Friends - You've got to make an effort to attend
this one!! Saturday, August 21 at the Thomas
Shepherd Grist Mill in Shepherdstown, WV. Sandor
Katz, the lively author of "Wild Fermentation,"
will lecture on the history, value and how-to of
lacto-fermentation. (If you are not familiar
with the nutritional value of 'cultured' foods or
it's place in our heritage, please ask me about
it. ) In the afternoon, we'll make a 25lb 5
gallon batch of sauerkraut! Don't miss this one!!
(Read the last paragraph of Sally Fallon's review
of Sandor's book below.)
Contact me via email (igg@igg.com) or phone (304)
876-3382 to assure you a seat at this fun (and
FREE!) event!
-Allan
WHAT: Kraut Making Workshop with Sandor Katz, lacto-fermentation expert
WHEN: Saturday, August 21
WHERE: Shepherdstown, WV
WHO: Contact Allan Balliett igg@igg.com (304) 876-3382
Event is FREE! but reservations are required.
A reception for Sandor follows the workshop.
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz
(Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2003)
Sandor Katz is a self-described fermentation
fetishist. His fermentation explorations
developed out of overlapping interests in
cooking, nutrition and gardening. He is also an
herbalist and an activist and a writer and a
builder and a craftsperson and a bicyclist and
many other things: a generalist. He is a resident
steward of Short Mountain Sanctuary, a queer
intentional community deep in the wooded hills of
Tennessee. Katz is a native of New York City, a
graduate of Brown University, and a former urban
planner and policy analyst. He has been living
with AIDS for more than a decade and considers
fermented foods an important part of his healing.
(from Sandor's official biography)
Review by Sally Fallon
Those who enjoy making lacto-fermented foods will
love Wild Fermentation. Careful and detailed
instructions for vegetable, legume, dairy, grain
and beverage ferments, plus wonderful authentic
recipes to use them in, make this book a
must-have for all students of traditional foods.
You'll learn how to make milkweed/nasturtium
seedpod "capers," Japanese nuka bran pickles,
fermented coconut chutney, Cherokee sour corn
drink, Tibetan buckwheat pancakes, plus more
familiar items like sauerkraut, miso, soft
cheeses, sourdough breads, polenta and kombucha.
You'll enjoy making the many lacto-fermented
beverages featured in this book, such as sweet
potato fly and kvass, as well as authentic beers
and wines from around the world including
Ethiopian honey wine in various flavors,
persimmon cider mead, and beer from South
America, Egypt and Nepal. Simple vinegar-based
recipes from colonial America include shrub (made
with fresh berries, vinegar and sugar or honey)
and switchel (made with vinegar, sugar, molasses
and gingerroot).
With Katz' help, you'll learn to be a magician in
the kitchen, for working in partnership with the
microscopic world is nothing short of alchemy.
We've been at war with microbes for too long; the
time has come to recognize them as our friends.
But Wild Fermentation is more than just a
collection of interesting recipes. Katz
recognizes the "insidious processes of
globalization, commodification and cultural
homogenization," citing the example of French
sheep farmer José Bové, who ended up in jail for
his bold actions against McDonald's in France.
"If you tried an action like Bové's in the United
States these days," observes Katz, "it would
probably be branded as terrorism and land you in
a clandestine military tribunal."
Katz wisely observes: "We cannot resist the
homogenization of culture by overpowering it. Yet
we must not resign ourselves to it. . . . .
Resistance takes place on many planes.
Occasionally it can be dramatic and public, but
most of the decisions we are faced with are
mundane and private. What to eat is a choice that
we make several times a day, if we are lucky. The
cumulative choices we make about food have
profound implications."
Earlier in this issue we proposed a novel formula
for defeating the forces of industrialization in
agriculture and food production: drink raw milk.
To this we add: eat fermented foods! Authentic
fermented condiments and beverages will not only
return beneficial microorganisms to your
digestive tract, they will also help return our
wealth to small farms and local communities.
Instead of "trickle down," how about "bubble up,"
where real wealth produced by farmers and
artisans leavens the whole mass.
Fermented foods are good for our interior ecology
and they can help restore our exterior ecology as
well, by increasing the demand for organic foods
(only nutrient-dense and pesticide-free foods
ferment successfully) and weakening the grip of
the food processing industry.
When Edward eats the witch's food in the
children's classic The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe, he becomes her slave. So too, when we
eat processed foods, we become slaves to the
commodity economy. But foods made by magicians
working with the mysterious ferments of the
microscopic world-these foods make us healthy and
free. Wild Fermentation will serve as a training
manual for thousands of culinary Harry Potters,
working their magic in the tranquil atmosphere of
sacred kitchens.