On Sunday this past week I attended a workshop about fermentation and had an awesome time. A farm/national park about an hour from where I live hosted a free class about how to ferment certain foods. Fermentation is one of the oldest food preservation technique – hunter-gatherer societies used it to preserve food over winter months. It’s also safer than water and some people in developing worlds today drink fermented beverages instead of water because of that reason. Fun fact: scientists recently found pottery in the Neolithic village of Jiahu that had some type of liquid fermenting in them for the past 9,000 years. This served as the inspiration for Dogfish Head’s Jiahu ale.
Anyway, fermenting food is a cheap, easy way to preserve food and also bring out more flavor and nutrients. Consuming fermented food can also help one absorb nutrients better (one reason I drink kombucha).
In the workshop, we talked about three types of fermentation, and had an interactive activity for each. We learned about yeast-bacteria fermentation (ex: kombucha), bacteria fermentation (ex: kimchi), and yeast fermentation (ex: mead, a type of alcohol). The kombucha section helped me learn more about the brewing process and identified some issues with my past batch (oops).
We made kimchi by chopping and mushing bok choy, beets, rutabegas, and other greens. We mushed them all up in a bowl, added salt, and sealed them in mason jars so they can ferment for the next few days.
We also helped make mead, which is one of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages, and is associated with the divine. This honey drink is also where the word “honeymoon” comes from – newly married couples were supposed to drink mead for the first month after their wedding. Mead was a yeast fermentation example, and we made it two ways: one with store-bought yeast, and one with wild yeast. Yeast is found everywhere and the tricky part is getting enough of it. The filmy white coating on grapes and other produce is wild yeast; we used fresh persimmons, squished the heck out of them, and used them as sweetener and as the catalyst for fermentation. But not before tasting them first!
PS: persimmons are apparently known for predicting winter weather. According to these persimmons, we’re gonna have a cold, wet one. Blah.
At the end of the workshop, we had a volunteer session to help with whatever needed to be done on the farm. The farm manager gave us garlic to break up into cloves so they could be planted later this week (which really threw one lady for a loop: “They plant these? What grows from them? More garlic?”).
That’s when I became acquainted with the largest clove of garlic I’ve ever seen. Elephant garlic is a massive, less nutritious, more mild-tasting version of classic garlic that we’re used to. As much as I like garlic, I’m really puzzled how anyone could put this to good use.
Yup, that’s one clove. In my normal, human sized hand.
All in all, a great time! We were able to take home the jars of kimchi. I’ve never had it before but it’s supposed to be like a condiment. It’s often served with meat, since the fermentation helps with digestion, but I haven’t been eating much meat these days… I’m curious to see how it turns out!
Following the Dart 