My neighbor Sandor Katz, who is an author of several books on the fascinating subject of cultural revival, hired me to make a back-splash in his new teaching kitchen. In a 150-year-old log cabin on the north side of Short Mountain, he is growing a new home for the Foundation for Fermentation Fervor. Sandor is drawing from the neighborhood stable of creative talent, and rocking out this off-the-grid, solar fueled, spring watered temple to biodiversity. I am grateful to be included in the project.

Sandy is creating a space where the biological cultures and traditions of food preservation from all over the world are cultivated, proliferated, shared, imbibed and celebrated. Here are some photos documenting my little piece of the process.

Sandy's website;
 www.wildfermentation.com


glazing day, with sample tiles in the foreground~

Load the kiln~

fire it up~

some more tiles, drying under weights~

before pictures of the space~

good lookin boss~

yay! Thanks for all your help on the install, Leopard Zeppard. The pears and rutabegas and parsnips were delicious.

Foundation for Fermentation Fervor

Making Yogurt Cheese

We were very lucky last Thursday to have a delivery of fresh, raw Jersey cow's milk delivered to our neighborhood. I had 4 gallons of it, and was looking for a way to use it. I ran across a cheesecake recipe in a magazine, and was inspired.

I had already made the yogurt, so I just needed to strain it. Looking around my kitchen for somewhere to hang my cheesecloth, I started thinking about the inevitable bugs. We are processing tomatoes/other garden produce like crazy, so there is bugs in my kitchen for sure. It is just part of summer, but not my favorite part.

So here was my solution, and another use for my fermentation crocks, producing a cheese that is just like cream cheese in consistency, but with a yogurt flavor. It worked in the cheesecake recipe just perfectly too. The whey, if used as the liquid in bread dough, makes the softest, sweetest, fluffiest bread.

This towel over the whole thing really effectively kept all bugs out of the cheese.

The yogurt is poured into the cheesecloth "hammock"

whey filters through, the curds are trapped in the cloth hammock

lid holds cheesecloth hammock in place, keeps out bugs

tucked up the cloth, it wicks the moisture and I HATE bugs...

 

Kraut Crocks

Fermentation Crocks made with ash glazes in a wood and salt atmosphere kiln. All ingredients are non-toxic. The inner lid is designed to press your vegetable material under the brine mixture.

This is the old world kraut crock, heirloom quality. I have a neighbor who has a three gallon crock from her great grandmother that was passed down and brought over from Romania. We just made a new lid for it in our studio, and the glaze couldn't match better...except if we had Romanian wood ashes.

The pictured crocks hold approximately 1-1/2 gallons and are priced at $135 (plus shipping/handling), which includes Sandor Katz' book, "Wild Fermentation"(the definitive guide to fermenting, pickling and brewing for fun and health). The crocks are $115 without the book, but you won't get the book for a better price (retails $25), and anyone looking for homegrown fermentation knowledge shouldn't have to live without it.

Sandor Katz' website has an abundance of information on the subject of fermented foods: www.wildfermentation.com