{"id":18378,"date":"2013-07-14T16:39:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T20:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/upstater.com\/?p=18378"},"modified":"2014-06-18T07:23:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T11:23:31","slug":"the-relocators-marks-fermentation-journey-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upstater.com\/the-relocators-marks-fermentation-journey-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Relocators: Mark\u2019s fermentation journey begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Original blog post written by Mark over at Kary & Mark Move Upstate<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\"Holding\n

I like to listen to podcasts when I\u2019m walking the dogs and lately there have been many on the subject of food and, in particular, the benefits of fermented foods.\u00a0 I recently finished Michael Pollan\u2019s excellent book\u00a0Cooked<\/a>\u00a0which, in addition to covering barbeque (fire), braising (water), and sourdough bread making (air), also has a great section on foods created via fermentation (earth).\u00a0 Pollan spends time withSandor Katz<\/a>, a well-respected \u201cfermentation revivalist\u201d and author of several books on the subject, including his classic\u00a0Wild Fermentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So when I stumbled on a class on fermentation at our local CSA farm share pickup location,Common Ground Farm<\/a>, I knew it was destiny.<\/p>\n

The class, taught with geeky good humor by instructor\u00a0Jessica Simkovic<\/a>, describes the basics of some different types of fermentation including basic bacterial pickling for vegetables (where a salty brine creates an environment where only the desirable lactobacillus bacteria can survive) as well as starter based yeast+bacteria ferments like wild sourdough and kombucha and, of course, temperature controlled yeast ferments like yoghurt, tempeh, kefir, bread, beer and wine.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\"Dilly\n

Dilly Beans<\/h2>\n

Our first hands-on activity was to create pickled dilly beans\u2014basically salt pickled green beans with fresh dill, garlic, pepper flakes, and black peppercorns.\u00a0 For a one quart ferment we used 2 tablespoons of sea salt, 1 to 2 tablespoons of pepper flakes, a teaspoon of peppercorns, fresh dill, whole garlic cloves and as many beans as we could cram in without them sticking up above the water.\u00a0 We covered them with water and sealed it up.\u00a0 When I got home I swapped cheesecloth for the lid to allow the ferment to breath without dust getting into the jar.\u00a0 In one or two weeks I should have a finished product.<\/p>\n

We also talked about using an air lock lid.\u00a0 It prevents air from getting into the brine while still allowing gases to escape.\u00a0 This approach prevents a problem where mold can form on any bits of vegetable that stick out of the brine solution.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a link at\u00a0Amazon<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got some on the way.\u00a0 The mad scientist in me just can\u2019t say no to lab equipment.<\/p>\n

Kombucha is freaky<\/h2>\n