Kennett Square Fermentation Festival

October 8, 11:33 AMPhiladelphia Sustainable Foods ExaminerErica Zbyszewski

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photo: Michael Zacharzewski 

On Sunday of last weekend the Lower East Side of Manhattan was the scene of The Ninth Annual New York City International Pickle Day. While New York seems like the obvious locale for an event celebrating the pickle, there's a similar festival scheduled for tomorrow in Kennett Square, PA. The first annual Fermentation Festival is a testament to the burgeoning sustainable/traditional foods movement in the Philadelphia area. On hand will be demonstrations on DIY kombucha, kimchee and yogurt making and samples from Zukay Live Foods, GT Synergy drinks, ROOT, Twin Lakes Brewery, Stargazers Vineyard, Victory Brewing Company, and Home Sweet Home Brew.

For many people the thought of something fermenting conjures up images of nastiness. And for most, a pickle is simply a limp cucumber submerged in a bath of vinegar and mustard seeds. Sour tomatoes are the pickle's slightly exotic cousin found only in the most authentic of Jewish Delicatessens. Traditional soured foods are nothing like the mass produced pickles of today. Virtually any fruit, vegetable, grain, fluid dairy or meat can be fermented allowing it to take on a much more nutritious and piquant variation.

For millennia cultures around the globe have easily transformed their staple foods into pickles to aid in digestion and also to preserve perishable items for long term storage.. Without pasteurization raw fermentations are actually living foods, teaming with active, healthy bacteria that colonize the digestive tract supplying ample nutrients.

In America yogurt is the quintessential example of a live dairy fermentation, although what you'd typically find on your grocer's shelf is most likely heated during processing causing health benefits to be minimal. No worries. Many natural food stores carry raw yogurt or you can very easily make some at home.

Katy Tackett of the blog Pickle Freak thinks we're in the midst of a fermenting rebirth. "Pickles trigger a nostalgic reaction. Most everyone remembers their grandmother or mother making pickles every summer or just being a kid and reaching their whole hand into pickle jar. Pickles are also the usual starting point for anyone who is beginning to can, and there is a huge movement of canners out there preserving their local harvests and family recipes which makes it a very personal process."

Fermenting at home brings out the scientist in all of us. With the weather turning colder bodies are gearing up for big pots of hearty soups and luscious stews. This is an ideal time to take inventory of summer-grown produce and prepare for a long, cold winter. Pickles, typically meant to be eaten as a condiment, make a unique and flavorful addition to any meal. Creating raw fermentations is an activity simple enough to do with small children or as a communal project with friends. And because properly jarred pickles get better as they age they make the perfect holiday gift. Ingredients can be grown in your own garden or bought in bulk at your local farmers' market on a shoestring budget.

Just a handful of ingredients are used for soured pickles and my favorite recipe is from Sandor Katz, the self-proclaimed fermentation revivalist and author of Wild Fermentation.

Timeframe: 1-4 weeks

Special Equipment: Ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket
Plate that fits inside crock or bucket
1-gallon/4-liter jug filled with water, or other weight
Cloth cover

Ingredients (for 1 gallon/4 liters):

• 3 to 4 pounds/1.5 to 2 kilograms unwaxed cucumbers (small to medium size)
• 3⁄8 cup (6 tablespoons)/90 milliliters sea salt
• 3 to 4 heads fresh flowering dill, or 3 to 4 tablespoons/45 to 60 milliliters of any form of dill (fresh or dried leaf or seeds)
• 2 to 3 heads garlic, peeled
• 1 handful fresh grape, cherry, oak, and/or
• horseradish leaves (if available)
• 1 pinch black peppercorns

Process:

1. Rinse cucumbers, taking care to not bruise them, and making sure their blossoms are removed. Scrape off any remains at the blossom end. If you’re using cucumbers that aren’t fresh off the vine that day, soak them for a couple of hours in very cold water to freshen them.
2. Dissolve sea salt in ½gallon (2 liters) of water to create brine solution. Stir until salt is thoroughly dissolved.
3. Clean the crock, then place at the bottom of it dill, garlic, fresh grape leaves, and a pinch of black peppercorns.
4. Place cucumbers in the crock.
5. Pour brine over the cucumbers,place the (clean) plate over them, then weigh it down with a jug filled with water or a boiled rock. If the brine doesn’t cover the weighed-down plate, add more brine mixed at the same ratio of just under 1 tablespoon of salt to each cup of water.
6. Cover the crock with a cloth to keep out dust and flies and store it in a cool place.
7. Check the crock every day. Skim any mold from the surface, but don’t worry if you can’t get it all. If there’s mold, be sure to rinse the plate and weight. Taste the pickles after a few days.
8. Enjoy the pickles as they continue to ferment. Continue to check the crock every day.
9. Eventually, after one to four weeks (depending on the temperature), the pickles will be fully sour. Continue to enjoy them, moving them to the fridge to slow down fermentation.

After you've perfected this simple recipe and you're astonished by how incredibly fun it is to ferment, go ahead and try some more adventurous experiments. Look for more recipes here in the upcoming weeks.