Lacto-Fermentation Class

Photo Essay from my Lacto-Fermentation Class

Lacto-Fermentation is an ancient fermenting technique that helps repair a stressed digestion and helps maintain a healthy one! It's easy and economical. Now is an excellent time to make sauerkraut from newly harvested cabbages.

Laura Davis, from Long Life Farm & CSA in Hopkinton, Mass, asked me if I would be willing to offer a fermentation class to her CSA shareholders. I happily accepted for many reasons, one being that I wanted to see how my commercial kitchen would transform into a teaching kitchen.

It transformed beautifully, holding 11 participants! We made sauerkraut and kim chi. Check out the photos:

Here's Laura!
    

Here's the kitchen transformed:


Here are the students diligently pressing cabbage into jars:


Here's the Low Salt Sauerkraut I made a few weeks before class:


And the kim chi I made...too hot for me!!!


Now, about a month later, people are opening and enjoying the fruits of our labors.
Learn this easy and ancient technique in my book:

   Lacto-Fermentation Through The Seasons
A  60-page book about fermenting vegetables starting in spring right through to fall.
Purchase in PDF or Hard Copy

Free September Newsletter!!

September Newsletter is out!! Click here to read! This month's topics: Lacto-Fermented Cucumber Relish Whole Grain Sorghum Frozen Tomatoes Congestion Buster Bread Crumbs & recipe for GF meatloaf

Free August Newsletter!!

August Newsletter!! Click to read!

This month's topics:
Flour: Store Bought vs. Home Milled Easy Summer Corn-Free Succotash Summer Greens for Winter Soups Rhubarb Rose Petal Water Kefir

They giggled when they saw rocks in my drawer

I just don’t understand it! I had a class full of eager students and when I opened the drawer to get measuring cups they started giggling and whispering. “Look, she has rocks in her drawer, lots and lots of rocks!”

The reason I have rocks in my drawer is that I use them. I use them when I make sauerkraut and other lactofermented vegetables. It keeps the vegetables submerged under the brine making for a better fermentation.

When choosing rocks look for round, rather flat rocks that will easily fit through the mouth of your jars. Discard any rocks that are porous, flake or get gritty when rubbed. I use wide mouth canning jars for my fermentations so a rock about 3 inches in diameter works well. I soak them in warm, soapy water, scrub them with a stiff brush, put them through the dishwasher and boil them to sterilize just before using. When not in use I store them in the drawer. Where else would I store them?

This fall I actually seemed to run out of the right size rocks so my friend, along with her 2 year old, went and collected from their garden. I was so grateful for the gift!

I recently heard from a Sauerkraut class student that he couldn’t get his hands on rocks but was trying giant marbles. I think that would work very well and would lend a festive air to the jars, don’t you?

Read about making Sauerkraut in my September posting, A month's worth of probiotics for the price of a cabbage.