadgets designed specifically for making fermented foods—airlocks to let gas escape from jars, lids with small “windows” you open in order to release gas, glorified glass jars rebranded as “small fermentation crocks,” expensive weights, mandolines to cut vegetables quickly and uniformly… These tools all sound nice […]
What Is Fermentation and Why Do I Go On About It So Much?
If you have read my blog at all, at some point, you may have had one of the following thoughts: Fermentation sounds revolting. Why does she keep going on about it? OMG. I love fermentation. I named my sourdough starter [insert name]. On [insert date] she turns [insert number] years old. We will throw her […]
How to Ferment Vegetables in Brine
Click here to go straight to the recipe When I prep sauerkraut, I add salt to a bowl of chopped vegetables, crush the vegetables, let them sit while they release water and then pack everything into clean jars. When I prep kimchi, I add a lot of salt to a bowl of chopped vegetables, pour […]
Pear-Cranberry Chutney
The bad news about this recipe is that you have to start it at least two days before you eat it. So, you can’t make it for thanksgiving dinner this year. The good news? This chutney tastes fantastic—sweet and sour, a little salty, a little spicy and slightly effervescent. I’ll serve this tomorrow at our […]
Labneh (aka Yogurt Cheese)
I mentioned my labneh in a post last week but people had questions on social media about it so I thought it deserved its own post… If you’ve gone plastic-free and zero-waste and still want to eat cheese, trying to find it may drive you over the edge. Where I live in Northern California, I […]
Knowledge for Sale
I love writing my blog. But I can’t do it full-time because I am neither independently wealthy—I need a steady income—nor savvy enough to figure out how to make money by advising people not to buy anything. I have tried to think of ways to monazite my blog but to no avail. I work in […]
Fermented Fruit Chutney
I am very excited about this recipe because for this batch of chutney, I used a starter other than whey—my ginger bug. Why had I not thought to do this before? It works so well! As a self-deprecating and modest Canadian, I hate to toot my own horn, but beep beep. Which reminds me of […]
Fermentation FAQs
I love teaching fermentation workshops and answering the many questions attendees ask me. I’ve tried to address most of them below but may have missed one or two. If you have a burning question about fermentation that I haven’t included, please ask away and I’ll do my best to answer. This post focuses on vegetable […]
Simple Kimchi
How important is kimchi to Korean cuisine? Well, Koreans eat 1.5 million pounds of it every year, the Korean stock market’s “kimchi index” tracks the prices of kimchi ingredients and when Korea sent its first astronaut to the International Space Station, it sent kimchi along with him too—after spending millions researching and developing a recipe suitable […]