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Cultures and Ferments
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Fresh Asparagus, Purple Carrots, and Garlic as the base for an kimchi style ferment. Vegan version, although fish sauce is always an option, just like fiery spices. There are no fiery spices in this.
It’s the season when asparagus is available in markets. Wild asparagus gets foraged this time of year in the Northern part of the US well, along with fiddlehead ferns, mushrooms, and other things.
Asparagus has somewhat of a bad reputation. It’s smell a little woodsy and like dirty hay if not properly treated, although some people like that directness. Salting it down s for kimchi, or any of the ways we prepare it removes that while highlighting the vegetable’s unique taste.
Asparagus curing in a sagohachizuke bed with some dried shiitake mushrooms. It’s important to remove water from ingredients not just to concentrate their flavor, but also to increase access to the enzymes in the koji based bed. If you can’t deal with an ongoing fermentation bed that requires maintenance – although this one can live in the fridge and requires only a weekly stir – make some amasake (sweet koji) or use bottled shio koji with the ingredients that you have.
Asparagus Ways
For our month long series of events on Sundays this June for Asian and Asian American Cultures and Fermentswe recorded videos on using asparagus, domesticated or foraged, in several ways.
How to make Asparagus Kimchi, Asparagus Chawan Mushi, Stir Fry Asparagus – the videos describe techniques, and ingredients. They includs recipes. Their point is that they encourage no waste, use of local or readily accessible and inexpensive ingredients, and are pretty easy to make.
Our videos try to include vegan, or vegetarian versions, but we are not against using anything that will deliver taste, and nutrition based on available ingredients – even ones that are not organic. If can only access or afford celery, for example, or foraged fiddlehead ferns – they work.
Knowing the techniques of cooking, fermenting, and culturing – and when to apply them – sometimes simply by just salting or soaking ingredients down before rinsing and using them in a recipe, allows you to make tasty things that look great, and are nutritious.
If you have, and know how to use liquid salt koji (shio koji) from a bottle you can take fresh asparagus or anything else really, and improve its taste. You don’t have to make it yourself.
And, frozen or canned ingredients, even ones that contain ascorbic acid or citric acid, for example, are often great workarounds if you can’t get anything fresh or local within your budget range.
Cultures and Ferments
The Cultures and Ferments events and videos are part of a Cultures.Group Annual Membership. You can watch any videos for as many times as you like, whenever you like, as an Annual Member. Each month the passcodes change for both old and newly released videos. We’ll email them to you when they do.
The price of an Annual Membership is $75 only until June 1. Then, it’s $150 for 2023, if there any slots available. Membership includes event invitations. Participation involves no additional fee, and is offered first to members.
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We now also have a Substack account to which you can subscribe to receive links to at least 5 videos a month, as well as written material that is available only to subscribers: https://culturesgroup.substack.com.
The Substack subscription is $12 a month.
Both annual members and paying Substack subscribers receive emailed invites to events. Annual Members that have not RSVP’ed seven days before any event are not guaranteed a space. When there are open spaces for an event we post notices to our non-paying substack subscribers, and social media account followers.
Annual Membership 2023
Ferments and Cultures
($75 only until June 1, 2023) Annual Membership includes access to every event in 2023, and all available archived and new videos from now until the end of 2023. January 1 to December 31, 2023. Plus all events and videos of the last ten years as they are edited.
I went to my local fish store. They had the most amazing selection of fresh fish. It smelled like everything from the ocean was in the store – except for the rotting parts washed up on the shore. They had several kinds of dried fish, smoked fish and an amazing selection of frozen fish. The same way that most high end sushi shops or Japanese fish sellers do it. Keep it safe. Preserve the taste and texture. ( https://culturesgroup.substack.com)
The most stunning display of tinned fish from around the world. Expensive brands, not your average sardines or tuna in salt water or olive oil.
But even those can be incredibly tasty, especially if you know to drain them and dress them before eating. All it takes is a little hot sauce.
And few drops of shio koji, or amasake and herbs, oil, or seasoned shoyu can turn a very inexpensive product with lots of protein and usually lots of calcium into a feast. As can any citrus you have.
Actually, some Vitamin C powder – yep, ascorbic acid – is not only functional but tasty too. As Sid natto and mustard. But I digress.
Any of these can be a really exciting replacement for anchovies on a Caesar salad. Not that anchovies lack the umami cred to make everything taste better, but a tin of smoked salmon in extra virgin olive oil is what they serve for brunch in Heaven.
Usually with hard boiled eggs on radicchio with a tarragon and mustard vinaigrette. Okay, dill if you’re not already having some half sours on the side. And sliced red onions. With lemon. And capers.
The really tasty tinned fish can easily be turned into a miso type paste, or even become the stock or broth for a fish stew that uses cooked potatoes or hominy or yucca, celery and a little carrot. Yes, you may throw in a hot pepper if that’s your desire. But the little ones tend not to not be into that type of thing.
Cook up some shiitake mushrooms or whatever you can find with cream or dashi or stock and whatever veg you’re using, then at the last minute mix in the tinned fish and let it heat up for just a minute off the heat before serving over a heavily toasted country style sourdough plank.
Did I mention that fried potatoes soaked in vinegar or a citric acid Shio Koji before being fried are the tastiest. In fact, do that with the tinned fish for an amazing tempura. But, that is what God has for brunch.
Making fish jangs or misos or pastes is a little – but not much – more complicated. We have lots of videos on this using whatver you can catch. Sure, you can use expensive tinned fish. You can also use fish heads or even bottled fish sauce to make them.
Check this out
These are our current showcase titles:
Fish Sauces, Garums and Pickles
Japanese Cultures, Ferments and Foods
Sea Vegetables
Pickled Things
Baking with Cultures
Cheese (Dairy Based)
Events, Discussions, and Tours
Gluten Free Breads, Cookies, Meals and Drinks
Kimchi and Other Korean Ferments
Rice Koji: Cooking, Pickling and Amasake
Making and Maintaining Cultures and Mushrooms
Charcuterie and Meat
Sake: How to Nihonshu
Salt, Sweets, Ceremony, and Rituals
Shio Koji and Using It
Vegan Foods and Drinks
Dumplings and Pasta
Fermented Drinks and Elixirs
Jams, Chutneys, Condiments, Salsas and Seasonings
B.Subtilis and Natto
WritersCultures
Misos and Pastes
Corn, Grits, Polenta and Masa
Fermented Drinks and Elixirs
Indian Ferments and Breads
Cheese (Plant Based)
Kefirs, Qū, Nuruk, Ragi, Acetobacter, Rejuvelac, and Lactobacteria
Shoyus, Soy Sauces, and Savory Sauces
Rhizopus and Tempeh
Pressure Canning and Preserving
Vegetable Ferments
We have 31 showcases designated for viewing. Our Membership fee is $150 a year ($75 until April 15th, and we will reserve that price for you if you let us know before then. https://paypal.me/FermentsandCultures (PayPal)
Not all of the showcases are open now.
When you become an Annual Member you get addresses for lots of showcases, although many do not become available until after a related live event or later in the year.
Other showcases become available when they are edited and/or subtitled into English (or other languages).
This also happens throughout the year. We know it’s easy to downlod videos, but please don’t. You can watch videos in their showcases whenever you want.
If you’d like to make videos about your work, blog, books, research contact us.
Showcase names will most likely not change, although we might add some new ones.
The passcodes for the showcases change very frequently. It may take 48 hours or more to respond, so please stay in touch and plan ahead.
Our showcases and videos are not searchable online.
Ken Fornataro is an experienced chef, researcher, educator, baker, and activist. Still in his teens in the 70s, he was named Executive Chef at The Hermitage restaurant in Boston, specializing in Imperial Russian and regional cuisines of the then USSR.
From there, he worked at prestigious and often private establishments around the world with Julia Child, Michel Guérard, Anthony Bourdain, and many other influential chefs who shared their knowledge of traditional Japanese, French, Jewish, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Russian, Indian, whole food cooking, preservation and fermentation techniques.
Ken also ran both the kitchen and catering services for Troutbeck in upstate New York, using locally grown and sustainably sourced ingredients in the 1980s.
At Bloomingdale’s flagship store in Manhattan, he ran the Fresh Foods department kitchens that included a line of his own prepared, preserved and fermented foods.
Since 2010 he has led Cultures.Group as the CEO/Executive Chef in a pro bono capacity. Cultures.Group uses fire, sun, water, cold and microbes such as Rhizopus and Aspergillus, as well as yeasts and bacteria in traditional and novel ways to create pickles, miso, amino pastes, tamari, shoyu, cheese, fish sauce, amazake, rice wine, milk kefir, kimchis, garums, bread, vinegar, and mirin.
Get your tickets at KojiCon.Org and make sure you tune in for sessions from experts who are dedicated to keeping traditions alive, transferring knowledge, and saving delicious, nutritious, culturally significant techniques that are in danger of being lost.
Don’t worry if you can’t attend all of these amazing virtual sessions live – all presentations will be recorded and available for a full year after the conference, along with content from Kojicon 2021 and 2022!
Yellow Farmhouse is committed to community building and inclusion and offers different ticketing tiers to Kojicon to provide access for as many people as possible.
Connecticut Residents
Thanks to a generous sponsorship from CT Humanities, we are also offering free Kojicon 2023 registration to residents of Connecticut and for teachers working in Connecticut schools. Register at the link in our bio or at kojicon.org.
Kojicon 2023: Preserving the Past, Fermenting the Future runs from February 20 to March 5 and is presented by @yellowfarmct, an education center on a working farm in Stonington, CT, and @ourcookquest, Co-Author of Koji Alchemy.
Discover sun-fermented soy sauce-making and application with third-generation black soy bean sauce maker Ozzy Hsieh, brewer at Yu-Ding-Shing and Founder and Chef of Future Dining Table.
Yi-Cheng Hsieh (Ozzy) is the third-generation black soybean sauce brewer of “Yu-Ding-Shing”, Taiwan. He is also the founder and chef of “Future Dining Table”, a series of food events connecting local farmers and consumers with vegetarian/plant-based cuisine, using Yu-Ding-Shing’s artisanal black soybean sauce.
Besides promoting black soybean sauce brewing culture of Xiluo, Taiwan, Future Dining Table aims to introduce the terroir of Yunlin county (Midsouth Taiwan), inviting experts from different fields to lead discussions about agriculture, placemaking, and regional revitalization. The ultimate goal is to make Taiwanese black soybean sauce worldwide.
Register Now, Watch Later
Get your tickets at KojiCon.Org and make sure you tune in for sessions from experts who are dedicated to keeping traditions alive, transferring knowledge, and saving delicious, nutritious, culturally significant techniques that are in danger of being lost.
Don’t worry if you can’t attend all of these amazing virtual sessions live – all presentations will be recorded and available for a full year after the conference, along with content from Kojicon 2021 and 2022!
Yellow Farmhouse is committed to community building and inclusion and offers different ticketing tiers to Kojicon to provide access for as many people as possible.
Connecticut Residents
Thanks to a generous sponsorship from CT Humanities, we are also offering free Kojicon 2023 registration to residents of Connecticut and for teachers working in Connecticut schools. Register at the link in our bio or at kojicon.org.
Kojicon 2023: Preserving the Past, Fermenting the Future runs from February 20 to March 5 and is presented by @yellowfarmct, an education center on a working farm in Stonington, CT, and @ourcookquest, Co-Author of Koji Alchemy.
Soirée-Leone – Wild Shoyu Made with Wild corn koji spores Deepa Reddy – Fermented Bajra (Pearl Millet) Kambu koozh Kartik Sinha – Winter Pickles and the Salt Satyagraha Christine Krauss – Yubeshi (Redux) Wade Fox – Maillard, Miso and Mushrooms Erica Carson – Koji based Fruit, Nut and Seed Lebkuchen|Ishan Sengupta – Kasundi, West Bengali Mustard Condiment Sean Doherty- Salt Risen Bread with Maine Grains ¿Adonde? Lab – Chestnut Miso, Shio Koji Salt Percentages Corey Bullock – Barley koji made for Red Bean Meju, Wood Fired Eggplant Amino Sauce with oat shoyu koji Dawn Woodward – Rhubarb Rye Galette, Rye Sourdough Bread, Two Variations, Estonian Style Rye Sourdough with Oats, Beets and Beet Kvass Ellie Markovitch – Sourdough Tortillas, Sourdough Primer: How to feed your mother, How to make pita bread, English muffins and a basic country loaf, Alua (Corn Kvass), and Brazilian Fermented Rice Cakes Kenji Muramoto – Oatzuke, Umeshu, Rhubarb Umeboshi paste Priya Mani – Vethal, Yogurt Fermented and Dehydrated Vegetables Ken Fornataro – Mustard SourDosa Pickles
Kambu Koozh
Ferments and Cultures
Annual Membership includes access to every event in 2023, and all available archived and new videos from now until the end of 2023. January 1 to December 31, 2023. Plus all events and videos of the last ten years as they are edited.
Future koji. Soyless, all grain protein multiple Aspergillus spore fruity chestnut popcorn caramel smelling koji for a soy sauce. Prepping for @cultures.group upcoming event on January 26th at 7AM EST.
You can still enroll as an Annual Member if interested before the $ jump! $75 for the entire year of events, plus the past ten years of videos and all new events and videos in 2023. After April 15th Annual Membership through PayPal (https://paypal.me/FermentsandCultures) goes to $225 year.
Presentations on January 26 (7AM EST)
Soirée-Leone – Wild Shoyu Made with Wild corn koji spores Deepa Reddy – Fermented Bajra (Pearl Millet) Kambu koozh Kartik Sinha – Winter Pickles and the Salt Satyagraha Christine Krauss – Yubeshi (Redux) Wade Fox – Maillard, Miso and Mushrooms Erica Carson – Koji based Fruit, Nut and Seed Lebkuchen|Ishan Sengupta – Kasundi, West Bengali Mustard Condiment Sean Doherty- Salt Risen Bread with Maine Grains ¿Adonde? Lab – Chestnut Miso, Shio Koji Salt Percentages Corey Bullock – Barley koji made for Red Bean Meju, Wood Fired Eggplant Amino Sauce with oat shoyu koji Dawn Woodward – Rhubarb Rye Galette, Rye Sourdough Bread, Two Variations, Estonian Style Rye Sourdough with Oats, Beets and Beet Kvass Ellie Markovitch – Sourdough Tortillas, Sourdough Primer: How to feed your mother, How to make pita bread, English muffins and a basic country loaf, Alua (Corn Kvass), and Brazilian Fermented Rice Cakes Kenji Muramoto – Oatzuke, Umeshu, Rhubarb Umeboshi paste Priya Mani – Vethal, Yogurt Fermented and Dehydrated Vegetables Ken Fornataro – Mustard SourDosa Pickles
Register! Annual Membership 1/01/2023 to 12/31/2023 – plus all events and videos of the last ten years!
Annual Membership includes access to any event in 2023, including all the Salt and Ceremony sessions and associated videos, and the video archives from now until the end of 2023. Only available to 4/15/2023
Rye baking inspired an all rye sourdough starter at 150% hydration with 30% of fermented rye described by @evelyns.crackers – but with the rest strong wheat flour. Instead of caraway or coriander toasted cinnamon and raisins were added. Incvredily easy to handle, and very tasty.
Presentations on January 26 (7AM EST)
Dawn Woodward of Evelyns Crackers
Dawn Woodward – Rhubarb Rye Galette. Rye Sourdough Baking, Two Variations. Estonian Style Rye Sourdough with Beet Kvass.
Ellie Markovitz – Tortillas, Sourdough Primer: How to feed your mother and how to make pita bread, English muffins and a basic loaf – plus Alua (Corn Kvass), Brazilian Fermented Rice Cakes
Register! Annual Membership 1/01/2023 to 12/31/2023 – plus all events and videos of the last ten years!
Annual Membership includes access to any event in 2023, including all the Salt and Ceremony sessions and associated videos, and the video archives from now until the end of 2023. Only available to 2/15/2023
Yubeshi is a Japanese sweet or savory type of confectionary, like a chutney or sweetmeat that is decidedly dried to allow for transport. They originated as snacks that warriors could take on the road. Although it can be made as a block or whatever shape, people like to stuff them into fragrant, hollowed out citrus shells, especially yuzu.
They almost always have some amount of sugar, and they are steamed after making. Then they are dried. They are typically made from a combination of ingredients that emphasize their sweetness or savoriness. The ones made with miso, for example, typically have nuts and no flour. The sweeter ones are made with rice or other flours, sugar and something salty like soy sauce or a lighter miso. Often dried fruits are added.
Christine Krauss is a foraging and fermentation teacher in Munich. Her goal is to combine global food and fermentation techniques with regional and seasonal products to expand the regional flavor world and create new flavors for a climate compatible cuisine. She sees her work, sharing her knowledge of finding and using the unexpected and unknown flavors that grow on our doorsteps and expanding the flavor spectrum of our regional products with global food and fermentation techniques. Christine develops climate-culinary events with new, surprising flavors, delicious, sustainable and joyful food on the table with products that grow and ferment where we live. Find her on Instagram @chirp_food
Yubeshi stuffed into a Yuzu shell by @Chirp_Food
Register and Watch! Annual Membership 1/01/2023 to 12/31/2023 – plus all events and videos of the last ten years!
Annual Membership includes access to any event in 2023, including all the Salt and Ceremony sessions and associated videos, and the video archives from now until the end of 2023. Only available to 2/15/2023
