Full Schedule below. You can register for Annual Membership that includes all the upcoming Salt and Ceremony sessions, and access to everything from 11/01/2022 to 12/31/2023. Or, you can register for individual events, or a $50 package for 2 events, or $60 for all 5 events. $75 gets you into all events, past, present and future – until 12/31/2023. Only Annual Members (and Salt and Ceremony video makers) will have access to videos past 12/31/2022.
Annual Membership from 11/01/2022 – 12/31/2023 plus all events and videos
Annual Membership includes access to any event in 2022 and 2023, including all the Salt and Ceremony sessions and associated videos, and the video archives from now until the end of 2023
$75.00
Salt and Ceremony – Any 2 Sessions
Salt and Ceremony Sessions take place on December 4th, December 5th, December 11th, December 12th, and December 18th. Each event will have a live hour long presentation, then 2 hours of streaming videos. Registrants that do not opt to purchase an Annual membership have until 12/31/2022 to view the recordings and associated videos.
$50.00
Salt and Ceremony – All Five Sessions
All Five Events of Salt and Ceremony. Sessions take place on December 4th, December 5th, December 11th, December 12th, and December 18th. Each event will have a live hour long presentation, then 2 hours of streaming videos. Registrants that do not opt to purchase an Annual membership have until 12/31/2022 to view the recordings and associated videos.
$60.00
Salt and Ceremony – December 4th : Past, Present and Future Salt
You can purchase access to this individual Salt and Ceremony event. You will have access to the live event, and the recording, when completed, associated with that event until 12/31/2022. 1:00 to 4 PM EST. Picture is of Kevin Gondo of Shared Cultures in San Francisco. He and Eleana Hsu are presenting at this first session with Galia Kleiman, Sandor Katz, Maria Mantilla, Soirée-Leone, Nancy Singleton Hachisu, Haruko Uchishiba, Will Moffat, Takashi Sato and others.
$30.00
Salt and Ceremony – December 5th: Salt, Grains, Seeds and Beans
You can purchase access to this individual Salt and Ceremony event. You will have access to the live event, and the recording, when completed, associated with that event until 12/31/2022. 1:00 to 4 PM EST. With Dawn Woodward, Katrya Kalyuzhna, Jennifer Lapidus, Ekta Maheshwari , Sean Doherty, Darra Goldstein, Ellie Markovitch, Fermenthings, and others
$30.00
Salt and Ceremony – December 11th: The Miracle of Salt
You can purchase access to this individual Salt and Ceremony event. You will have access to the live event, and the recording, when completed, associated with that event until 12/31/2022. 11:00 TO 2:00 PM EST. With Priya Mani, Naomi Duguid, Krishnendu Ray, John Hutt, Melanie McIntosh, Cultured and Cured Alex Gunuey and Amy Kalafa, Karen McAthy, Llewyn Máire, and Vanika Choudhary
$30.00
Salt and Ceremony – December 12th: Salt, Sand, and Survival 5:00 to 8:00 PM EST
You can purchase access to this individual Salt and Ceremony event. You will have access to the live event, and the recording, when completed, associated with that event until 12/31/2022. 3:00 PM TO 6:00 PM EST. With Meredith Leigh, Laurent Serin and Javier Gutiérrez Carcache of ¿Adonde Lab?, Nader Mehravari , Eve Jazmati, Trevor Warmedahl, Kartik Singh, Connie Chew, Anshita Dawar and others.
$30.00
Salt and Ceremony – December 18th: Salt, History, and Cultures 3:00 to 6:00 PM EST
You can purchase access to this individual Salt and Ceremony event. You will have access to the live event, and the recording, when completed, associated with that event until 12/31/2022. 3:00 PM TO 6:00 PM EST. With William Rubel, Justin Tyler Tate, Patrícia Miguel, Eleni Michael, Wade Fox, TJ Vestal, Ken Fornataro and others
$30.00
Individual Salt and Ceremony events costs $30 USD. $50 for 2 sessions of Salt and Ceremony, $60 for all 5. Each session has a live segment of about an hour, then two hours of streaming videos made by people from all over the world.
Buying a new Annual Membership at $75 also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, all the Salt and Ceremony sessions and any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos and the edited ones as they become available. Please specify what you would like at the payment link https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Karen McAthy is the CEO, co-founder of Lumi Foods and Blue Heron Cheese from Vancouver, Canada, the author of the first and significantly expanded second edition of The Art of Plantbased Cheesemaking (winner of the 2018 Gourmand World Cookbook award, vegan category), and has taught hundreds of students from around the world, how to make cultured plant based cheeses.
Salt and Aging Plant based Cultured Cheeses: rind and flavor development.Register Here: Annual Membership Includes all Salt and Ceremony Sessions, access to hundreds and hundreds of videos, and access to videos and events until December 31, 2023
While plant-based cheese methodology lacks a universal cohesion like its dairy counterpart, or longer established fermentation practices, the beginnings of universal approaches are starting to coalesce. Many focus on creating precise replicas of dairy standards, but this workshop is intended to focus on how plant based cheeses can be stand alone new cheeses, with their own characteristics, and learning how to age a cheese is key to understanding the relationship between microbes, salt, humidity and temperature, and other factors.
Selection of Blue Heron Cheeses
On December 11th we will be featuring Karen’s workshop videos as part of our Salt and Ceremony Events. This session: The Miracle of Salt, is live broadcast from 11:00 AM EST to 2:00 PM EST. The first hour will be a live event, followed by streaming videos. All of this will be available in the showcases for these events. If you can’t attend the event and participate live, you can watch them later. But you must register (See below).
Karen is the CEO, co-founder of Lumi Foods and Blue Heron Cheese from Vancouver, Canada, the author of the first and significantly expanded second edition of The Art of Plantbased Cheesemaking (winner of the 2018 Gourmand World Cookbook award, vegan category), and has taught hundreds of students from around the world, how to make cultured plantbased cheeses. Under her direction, Lumi Foods is currently developing a line of vegan starter cultures specifically for use in plantbased and alternative dairy cheesemaking practices, a result of research undertaken within a Lumi led consortium project in Protein Industries Canada. https://lumifoods.com
Salt and Ceremony Sessions
December 4th : Past, Present and Future Salt – 1:00 to 4 PM EST December 5th: Salt, Grains, Seeds and Beans – 1:00 to 4PM EST December 11th: The Miracle of Salt – 11:00 to 2:00 PM EST December 12th: Salt, Sand, and Survival – 5:00 to 8:00 PM EST
$75 for Annual Membership that includes from November 1, 2022 to 12/31/2023 (that’s 14 months) and all the Salt and Ceremony sessions.
Individual Salt and Ceremony events costs $30 USD. $50 for all 4 sessions of Salt and Ceremony. Each session has a live segment of about an hour, then two hours of streaming videos made by people from all over the world.
We are recording each session and will make them available the last week od December, viewable until 12/31/2022. All 4 sessions – recorded if you can’t make it – with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year costs $50
Buying a new Annual Membership at $75 also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos and the edited ones as they are available. Please specify what you would like at the payment link https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Salt and Aging Plant based Cultured Cheeses: rind and flavor development.Register Here: Annual Membership Includes all Salt and Ceremony Sessions, access to hundreds and hundreds of videos, and access to videos and events until December 31, 2023
On December 11th we will be featuring Karen’s workshop videos as part of our Salt and Ceremony Events. This session: The Miracle of Salt, is live broadcast from 11:00 AM EST to 2:00 PM EST. The first hour will be a live event, followed by streaming videos. All of this will be available in the showcases for these events. If you can’t attend the event and participate live, you can watch them later. But you must register.
Young Plant Cheese on Bamboo
Karen is the CEO, co-founder of Lumi Foods and Blue Heron Cheese from Vancouver, Canada, the author of the first and significantly expanded second edition of The Art of Plantbased Cheesemaking (winner of the 2018 Gourmand World Cookbook award, vegan category), and has taught hundreds of students from around the world, how to make cultured plantbased cheeses. Under her direction, Lumi Foods is currently developing a line of vegan starter cultures specifically for use in plantbased and alternative dairy cheesemaking practices, a result of research undertaken within a Lumi led consortium project in Protein Industries Canada. https://lumifoods.com
Salt and Ceremony Sessions
December 4th : Past, Present and Future Salt – 1:00 to 4 PM EST December 5th: Salt, Grains, Seeds and Beans – 1:00 to 4PM EST December 11th: The Miracle of Salt – 11:00 to 2:00 PM EST December 12th: Salt, Sand, and Survival – 5:00 to 8:00 PM EST
$75 for Annual Membership that includes from November 1, 2022 to 12/31/2023 (that’s 14 months) and all the Salt and Ceremony sessions.
Individual Salt and Ceremony events costs $30 USD. $50 for all 4 sessions of Salt and Ceremony. Each session has a live segment of about an hour, then two hours of streaming videos made by people from all over the world.
We are recording each session and will make them available the last week od December, viewable until 12/31/2022. All 4 sessions – recorded if you can’t make it – with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year costs $50
Buying a new Annual Membership at $75 also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos and the edited ones as they are available. Please specify what you would like at the payment link https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Maria Mantilla of Ma! Condimentos vivos de Asia has been fermenting koji in Barcelona since 2017. In 2020 she switched the praised mediterranean salt for something more significant and historical in Spain: a 7000 year old mineral salt valley in Añana, a province of Basque country. Maria will explain a little bit about this place, the importance of sourcing locally in her ferments and will improvise a fun Sagohachizuke (三五八漬け) done with Bahía rice, another heirloom variety of rice typical from Girona, Catalunya.
On December 4th we will be broadcasting Maria’s videos as part of Salt and Ceremony. If you can’t attend the event and watch them live, you can watch them later. Along with lots of other videos and the live event once ready. But you must register (See below).
Barley Miso. Miso is a very easy to make, or buy, tasty paste used in cooking and sometimes baking. It can range from being as sweet as sugar to deeply salty.
Maria Mantilla (Photo: Rosa Molinero Trias) December 4th.
Salt and Ceremony Sessions
December 4th : Past, Present and Future Salt – 1:00 to 4 PM EST December 5th: Salt, Grains, Seeds and Beans – 1:00 to 4PM EST December 11th: The Miracle of Salt – 11:00 to 2:00 PM EST December 12th: Salt, Sand, and Survival – 5:00 to 8:00 PM EST
To Register for Salt and Ceremony
$75 for Annual Membership that includes from November 1, 2022 to 12/31/2023 (that’s 14 months) and all the Salt and Ceremony sessions.
Individual Salt and Ceremony events costs $30 USD. $50 for all 4 sessions of Salt and Ceremony. Each session has a live segment of about an hour, then two hours of streaming videos made by people from all over the world.
We are recording each session and will make them available the last week od December, viewable until 12/31/2022. All 4 sessions – recorded if you can’t make it – with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year costs $50
Buying a new Annual Membership at $75 also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos and the edited ones as they are available. Please specify what you would like at the payment link https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Koji Tane or spores. These are how koji is encouraged to grow on mainly different things like rice, barley or soybeans.
Making sure the rice for koji making has been properly steamed. Perfect koji rice, every time!Koji rice is sometimes used to make shio koji is used in many applications in the kitchen. It’s an all purpose flavor booster created by the enzymes that are created by the mold called Aspergillus oryzae.
Block of Koji, or rice that has a powerful mold that makes enzymes that create great food! It also makes sake, or soy sauce, or a sweet rice drink called amasake. You’ll learn all about these things at Salt and Ceremony.How the Japanese seasoning agent, tamari, usually wheat and gluten free, is actually made. Eleana, the co-founder and co-owner of Shared Cultures and Kevin will show you what they discovered in their latest trip to Japan.Eleana Hsu, wild mushroom forager and enthusiastic flavor chaser. Sometimes mushrooms end up in the tasty things that Shared Cultures sells. Like this! Or a super easy to use amino sauce made from koji to make quick, fresh salds or quick pickles (gluten free) or as a soy sauce replacement. Or This!
To Register for Salt and Ceremony
$75 for Annual Membership that includes from November 1, 2022 to 12/31/2023 (that’s 14 months) and all the Salt and Ceremony sessions.
Individual Salt and Ceremony events costs $30 USD. $50 for all 4 sessions of Salt and Ceremony. Each session has a live segment of about an hour, then two hours of streaming videos made by people from all over the world.
We are recording each session and will make them available the last week od December, viewable until 12/31/2022. All 4 sessions – recorded if you can’t make it – with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year costs $50
Buying a new Annual Membership at $75 also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos and the edited ones as they are available. Please specify what you would like at the payment link https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Kevin Gondo of Shared Cultures next to some huge wooden tubs of aging koji based umami. Good Morrow and Morels!
Katrya Kalyuzhna Sour Cherry PyrizhkyKatrya Kalyuzhna Sourdough Baking Master Class DECEMBER 5 TH, 2022 1:00 TO 4PM EST
To Register for Salt and Ceremony
$75 for Annual Membership that includes from November 1, 2022 to 12/31/2023 (14 months)
$50 for all 4 sessions of Salt and Ceremony, live events and videos until 12/31/2022. All 4 sessions – recorded if you can’t make it – with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs $50
Individual Salt and Ceremony events costs $30 USD.
Buying a new Annual Membership at $75 also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos and the edited ones as they are available. Specify what you would like.
$75 for Annual Membership that includes from November 1, 2022 to 12/31/2023 (14 months)
$50 for all 4 sessions of Salt and Ceremony, live events and videos until 12/31/2022. All 4 sessions – recorded if you can’t make it – with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs $50
Individual Salt and Ceremony events costs $30 USD.
Buying a new Annual Membership at $75 also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos and the edited ones as they are available. Specify what you would like.
$75 for Annual Membership that includes from November 1, 2022 to 12/31/2023 (14 months)
$50 for all 4 sessions of Salt and Ceremony, live events and videos until 12/31/2022. All 4 sessions – recorded if you can’t make it – with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs $50
Individual Salt and Ceremony events costs $30 USD.
Buying a new Annual Membership at $75 also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos and the edited ones as they are available. Specify what you would like.
Salt and Ceremony Events: $50 for all 4 sessions. Each event costs $30 USD per session. All 4 sessions with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs only $50 – not $120.
Buying a new Annual Membership also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos as they are available. https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Of course, any video creator for Salt and Ceremony will have access to the entire library until December 31, 2023, and can update their videos at any time.
Salt and Ceremony Events: $50 for all 4 sessions. Each event costs $30 USD per session. All 4 sessions with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs only $50 – not $120.
Buying a new Annual Membership also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos as they are available. https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Of course, any video creator for Salt and Ceremony will have access to the entire library until December 31, 2023, and can update their videos at any time.
Cultures.Group has been hosting live and online events for the last ten years. In the works for the last twenty has been a book that would enable people of all levels of experience and skill in cooking, baking, preserving and fermenting skill to make better, more nutritious and tastier food and drinks using knowledge culled from experience in home kitchens, restaurants and research laboratories around the world.
But we decided to forego the usual book deal to create a digitized, live library of videos of over 500 recipes that provide the ingredients and preparation steps upfront along with a video demonstration, and glossaries with searchable text. That’s our book.
Each recipe demonstrates a technique as well, such as how to blanch vegetables to create amazing pickles, or salt the nasty tastes from things while extending their shelf life, to making both traditional and unique tempeh, koji, sourdough bread, garums, soy sauce, shio koji, miso, vegetarian dishes, sake, kvass – just about anything you might want to make, hopefully – while including interesting facts and tips about some off the ingredients and techniques included.
As we create this work we wanted to actually test each video out by making them available at events like the Salt and Ceremony sessions this December, and in our library. If anyone can’t a session this December, or gets called away, they can go into the library and watch the associated videos whenever they like.
We always ask people to make videos for our programs. In the last ten years, many have. Others have participated in discussions and panels that were later edited. For this final set of sessions for our program WritersCultures we decided to invite people to create videos or to make presentations around a specific theme – actually, what our book is about.
We asked people to make videos related to a ceremony, especially ones that involved salt. But we wanted to make them something that someone might be celebrating or observing during the month of December, such as Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Bhagavad Gita Jayanti, Bodhi Day, Yule or Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, Three Kings Day, or the Year of the Rabbit.
But life is a ritual and a celebration that takes place every day. None of these days would be possible without salt. So videos about no longer practiced rituals, or holidays that take or took place in December, or anything focused on Salt in any culture, or a cultural tradition unrelated to salt or ceremony but about survival.
The response was amazing. We are in the process of transferring, editing, framing and summarizing these videos for the live events that take place on December 4th, 5th, 11th and 12th. Each day has at least an hour long live portion, then a few hours of video streaming.
Hopefully, the live part will be editable into a recording that people can watch afterwards. In any case, we have videos from everyone pre-recorded. These sessions and the associated videos will also be included in the library for our members to watch throughout the year . New members can do so until December 31, 2023.
To Register for Salt and Ceremony
Salt and Ceremony Events: $50 for all 4 sessions. Each event costs $30 USD per session. All 4 sessions with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs only $50 – not $120.
Buying a new Annual Membership also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos as they are available. https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Of course, any video creator for Salt and Ceremony will have access to the entire library until December 31, 2023, and can update their videos at any time.
It available now. Anywhere that books are sold. And it’s great. She wil be discussing it at length in the Salt and Ceremony sessions. Register now!
Salt and Ceremony Events: $50 for all 4 sessions. Each event costs $30 USD per session. All 4 sessions with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs only $50 – not $120.
Buying a new Annual Membership also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos as they are available. https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Of course, any video creator for Salt and Ceremony will have access to the entire library until December 31, 2023, and can update their videos at any time.
Salt and Ceremony Events: $50 for all 4 sessions. Each event costs $30 USD per session. All 4 sessions with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs only $50 – not $120.
Buying a new Annual Membership also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos as they are available. https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Of course, any video creator for Salt and Ceremony will have access to the entire library until December 31, 2023, and can update their videos at any time.
Salt and Ceremony Events: $50 for all 4 sessions. Each event costs $30 USD per session. All 4 sessions with associated videos are watchable until the end of the year and costs only $50 – not $120.
If you purchase a new Annual Membership for $75 you can access all 4 live events and watch associated videos until the end of next December 31, 2023.
Buying a new Annual Membership also means you will be able to access, at no additional cost, any event in 2023, as well as access to any new videos as they are available. Please use https://PayPal.me/FermentsandCultures
Of course, any video creator for Salt and Ceremony will have access to the entire library until December 31, 2023, and can update their videos at any time.
One of the things I like so much about Zuza Zak’s book is the amount of history and lore associated with a book ostensibly about Polish dumplings she calls Pierogi. I’ve been making dumplings professionally for over half a century. Besides the fact this is the first time I’ve heard some of the really fascinating history of Poland – a country that William Woys Weaver once said has a diverse, region focused cuisine as varied as France – some of the recipes included are not what I would have considered a pierogi, or even a dumpling. Zuza explains. Take potatoes. Here is an excerpt about them from her new book.
Her video on how she makes byczki is in the showcase now with the description: “Looking at these buttered byczki (the name means bulls) in a dish, we can assume that they are so named because of their shape: wide and stout, with little horns at the edges. “ With leek and apple slaw. Yes, please.
And this includes sweet potatoes, and gray potatoes. “Whether they’re eaten with plenty of dill as a side dish to pork cutlets, fried until crispy the next day with a glass of kefir, enjoyed in the form of dumplings, or eaten straight from the fire in the last light of the setting sun, potatoes are undeniably a big part of Polish (and Eastern European) cuisine.
Potatoes have also been a symbol of both hardship and of women’s roles within a poor society. In 2001, artist Julita Wójcik peeled 50kg (110lb) of potatoes at Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw as an exploration of gender roles within Polish society. She made a poignant point, as many of my memories of my babcia Ziuta (who was a cook, both professionally and within the large family) involve her peeling potatoes, and her roughened hands also told that story. However, the symbol of the potato as the quintessential food of the Poles isn’t historically accurate.
Potatoes came to Poland only after Jan III Sobiecki won the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Even then they were viewed with suspicion by the lower class, though they were used decoratively (in the court gardens) by the nobles. It was only in the 17th century, when the Saxon kings’ policies, mismanagement by the gentry and frequent attacks brought poverty to the peasants that the potato finally became an indispensable part of the Polish diet – through necessity rather than enjoyment.
So, if you can make it you should jump on this Sunday, Sept. 25th at 11AM EST. Passcode: ZuzZZ
Pierogi: Over 50 Recipes to Create Perfect Polish Dumpling by Zuza Zak is available now in both digital format and hard cover the in the US on Amazon and anywhere books are sold. Photos in the book are by the amazing Ola O. Smit @olasmit. Register to attend a live event on September 25th, 11AM EST of the month of Dumplings at the Vimeo site: https://tinyurl.com/ybzedfhh , then $10 to PayPal.me/ZuzaZak
$10 gets you the addresses and codes for the demonstrations by Zuza on making dumplings from this lovely, simple and tasty looking book that will have you eager to make dumplings and other things. There is no charge for the live event. No charge for annual members or video makers, but you must register for the live event, though.
Cultures.Group
An annualmembership for $75 gets you access to hundreds and hundreds of videos, as well as live events like the one above with 5 videos and to the December events and access to the library until the end of the year on 12/31/2022.
Pierogi: Over 50 Recipes to Create Perfect Polish Dumpling by Zuza Zak is available now in both digital format and hard cover the in the US on Amazon and anywhere books are sold. Photos in the book are by the amazing Ola O. Smit @olasmit. Register to attend a live event on September 25th, 11AM EST of the month of Dumplings at the Vimeo site: https://tinyurl.com/ybzedfhh , then $10 to PayPal.me/ZuzaZak
$10 gets you the addresses and codes for the demonstrations by Zuza on making dumplings from this lovely, simple and tasty looking book that will have you eager to make dumplings and other things. There is no charge for the live event. No charge for annual members or video makers, but you must register for the live event, though.
Cultures.Group
An annualmembership for $75 gets you access to hundreds and hundreds of videos, as well as live events like the one above with 5 videos and to the December events and access to the library until the end of the year on 12/31/2022.
Dumplings, that is. There are so many really brilliant recipes and stories in this book. Each dumpling or recipe has a tale that sounds tasty. And, the history of the ingredients and where the dumplings come from is fascinating. Zuza will demonstrate 5 of them over the course of the month!
$10 gets you the addresses and codes for the demonstrations by Zuza on making dumplings from this lovely, simple and tasty looking book that will have you eager to make dumplings and other things. Seriously. You can watch the videos for this event until the end of the year.
No charge for annual members. You must register for the live event, though.
Released in the UK, but also available in digital format and soon hard cover the in the US on Amazon and anywhere books are sold. Photos in the book are by the amazing Ola O. Smit @olasmit.
Register or Contact
An annualmembership for $75 gets you access to hundreds and hundreds of videos, as well as live events like the one above with 5 videos and access to the library. https://paypal.me/FermentsandCultures
Pierogi: Over 50 Recipes to Create Perfect Polish Dumpling by Zuza Zak. The essential cookbook for preparing perfect Polish dumplings at home.
Released today in the UK, but also available online now in digital format in the US on Amazon. Photos in the book are by the amazing @olasmit.
Photo by Ola O. Smit (@olasmit)
Delve deep into regional recipes from all over Poland with the traditional ingredients and stories that define these delicious dumplings. From the Baltic Sea with its abundance of fish, to the unique smoky and sour flavours of the mountainous south and beyond, discover endless options to satisfy every craving. As well as regional classics, Zuza Zak offers sweet and savoury dumplings for every occasion. With new and original creations, plus crowd-pleasing vegan and gluten-free options, Pierogi is a fascinating celebration of this beloved Polish speciality.
Photo by Ola O. Smit (@olasmit)
Sweet curd cheese manty with raspberry sauce “Another speciality of the Podlasie area, this recipe is where Tatar manty meet sweet, Polish pierogi. Poland specializes in sweet dumplings, but in many other countries people don’t quite know what to do with them – a sweet lunch? Whoever heard of such a thing? We are certainly not averse to eating a sweet lunch in Poland, and I would like to gently suggest that you try it too one day – or you can add them to your brunch repertoire. “
September 25th Live, plus videos
Register to attend a live event on September 25th, 11AM EST of the month of Dumplings at the Vimeo site: https://tinyurl.com/ybzedfhh
$10 gets you the addresses and codes for a series of demonstrations by Zuza on making dumplings from this lovely, simple and tasty looking book that will have you making dumplings and other things quite quickly.
No charge for annual members (See below). You must register though.
Silky divine varenets. The steps: raw or pasteurized milk is baked for hours until a deep golden skin forms. Lift off the skin and eat it, or save it for later. If you don’t have or don’t want to use an oven, an Instant Pot at 200F for 10 hours works well. Traditionally, this was made when the masonry stove in your house was cooling down.
Once you have your cooked milk, called топлёное молоко in Russian, cool it down. It then gets inoculated with sour cream, buttermilk or milk kefir. A teaspoon of any of the above added per cup of cooked milk is enough. The milk should be about 110F. Make sure your sour cream has live bacterial cultures – not just enzymes.
The more sour cream you add, the thicker it will be. Inoculate it for 6 to 8 hours exactly like yogurt, although 110F is the ideal temperature for this. Any yogurt maker will do, as will your Instant Pot or any place it can stay warm and covered for 6 to 10 hours at 85F or higher. But try to get it to 110F at least.
The baked down milk you make is never really sweet, but even after chilling down and adding the sour cream starter and inoculating it, it’s also not very sour. Just smooth and tasty. By the way, milk kefir can make this a little grainy and a little more sour, so we always use sour cream or buttermilk.
Eating varenets – actually, drinking it chilled – alone is rarely enough. It is typically eaten with other things as a snack. Sometimes these garnishes go in, or on the varenets.
This is an example of how to take varenets and turn it into riazhenka by adding heavy cream. You can actually just add heavy cream to it when eating it. The contrast in tastes and textures makes this a real joy. But add some heavy cream, about 1/4 cup per cup of baked milk, to make riazhenka. It should be much thicker.
As any cook knows sour cream cultured dairy will not curdle, so we really use it in everything. Using varenets and riazhenka as an alternative to sour cream can add a new taste to everything from salad dressings to smoothies to baked goods.
Quick riazhenka with all the garnishes: heavy cream in a bowl, the milk skins, stewed dried figs, sour cream and of course the tan colored silky smooth, thick and chilled varenets.
Sour Cream, Heavy Cream, Baked Milk Skin, Varenets, and Figs
There is from an event that is an ongoing benefit for World Central Kitchen. This $45 benefit package is available until 12/31/2022. An annual subscription of $75 to Ferments and Cultures – or creating a video for any event during 2022 – gets you in as an annual subscriber with access to hundreds and hundreds of videos in our library as well as future events in 2022. Everything in the library is also viewable until 1/1/2023.
Whether or not you are making a donation or getting an annual membership that also gets you into hundreds and hundreds of videos, you must register at https://paypal.me/FermentsandCultures to get on our mailing list. Otherwise send an email to kojibook@earthlink.net and we’ll figure something out.
What is Darra Goldstein’s latest book, The Kingdom of Rye: A Brief History of Russian Food, about? The simplest answer is bread. And Salt. Saltness. Rye Bread and Saltness (Khleb da sol’).
The concept of using bread and salt to communicate hospitality is so important that even under the most severe circumstances, such as famines, during which the only ingredients available were chaff, sawdust, cellulose, tree bark, acorns and maybe a little actual rye, these ingredients were made into bread.
This is not simply some ancient ritual. In 1975, when Americans and Russians jointly ventured into space, salt tablets and crackers were used in the actual spaceship of the Apollo-Soyuz mission to express hospitality and hopes for success.
Varenets Skin – the top of the slowly evaporated milk that has caramelized into a tasty treat that is sometimes layered into rice pudding. Riazhennka is basically the same thing as varenets, but with cream added.
A narrative history of food in Russia (and Russian food), The Kingdom of Rye is a compendium of sorts to Goldstein’s previously published cookbook Beyond the North Wind. Despite outside influences that during periods of nationalist rallying were often denounced as not “our food,” Russian cuisine developed over hundreds of years based on a small number of ingredients coaxed from a harsh environment, and these foods came to define national identity. According to Goldstein, Russian cuisine is characterized by
the sour taste of fermented foods, found in pickles, brined fruits, rye bread, kvass, and cultured dairy products like sour cream
the earthy flavors of wild mushrooms and buckwheat groats
the zesty bite of horseradish and mustard
soups soured with kvass and pickle brine
the tart tang of Antonov apples and sea buckthorn
the sweetness of honey and milk baked to caramelized sweetness
Sourdough bread for kvass, a refreshing mildly alcoholic drink typically made from leftover or stale sourdough rye. Hops can be added to it – and any bread or even fruit can be used – to make a quick, tasty beer. The colder the better.
There’s so much in the book about how food was grown, made, procured, and eaten that any culinary enthusiast will want to try making at least a few of the dishes mentioned. Some are actually meticulously described, including how and why the beloved Russian rye bread was sliced in a certain manner – as on the cover of the book itself.
In fact, the title of the book comes from an expression translated from the Russian that means “the tsardom of rye,” but I think we can all agree that The Kingdom of Rye better suits the English language. Rye was sacred, a bountiful crop that could subsume memories of eating famine foods. A small piece of bread represented both talisman and community. And it very often was the difference between life and death.
The Russian kingdom of rye was one in which “begging for crusts” was a ritualized practice, something well known to serfs who could easily starve to death if their supplies ran out.
But the book is also about fermentation and the beloved tang of sourdough and fermented cabbage and beets and kvass, made from stale rye bread. As Goldstein notes, the Russian expression for “living hand to mouth” – as most people have lived throughout history – is living “from bread to kvass.”
This book is a trail of bread crumbs left over hundreds of years by writers and workers and peasants and the landed gentry and soldiers, reminding us that food and comfort and freedom are often controlled substances, often weaponized, or used as a beadle for religious compliance, or manipulated to encourage or enforce a state mandate or a politician’s ambitions.
The first thing I look at is the index of a book. Other than hospitality, the most indexed topic is food insecurity and famines, something Russia has a long history of confronting. Woefully, not all of the starvation periods during Russian history were the result of nature, or anything that a devout believer could be convinced was the result of divine retribution.
As Goldstein notes, famines and starvation are frequently the results of “cynical political determinations.” Such decisions are immediately relevant today, as Russia destroys farms and ravages farmlands, steals grain, and destroys the equipment and Ukraine’s capacity to grow more, thus potentially starving millions of people around the world.
Putin has done this before. Very recently, in fact, when hundreds of thousands of tons of food imported from Western countries and the EU were destroyed in mobile crematoria in response to the rage against sanctions imposed after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea.
But, these bread crumbs also lead to a very special kind of place where “kitchen dissidence” occurs: “The kitchen table defied the constraints of a life defined by scarcity, as abundant vodka and food invariably appeared on the table. Friends crowded in, sitting on stools and laps, often with a dozen adults and children crammed into only five or six square meters. The impromptu meals of hearty black bread, tins of canned fish, and home-salted mushrooms pulled from the stash under the bed, accompanied as they were by a lively exchange of ideas, represented an undeniable triumph over diversity, a genuine, loving communality.”
Goldstein claims that The Kingdom of Rye is an historical and ethnographic addendum to Beyond the North Wind.
But, no.
It’s also a review of Russian literature that includes lush, evocative details about specific foods. As Goldstein states: “Writing about food calls for an appreciation of food’s sensory qualities, whether it’s the heady fragrance of Antonov apples in autumn or the visceral smell of pig’s feet simmering into the meat aspic called studen’. What equivalences are there between an aristocratic table, laden with flowers and shimmering with candles à la russe, and a peasant family’s rough board, upon which a communal pot of wild mushroom and barley soup has been set? Where but in Russian literature can you find that nineteenth-century prototype, the superfluous man, bemoaning the emptiness of life even as he reaches for another piece of pie as if for the embodiment of truth? And who is to say that the superfluous man isn’t right to find truth materialized in sensory delight? This domestic history of Russian food offers a look into people’s daily lives, to serve up a history that originates from the wooden spoon rather than from the scepter.“
Sourdough Rye bread with cracked coriander seeds, with spiced and salted tvorog cheese
Every word in this book is relevant to the situations we face worldwide in regard to sustainability, famine, food justice, foraging, self-determination, ingenuity, the weaponization of food, religion, politics, and what Goldstein describes as the most crucial attribute of culinary identity: “..and, perhaps above all, [food’s] cultural resonance and the emotional value of traditional flavors, how people know who they are by what they eat together.“
Goldstein isn’t a stranger to receiving awards for her cookbooks. This one, however, deserves a Pulitzer. There has never been a book like it – an ethnographic treatise on the history of a people as told through their food and the techniques they devised to feed themselves through centuries of victory, defeat, the miseries inflicted by the state or by nature, and the sheer joy of eating. After reading the book, you will not look at bread, grains, pickles, mushrooms, pies, restaurants or politics the way you did before.
This book leads through the forest of history to a place, where we can hopefully all taste food and taste freedom.
It’s a generous invitation to learn from the past, using food as a universal language.
We all eat. History is filled with stories of those involved in violent conflicts or centuries-long animosity coming together by sharing bread or recognizing that it’s a universal need. A source of survival. And of national identity. And always a bargaining chip that should not be used to starve or blackmail.
But will we ever learn from history? Will we ever accord food security and equity the same status as political power? Will we ever learn to quickly and rapidly deal with tyrants and bullies who would gladly let grain and other food rot to advance their control over others? This is not exclusively a Russian tactic of waging war.
Buckwheat Blini with Onion Vzvar
Hopefully, by communicating the importance of sharing food and drink, this book will encourage everyone to stop the use of food as a weapon in Ukraine, and in every other country around the world. This book is indeed a culinary ethnography, but for anyone that has ever felt love, hope, gratitude, and belonging when eating, when sharing food, when tasting home. The world desperately needs this book right now.
Full length interviews with Darra Goldstein on both of her books, Beyond the North Wind and The Kingdom of Rye, is available in our Ferments and Cultures library for members.
Cheese lovers at any level. Fermenters. Come watch Trevor share his decades of experience. Ask questions, simple or hard. Cross cultural observations on natural or no starter culture cheeses. The notion of slow fermentation, which like sourdough can lead to more complex flavor and is the antithesis of the industrial approach (fast=safe). The diversity of pastoralism. Transhumance. Taking cheesemaking to its source, teat and udder health, how fresh healthy milk from healthy animals is the starting point for great cheese.
Whey based thermophilic starter culture at Cascina Lago Scuro – Mozzarela
Wooden vats as microbe reservoirs – Ragusano
No added starter culture but udder microbes – Langhe Tuma
Specific temperature starter cultures from selected animals – St. James
There is no fee for this event, but it is still part of a benefit for #wckitchen. Whether or not you are making a donation you must register at the https://paypal.me/FermentsandCultures link. Hit Send and fill in the information. Or jump on now, and do it later if you want to watch later. That includes any of the sessions from this year as well. This $45 benefit package is available until December.
An annual subscription of $75 to Ferments and Cultures – or creating a video for any event during 2022 – gets you in as an annual subscriber with access to hundreds and hundreds of videos in our library as well as future events in 2022. Everything viewable until 1/1/2023. #cheese #fermentation #wildfermentation #artisancheese #culturesgroup #fermentsandcultures
Whey based thermophilic starter culture at Cascina Lago Scuro – Mozzarela
Wooden vats as microbe reservoirs – Ragusano
No added starter culture but udder microbes – Langhe Tuma
Specific temperature starter cultures from selected animals – St. James
Cross cultural observations on natural or no starter culture cheeses. The notion of slow fermentation, which like sourdough can lead to more complex flavor and is the antithesis of the industrial approach (fast=safe). The diversity of pastoralism. Transhumance. Taking cheesemaking to its source, teat and udder health, how fresh healthy milk from healthy animals is the starting point for great cheese.
There is no fee for this event, but it is still part of a benefit for #wckitchen. Whether or not you are making a donation you must register at the https://paypal.me/FermentsandCultures link. Hit Send and fill in the information. Or jump on now, and do it later if you want to watch later. That includes any of the sessions from this year as well. This $45 benefit package is available until December.
An annual subscription of $75 to Ferments and Cultures – or creating a video for any event during 2022 – gets you in as an annual subscriber with access to hundreds and hundreds of videos in our library as well as future events in 2022. Everything viewable until 1/1/2023. #cheese #fermentation #wildfermentation #artisancheese #culturesgroup #fermentsandcultures
Whey based thermophilic starter culture at Cascina Lago Scuro – Mozzarela
Wooden vats as microbe reservoirs – Ragusano
No added starter culture but udder microbes – Langhe Tuma
Specific temperature starter cultures from selected animals – St. James
Cross cultural observations on natural or no starter culture cheeses. The notion of slow fermentation, which like sourdough can lead to more complex flavor and is the antithesis of the industrial approach (fast=safe). The diversity of pastoralism. Transhumance. Taking cheesemaking to its source, teat and udder health, how fresh healthy milk from healthy animals is the starting point for great cheese.
There is no fee for this event, but it is still part of a benefit for #wckitchen. Whether or not you are making a donation you must register at the paypal.me/FermentsandCultures link. Hit Send and fill in the information. Or jump on now, and do it later if you want to watch later. That includes any of the sessions from this year as well. This $45 benefit package is available until December.
An annual subscription of $75 to Ferments and Cultures – or creating a video for any event during 2022 – gets you in as an annual subscriber with access to hundreds and hundreds of videos in our library as well as future events in 2022. Everything viewable until 1/1/2023. #cheese #fermentation #wildfermentation #artisancheese #culturesgroup #fermentsandcultures
Schedule for remaining May events. These events are free, but you must use the PayPal link to register (therefore, whatever minimum they have). To register it’s $45 for the entire month and all events, plus all the events from March and April with related videos you can watch until the end of the year. If you have already donated for April or purchased an annual subscription you are not required to do so again for May. $75 Annual subscription for all events and videos from the last 6 years. Please use PayPal.me/FermentsandCulturesand note what it’s for.
May 20, 2022, 4PM EST (Streaming now for subscribers) The Silk Road and the Origins of the Foods we Eat Rob Spengler
May 21, 2022 , 4PM EST (Live) The History of Perso-Arab Cuisine Charles Perry
May 22, 2 PM EST (Live) A tour of history and culture through Russian cuisine Darra Goldstein and Kirsten Shockey
May 23, 12 PM EST (Live) Bread and Community Soiree-Leone, Dawn Woodward, Naomi Duguid
May 28, 7 AM EST (Live) Naturally Fermented Cheeses Trevor Warmedahl
Kundiumi, baked then steamed dumplings filled with mushrooms, sorrel or mustard greens and buckwheat from Darra Golstein’s Beyond the North Wind. Photo by Stefan Wettainen
Schedule for May events TBA, although most likely all live events will take place between May 20 and May 25th. To register it’s $45 for the entire month and all events, plus all the events from March and April with related videos you can watch until the end of the year. If you hav e already donated for April or purchased an annual subscription you are not required to do so again for May. $75 Annual subscription for all events and videos from the last 6 years. Please use PayPal.me/FermentsandCulturesand note what it’s for.
Videos being Edited
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch)
Sechskornbrot (six grains and seeds bread) and Whole Wheat Sourdough Flatbread (Sangak)(Peiman Khosravi)
Comparing approaches of pastoral/agropastoral cultures to dairying, cheese making, and land use: Mongolia, Sicily and Albania. (Trevor Warmedahl)
The Traditions of Ukrainian Dairy Fermentation (David Asher)
Real Bread Bakers by Zev Robinson of TheArtandPoliticsofEating.com with panel discussion on how bread, community, nutrition and agriculture are closely intertwined – (Zev Robinson, Naomi Duguid, John Hutt and William Rubel)
Sourdough Yeast Extract and Applications (Heather Willensky)
Kaja’s Sour Milk Lady with Berries, Zurek, Hemp Seed Butter, Kama, Winter Kvass (Zuza Zak)
“Ukrainian cheesemakers are facing great uncertainties and challenges. Listen to some of their stories, including Olga Ternytska’s @karote777 whom I met on a visit in 2017, on an excellent program recently released by @cuttingthecurd radio with @carlosyescas .
Also; this Saturday at 12pm EST I’ll be talking about the traditions of Ukrainian dairy fermentation as a fundraiser for the @wckitchen and their excellent efforts to feed refugees fleeing the violence.Organized by @cultures.group as part of their April Flours event” by David Asher
To register just for one day of sessions, full schedule below, we are asking for a $15 donation. No replays are promised unless you donate $45 for the entire month and all 20+ sessions that you can watch until the end of the year, however. $75 Annual subscription for all events and videos from the last 6 years. Please use PayPal.me/FermentsandCulturesand note what it’s for.
Friday, April 29
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch) Live 12 PM -1:30 PM EST (ZOOM)
Sechskornbrot (six grains and seeds bread) and Whole Wheat Sourdough Flatbread (Sangak)(Peiman Khosravi)
Whole Grain Fermented Dumplings and Whole Grain Misos ( Eiko Takahashi) Live 4 PM – 6 PM EST (ZOOM)
Saturday, April 30th
Crème fraîche – No Chemicals, No Inoculants, Lots of Goodness by David Asher
Comparing approaches of pastoral/agropastoral cultures to dairying, cheese making, and land use: Mongolia, Sicily and Albania. (Trevor Warmedahl) Live 11 AM – 12 PM EST (ZOOM)
The Traditions of Ukrainian Dairy Fermentation (David Asher) Live 12- 1 PM EST (ZOOM)
Real Bread Bakers by Zev Robinson of TheArtandPoliticsofEating.com with panel discussion on how bread, community, nutrition and agriculture are closely intertwined – (Zev Robinson, Naomi Duguid, John Hutt and William Rubel) Live 1:30 to 3 PM EST (ZOOM)
Sourdough Yeast Extract and Applications (Heather Willensky)
Kaja’s Sour Milk Lady with Berries, Zurek, Hemp Seed Butter, Kama, Winter Kvass (Zuza Zak)
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch) Live 12 PM -1:30 PM EST
To register just for this session, full schedule below, we are asking for a $15 donation. No replays are promised unless you donate $45 for the entire month and all 20+ sessions that you can watch until the end of the year, however.
$75 Annual subscription for all events and videos from the last 6 years. Please use PayPal.me/FermentsandCulturesand note what it’s for.
Friday, April 29
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch) Live 12 PM -1:30 PM EST (ZOOM)
Sechskornbrot (six grains and seeds bread) and Whole Wheat Sourdough Flatbread (Sangak)(Peiman Khosravi)
Whole Grain Fermented Dumplings and Whole Grain Misos ( Eiko Takahashi) Live 4 PM – 6 PM EST (ZOOM)
Saturday, April 30th
Comparing approaches of pastoral/agropastoral cultures to dairying, cheese making, and land use: Mongolia, Sicily and Albania. (Trevor Warmedahl) Live 11 AM – 12 PM EST (ZOOM)
The Traditions of Ukrainian Dairy Fermentation (David Asher) Live 12- 1 PM EST (ZOOM)
Real Bread Bakers by Zev Robinson of TheArtandPoliticsofEating.com with panel discussion on how bread, community, nutrition and agriculture are closely intertwined – (Zev Robinson, Naomi Duguid, John Hutt and William Rubel) Live 1:30 to 3 PM EST (ZOOM)
Sourdough Yeast Extract and Applications (Heather Willensky)
Kaja’s Sour Milk Lady with Berries, Zurek, Hemp Seed Butter, Kama, Winter Kvass (Zuza Zak)
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch) Live 12 PM -1:30 PM EST
To register just for one of these sessions, full schedule below, we are asking for a $15 donation for each one. Some of the sessions each day are pre-recorded, others are live.
No replays are promised unless you donate $45 for the entire month, however. $75 Annual subscription for all events and videos from the last 6 years. Please use PayPal.me/FermentsandCulturesand note what it’s for.
From StoryCooking.com – “Food has a way of transcending circumstances, time and place. My friend Amy Halloranand I read and cooked from @oliahercules book Summer Kitchens today and Amy reminded us of our connections to Turkey Red Wheat, brought to the United States by Mennonite immigrants from Russia then, now Ukraine and how it is part of our daily bread. I made varenyky two ways – one using my 321 sourdough egg pasta recipe and the other whole wheat dumplings adapted from ilia’s book Summer Kitchens. Amy showed us how to make Pampushky, sourdough garlic bread.”
As then, when you all come together your donation will support World Central Kitchen https://wck.org work to help Ukraine.
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch) Live 12 PM -1:30 PM EST (ZOOM)
Sechskornbrot (six grains and seeds bread) and Whole Wheat Sourdough Flatbread (Sangak)(Peiman Khosravi)
Whole Grain Fermented Dumplings and Whole Grain Misos ( Eiko Takahashi) Live 4 PM – 6 PM EST (ZOOM)
Saturday, April 30th
Comparing approaches of pastoral/agropastoral cultures to dairying, cheese making, and land use: Mongolia, Sicily and Albania. (Trevor Warmedahl) Live 11 AM – 12 PM EST (ZOOM)
The Traditions of Ukrainian Dairy Fermentation (David Asher) Live 12- 1 PM EST (ZOOM)
Real Bread Bakers by Zev Robinson of TheArtandPoliticsofEating.com with panel discussion on how bread, community, nutrition and agriculture are closely intertwined – (Zev Robinson, Naomi Duguid, John Hutt and William Rubel) Live 1:30 to 3 PM EST (ZOOM)
Sourdough Yeast Extract and Applications (Heather Willensky)
Kaja’s Sour Milk Lady with Berries, Zurek, Hemp Seed Butter, Kama, Winter Kvass (Zuza Zak)
Comparison of flours in cookie: Whole Rye, Buckwheat or Wheat. Guess what?
Laura Valli, a PhD candidate @wsu_bread_lab and a habitual presenter for Cultures.Group on rye and fermentation described several experiments during a recent session of April Flours – recorded thanks to the super janine Johnson. It was an absolute masterclass in rye baking and microbial interactions.
Laura Valli uses a rye starter that is very different than any starter we’ve seen.
Having @evelyns.crackers Dawn Woodward and Ed just made it all the more excellent. We have that as well on video in the April Flours benefit showcase. Most people have no idea about the aspects of rye based fermentation that makes it so unique and fascinating. We will rerun this later on. So register for the full #aprilflours benefit now to help WCK feed Ukranian refugees, and you will be able to watch it. Or subscribe for an annual membership.
Rye Starter.
A lot of baker’s won’t go near Rye. And very, very few know of the development of different raices of rye and how individual characteristics contribute to how rye performs. Lots of that information shared during this session.
Thanks to a resurgence of grain farming and milling, often in collaboration with the bakers and chefs that are using the end product, rye and whole grains like rye are more under study than ever before. That will actually b e part of the far ranging discussion of Zev Robinson’s film we are showing live this Saturday April 30th. Another reason to register now for the April Flours benefit.
Experiments in Rye Bread Baking
April Flours is our month long benefit for #wckitchen to feed the people of Ukraine. $45 for a year of viewing event related videos and live sessions and edited replays when available. We have been uploading new videos as we go along. These videos are always in the showcase for the event, regardless of when you donate. We have turned the final week into two days with many sessions.
Two of these cookie types taste almost identical, mouth feel and all.
To register just for one of these sessions we are asking for a $15 donation for each one. Some of the sessions each day are pre-recorded, others are live.
No replays are promised unless you donate $45 for the entire month, however.
$75 Annual subscription for all events and videos from the last 6 years. Please use PayPal.me/FermentsandCulturesand note what it’s for.
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch) Live 12 PM -1:30 PM EST
Sechskornbrot (six grains and seeds bread) and Whole Wheat Sourdough Flatbread (Sangak)(Peiman Khosravi)
Whole Grain Fermented Dumplings and Whole Grain Misos (Live ) Eiko Takahashi 4 PM EST
Saturday, April 30th
11 – 12 PM EST Comparing approaches of pastoral/agropastoral cultures to dairying, cheese making, and land use: Mongolia, Sicily and Albania. (Trevor Warmedahl) Live
12- 1 PM EST The Traditions of Ukrainian Dairy Fermentation David Asher (Live)
1:30 to 3 PM EST Real Bread Bakers by Zev Robinson of TheArtandPoliticsofEating.com with panel discussion on how bread, community, nutrition and agriculture are closely intertwined – (Zev Robinson, Naomi Duguid, John Hutt and William Rubel) Live
Sourdough Yeast Extract and Applications (Heather Willensky)
Kaja’s Sour Milk Lady with Berries, Zurek, Hemp Seed Butter, Kama, Winter Kvass (Zuza Zak)
Seasoned Sourdough Yeast Salt Popcorn and Sourdough Garlic Cream Cheese by Heather Willensky@fermentsh
Sourdough Starter, and Kvass (or bread beer) for that matter, typically contain both lactic acid, yeasts, and sometimes acetobacteria that are associated with vinegar and acetic acid. Dehydrating sourdough starters of different kinds, like dehydrating pickling or fermenting brines, can create distinct tasting seasoning agents.
There seems to be a resurgence of the use of microbe infused salts and the use of dehydrated ferment brines and cultures, including sourdough starters and leftover bread.
Sure, the idea of backslapping, or using a small portion of a previous batch of something cultured or fermented to make a new batch, is not a new concept, but it is interesting to see people realizing that unless a very specific set of microbes and environmental conditions existed in a specific area, recycling at least a few of the successful microbes is what has enabled us to create generations of cultures that can be passed down.
The problem is how these things were and are passed down, and what creates a break in the links between generations. When that happens, artificial cultures are often used to replace what would have been created naturally.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but culture is not just about specific microbes, but how we have interacted with the enormous diversity of animals, plants, insects, bacteria, yeasts, fungi that are part of the human existence in the world.
With dairy fermentations, but also with all kinds of grain and legume and plant fermentations, we are rapidly losing that knowledge due to forced relocation, the convenience and cost of processed foods, lack of financial opportunities or Amy equitable resource sharing system, irreversible climate change, and apathy.
Recycling cultures is not at all a new concept. Salt was always a very cherished commodity historically, so reusing it to create a sour, salty type of seasoning similar to citric acid or dehydrated vinegar or salt is very well documented. The tanginess of lactobacillus bacteria creates taste. It also provides safety to newer ferments by lowering the PH similar to how soluble lactic acid is used today in brewing and even things like soy sauce or miso.
Heather relates her history of craving the umami of smoked salmon with a bagel and cream cheese, but sometimes specific ingredients are out of financial reach. But substances like bacteria, fungus, molds and yeasts are everywhere, often for free when you know understand the basic methods to create safe edible items and if you have access to resources like water and land and air and sun.
Ironically, the practice of dehydrating starches that have soured or fermented (sometimes both) is at least 5,000 years old and was really the start of grain, seed and other substances that served as the substrates of levain in dumplings, noodles, and breads. The Qi Min Yao shu, for example, describes in detail how soured rice or other grain water, or the lees from wine were used as leavening agents. Often, these were dehydrated into starters for a later date. In effect, the original qu (麹)or koji as most of you know it as represented by cakes and balls and disks of mixed microbes.
Heather has some pretty creative ways to use the yeasts in breads and sourdough starters, searching for an umami taste that tasted like the comfort of home. She began fermenting in her kitchen in 2008. From the moment her swing-top bottles exploded at 4PM raining ginger beer down over her kitchen she knew she was in love. A former music licensing specialist, Heather has spent the past 14 years experimenting with fermentation from pickles to beer and bread.
The pandemic and new motherhood provided an excellent opportunity to delve deeper into fermentation, exploring its limitless applications and techniques and connecting with the online fermentation community. You can follow her adventures on her @fermentsh instagram page.
April Flours is our month long benefit for #wckitchen to feed the people of Ukraine. $45 for a year of viewing event related videos and live sessions and edited replays when available. We have been uploading new videos as we go along. These videos are always in the showcase for the event, regardless of when you donate. We have turned the final week into two days with many sessions.
To register just for one of these sessions we are asking for a $15 donation for each one. Some of the sessions each day are pre-recorded, others are live. No replays are promised unless you donate $45 for the entire month, however. $75 Annual subscription for all events and videos from the last 6 years. Please use PayPal.me/FermentsandCulturesand note what it’s for.
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch) Live 12 PM -1:30 PM EST
Sechskornbrot (six grains and seeds bread) and Whole Wheat Sourdough Flatbread (Sangak)(Peiman Khosravi)
Whole Grain Fermented Dumplings and Whole Grain Misos (Live ) Eiko Takahashi 4 PM EST
Saturday, April 30th
11 – 12 PM EST Comparing approaches of pastoral/agropastoral cultures to dairying, cheese making, and land use: Mongolia, Sicily and Albania. (Trevor Warmedahl) Live
12- 1 PM EST The Traditions of Ukrainian Dairy Fermentation David Asher (Live)
1:30 to 3 PM EST Real Bread Bakers by Zev Robinson of TheArtandPoliticsofEating.com with panel discussion on how bread, community, nutrition and agriculture are closely intertwined – (Zev Robinson, Naomi Duguid, John Hutt and William Rubel) Live
Sourdough Yeast Extract and Applications (Heather Willensky)
Kaja’s Sour Milk Lady with Berries, Zurek, Hemp Seed Butter, Kama, Winter Kvass (Zuza Zak)
Whole Grain Khamiri (Whole Wheat Sourdough Flatbread), Dosa (Urad Dal and Rice), Bajra Roti (unleavened millet), Amritsari Kulcha (unleavened, laminated, stuffed bread) all presented this Friday April 29th for April Flours, a benefit for Ukraine and WCK. $15 one day pass. $45 March and April pass plus until 2023 to view videos for the event. Or $75 for access to all this plus our entire library of videos for the year.
We have turned the final week into two days with many sessions. To register just for one or both days we are asking for a $15 donation for each day. Some of the sessions each day are pre-recorded, others are live. No replays for single day passes.
Bajra Roti (unleavened millet)
Bakers and Chefs and Fermenters and Friends from around the world demonstrate how they ferment whole grains and flours of all kinds into traditional and new forms. These events are recorded, and subscribers to the entire series can watch them until the end of the year. Some sessions are live, others are recorded. This is a month long benefit for WCK to feed Ukraine. Please use PayPal.me/FermentsandCulturesand note what it’s for.
Friday, April 29th
Time and Nature, Making Vatrushky with different fillings, Piroshky using Multipurpose sourdough Recipe – (Amy Halloran and Ellie Markovitch) Live 12 PM -1:30 PM EST
Sechskornbrot (six grains and seeds bread) and Whole Wheat Sourdough Flatbread (Sangak)(Peiman Khosravi)
Whole Grain Fermented Dumplings and Whole Grain Misos (Live ) Eiko Takahashi 4 PM EST
Saturday, April 30th
11 – 12 PM EST Comparing approaches of pastoral/agropastoral cultures to dairying, cheese making, and land use: Mongolia, Sicily and Albania. (Trevor Warmedahl) Live
12- 1 PM EST The Traditions of Ukrainian Dairy Fermentation David Asher (Live)
1:30 to 3 PM EST Real Bread Bakers by Zev Robinson of TheArtandPoliticsofEating.com with panel discussion on how bread, community, nutrition and agriculture are closely intertwined – (Zev Robinson, Naomi Duguid, John Hutt and William Rubel) Live
Sourdough Yeast Extract and Applications (Heather Willensky)
Kaja’s Sour Milk Lady with Berries, Zurek, Hemp Seed Butter, Kama, Winter Kvass (Zuza Zak)
