What do wine, yogurt, beer, pickles, cheese and bread have in common? (Aside from making a delicious meal :D)
They have all been made through FERMENTATION!
Fermentation has been around for ages, and happening every day and everywhere. Cultures around the world have been fermenting longer than when we first started writing down recipes.
Kimchi is Korean. Sauerkraut is German. The French perfected cheese, bread and wine. The best yogurt I ever tasted was one I purchased at a farmers market in France.
Very simplistically, fermentation is the process of lactofermentation in which natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food, and creates beneficial enzymes, B-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids and various strains of probiotics. In short, it adds all sorts of healthy goodness and nutrition to your meal!
When I was starting to use food to heal my body, and nourish my children, doing any fermentation felt overwhelming. But when I learned that cheese, bread and wine were fermented (my staple comfort foods), I convinced myself that if I could make healthy cheese and bread from scratch, I could eat my comfort foods without guilt!
So I taught myself to make cheese (a great reason to have your own dairy cow right?) and bread. Then yogurt (and yes I got close to making an identical yogurt to the French yogurt I had tasted), milk kefir and kombucha quickly followed. Then I made pickles as lovey loves them (not a favorite of mine). I tried making sauerkraut, and eventually made one I liked!
And then I found fermented ketchup! If there's a heaven on earth, I've found it in fermented ketchup! You should really try it.
The BEST part of fermented foods, aside from being delicious, is that they are beneficial to your body. So every bite is a step towards a healthier you!
Another benefit of fermented foods is that it is budget friendly!
If you've started adding healthy foods into your diet and menus, you know that it can get expensive really quickly. Fermented foods (and drinks) will cost you only pennies per serving. You can turn a cabbage into several jars of sauerkraut to be used on burgers or with sausage. A half gallon of raw milk will not only give you cheese, but you'll also have the whey to use in further ferments.
So fermented foods are not only good for your body, but good for your budget too!
If you don't know where to start with adding fermented foods, or don't know how to make fermented foods, check out our list of events to see our class schedule.
