Fermented Life

Where to begin. We just arrived in Portland to spend Memorial weekend with Lauren. We must have brought the sunshine with us, because all I’ve heard about for the past several (spring) months is, “Will it ever stop raining???” Well, it has. It’s beautiful here and that’s a good thing, because Verne has a project (refinish her deck) that was postponed from our last trip. This isn’t the beginning of my story, though. In fact, this blog post isn’t intended to be about our Memorial weekend in Portland (that we haven’t yet experienced), but what’s kept us (me) so busy over the past two months that I’ve not had time to write about it until now.

If you’ve been reading my blog since before January 2014 when I started my master food preserver (MFP) training, you’ll know that my life revolves around this program and has since the get-go. I can’t explain why I’m so taken with it…but I’ll try. Initially, it was all about jams and jellies for me, the quintessential home canned food. I spent most of 2014 and 2015 learning about pectin and acid and the science behind the magic of jams, jellies, and marmalades. I read everything I could find on the subject and we experimented with whatever fruits were in season making batch after batch of jam. I say “we” because Verne was there in the kitchen with me helping with every batch. As all avid canners experience, it wasn't long before we were faced with a growing problem: What to do with all of the product? The obvious answer was to give it away. I didn’t just give away a single jar of jam, I began giving away six-packs of jam to everyone I knew, including casual acquaintances. I was even giving the stuff to people I didn’t know. For example, I would send Maria, my (former) daughter-in-law and a commercial fisherwoman by trade, with 50-60 jars of jam to share with her co-workers during their six months at sea. They loved it. And, I have managed to keep my inventory of sweet spreads manageable.

Well, after all this jamming I have become the local “expert”. I use that word loosely, as I’m far from an expert, but then it’s all relative and there’s nobody in our Amador, Calaveras, and El Dorado groups that have matched my interest and enthusiasm for all things sweet spreads so I remain the go-to person when it comes to the subject. Then I discovered the subject of fermentation and my days of jamming ceased. It started with sauerkraut and dill pickles. I’ve always loved kraut and dills and all things tart and was inspired when I learned to make my own. Again, nobody else in my MFP group shared my enthusiasm for the topic so I became the lead teacher for both public classes as well as continuing education for local MFPs. “Local” has taken me to the three counties I just mentioned and expanded to Sacramento, Yolo, and Solano counties. And, again, it is laughable to think of me as a subject “expert”, but just goes to show you how you can shine when you hang out with the right (or wrong) bunch of people. All very nice folks, but more often than not their involvement in the MFP program is for reasons more social than serious. Not so with me.

By comparison to the other subjects we teach, it turns out that fermentation is a hot topic and one that even our fellow Amadorian’s have heard about and have some interest in. Strong demand for classes on kimchi (a fermented vegetables), kombucha (a fermented, sweetened tea), kefir (another fermented beverage), and yogurt (yet another fermented product) has been keeping me busy. In April I taught a 3-hour class on fermentation and tried to jam in (pun intended) all that I know about fermented veggies, yogurt, and beverages. It turns out I know quite a bit and ended up giving more of an overview than in-depth discussion with step-by-step demos. It was a case of over-committing and under-delivering and I left the 40 people in attendance wanting more…longer classes (full day), individual hands-on workshops, and so on.  All the kudos and interest and demand for more sounds great, right? Let’s put this in perspective. I am a volunteer for this program. Not only is the significant amount of time I spend on the program unpaid (I just qualified for my thousand-hour badge), but my expenses are largely unreimbursed. I could ask for reimbursement for a portion of my direct class expenses, but the one time I navigated through the hoops and red tape, my form and original receipts were lost and I have yet to receive my pittance of a reimbursement. Instead I’ve decided I’ll just be satisfied with a tax deduction for the thousands of dollars I spend on the program. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.

Sorry about the whining. I really do love the program. It’s given me a reason to immerse myself in areas of study about food and food science that I would never have considered without such an impetus. I’ve become like some people you’ve probably known, who discover some religious or other truth and are driven to share it with anyone who will listen, willing or not, over and over again. Single-minded. A little of that person goes a long way. That’s me these days. I just can’t help myself. For me, the root of all things seems to be in fermented foods and the most casual of conversations, totally unrelated to food preservation, will hold some trigger that starts me talking about fermented foods...the oldest, easiest, and safest form of long-term food preservation yielding probiotic-rich food alive with beneficial bacteria and yeast. See, there I go!

My latest fermented food experiment is with kefir. You may have seen kefir in the dairy section of your grocery store. It is sometimes described as drinkable yogurt. For your information, it is not yogurt at all. It is made up of three or four times the number of bacteria and yeast strains than yogurt, does not require heat to culture, and it’s not spoonable, but drinkable with the consistency of buttermilk. By the way, did you know that buttermilk is a fermented product made from living bacteria? The starter culture for both versions of kefir (milk kefir and water kefir) are called kefir grains. They are not grains at all, but the manifestation of bacteria and yeast that have a symbiotic relationship. In other words, the mother culture is a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). The milk kefir grains look a little like cottage cheese or cauliflower. The water kefir grains look like small translucent crystals with the texture of gummies and feed on sugar water. The resulting fermented drink is slightly carbonated from the fermentation process (the yeast consumes the sugar and produces carbon dioxide) and can be flavored with any fruit, fruit or vegetable juice.

Milk Kefir Grains

My first introduction to a bacteria-yeast culture was the kombucha SCOBY. Initially, it was scary to look at. Some people take one look and run the other way. Not me and I have to say it’s grown on me. Not literally, although it can be used topically. The kombucha SCOBY is a thick slab of cellulose that takes the shape of its container; it’s slippery to hold, but not slimy, has long brown yeast strands that hang from its bottom side. The SCOBY’s main purpose is to culture sweetened tea, producing a beverage called kombucha, which tastes a bit like apple cider vinegar. With each batch of kombucha, a baby SCOBY is produced. Kombucha SCOBYs are hearty, thrive under most conditions, and forgiving to the most neglectful of owners. They are shy and only ask that they be kept in a dark, warm, out-of-the-way place and occasionally be given sweetened tea for their sustenance.

Kombucha SCOBY

Both kefir cultures or SCOBYs are needy! In other words, they are like demanding pets without the cuteness of your furry little friends. Kefir grains require daily attention with feedings every 12-24 hours, depending on the ambient temperature, and require occasional agitation during the day (the grains, not you). They live in their food, so each day they must be strained and placed in a clean jar with a fresh supply of milk or sugar water. The liquid that is removed is the drinkable dairy or water kefir – that probiotic rich drink that is the purpose behind the process. It is this daily regimen that has required us to travel to Portland with our jars of fermenting kefir. Doesn’t that beat all! We hire a caretaker for the pets, but I don’t trust her with the kefir so it’s on vacation with us. Unfriggenbelievable! There you have it in a nutshell. This is just a glimpse of my journey into the art of fermentation and the beginning of our week vacation to Portland. 

More about Portland later…

Dual Perspective

According to Verne…

Joyce has become involved (no, obsessed) with a foodie program called "Master Food Preservers" (she is advisory board vice president, education coordinator, and teaches many of the classes). Recently, she has been devoting all of her time to this program, because she gets roped into teaching (the program offers one public class each month) and that means spending hours of reading and making many of the recipes that she or other instructors will be teaching. Her most recent class was on fermentation. So she has been reading books, such as: Fermented Vegetables, Wild Fermentation, The Art of Fermentation, The Hot Knives Vegetarian Cookbook, and Roy Choi L.A. Son. Well, you get the picture.

I get dragged into this because I’m her kitchen helper. One of the ferments she has discovered is Kimchi, which originated in Korea. All of the books I mentioned above have recipes for Kimchi and tout the great taste and benefits of fermented Napa cabbage (and other veggies). To try it out as well as begin to collect the necessary ingredients to make her own Kimchi, we visited a Korean market in Sacramento. It was an interesting experience to see all of the different Korean food items, many available in huge quantities (50 lb bags of rice and 20 lb bags of crushed red peppers), and try to communicate with the owners, who spoke little to no English. She purchased a jar of Kimchi to try as well as to use as comparison when she makes her own. However, we got home and she didn’t have the courage to taste the stuff. I took a large bite and found it to be delicious. So, my challenge was to figure out how to use it. Well, we had a cup of left-over cooked white rice, which I fried in a couple of tablespoons of sesame oil, then added about 3 tablespoons of the Kimchi, which I chopped into reasonably small pieces. I sautéed the Kimchi for about 3 minutes or so to warm and incorporate the flavors into the rice and finished it with finely chopped green onions. We ate Kimchi Rice for dinner and loved it. It’s one of our new (quick) favorite foods.

According to Joyce…

I admit that I am obsessed with food preservation and the MFP program in general. My goal was to learn how to safely make and preserve jam. That was back in January 2014. I intended to complete my Master Food Preserver training, put in my 50 hours of community service, and say “adios” to the people and the program. It’s July 2015 and my volunteer hours for the past year are in excess of 300 (that’s what I’ve logged – my actual hours are probably triple that) and I’m committed for at least another year. The more I learn, the more enthusiastic I become. It’s gone well beyond jams and jellies, although I still love to make them and teach others on the nuances of making an artisan slow-cooked jam.

This past spring I was “roped” into teaching a class on dehydrating. It was the perfect opportunity to take out Verne’s Christmas gift, an Excalibur Dehydrator, and give it a try. Two weeks of non-stop drying and the results were amazing. I was again “roped” into teaching a class on Fermentation and Pickling the first of this month. I now have a new “best friend” in El Dorado, who taught the fermentation portion of the class, and together Laura and I are taking classes outside the MFP program on Kombucha and Fermented Drinks. Just to be clear, as MFP’s we are only allowed to teach fermentation as a preservation method using sauerkraut and dill pickles as examples. Anyway, Laura gave me a baby SCOBY (which stands for symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) and coached me on making my own Kombucha in preparation for our class next week. All I can say is OMG! It has been quite the experience.

For most of you, fermenting is a mystery even though approximately one-third of the food you eat has been fermented. Beer and wine, vinegar and soy sauce, sourdough bread, sauerkraut and old-fashioned deli dill pickles are all examples of fermented foods. I started by making fermented sauerkraut and dill pickles and have had phenomenal results. It was the recent class and my new BFF who inspired me to go beyond that and learn more about the process and take a giant leap into the world of fermentation.

I will be the first to admit it can be scary…leaving foods at room temperature (as MFP’s we call this the “danger” zone) with a little bit of salt and in some cases only their own juices to create an environment that is hostile to all of the “bad” microorganisms that generally rot food. These ferments are not just left for a day or two, but a month or longer. Even scarier than eating something that has been sitting out for that long is the process of making Kombucha and seeing and holding the pancake-shaped slab of bacteria that is created during the process and even multiplies and has babies. Here's a picture of me and my (baby) SCOBY.

Let me explain the process of making Kombucha. It begins with a gallon of sweetened brewed tea that has been brought to room temperature. The SCOBY is placed in the glass container along with the tea and will either sink to the bottom or float on top. Either works. The container is covered with cheesecloth and placed in a room that maintains a temperature range of about 65°-75°F. After a few days a film develops on top of the tea, which is the baby SCOBY. It thickens until it’s about 1/8” thick or more when the ferment is complete. The baby along with the mother SCOBY are removed from the tea and placed in a covered glass dish with about two cups of fermented tea and they reside there until one of them is needed to make the next batch of Kombucha. After the first ferment, fruit may be added for a secondary ferment to further flavor the drink. The fruit is removed on the second or third day and the Kombucha is ready to bottle and refrigerate. After several more days in the refrigerator, when the “fizz” is to your liking, the Kombucha is ready to be enjoyed.

The health benefits of this drink and other fermented foods rich with beneficial bacteria seem to be endless. I’m past being scared and am a true believer. Our basement walk-in pantry (now called our “fermenting” room) is alive with ferments of several kinds and our new practice is to eat or drink one each day. Verne may say he was “dragged” into my obsession (no, passion) for preserving foods, but I would suggest he is an enthusiastic partner right there by my side whenever I want to can, dehydrate, or ferment. Most recently, he has gotten into making his own fermented sourdough starter and we will soon be enjoying his first loaf of sourdough bread. I ask you, does that sound like a man who has been “dragged”? I don’t think so. There are days I feel like he’s behind me pushing. Bottom line…we make a good team!

P.S. Verne’s Kimchi rice concoction is delicious!