Out with the Bad


In with the Good

Sweet Black Garlic Cloves, and Aged Sweet Black Garlic Vinegar

Most cereals and legumes (grains and beans) have something called phytic acid in them. It can be up to five percent. 

Not good. 

Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient. Plants always have several different kinds of anti-nutrients that should be removed. 

Why? It’s in the name itself. An anti-nutrient like phytic acid prevents animals, including humans, from getting nutrition from food. 

Very bad. 

So, how are anti-nutrients removed? First off, there are quite a few things in raw or unprocessed foods that act as anti-nutrients. Mostly, because they serve as protection. 

Seeds or grains like millet or wheat or rice don’t want to be eaten. There’s just nothing in it for them. 

Sure, fruits like tomatoes like it when you eat their seeds – although you might not mean to – because animals typically run them through their systems intact. 

So, a hundred miles down the road when a well fed raccoon gets rid of the undigested seeds of an apple tree from which it ate only the tastiest and perfectly ripened fruits, that apple tree did it’s part to make apples a forever thing. 

Humans sometimes eat whole grains and seeds, but they mostly can’t digest them. Or at least not the nutrients that are crucial to survival. Plus, a lot of plants have substances that are actually toxic.

Still from Priya Mani’s Vethal

You might get away with eating them in small amounts a few times, but some things build up in your system. And mess you up. Badly.

I‘m going to save dried corn for November, but even if you grind it up finely you must cook it or otherwise remove the anti-nutritional elements and get at the nutrients to not suffer from a nasty nutritional deficiency. Especially if that’s all you eat. 

Take cassava, for example. Eating raw cassava with its anti-nutritional cyanides will eventually hurt you. Or maybe sooner than eventually. You know you should not eat cyanide, right? 

The same goes for any beans or grains that you intend to eat. Soaking them before cooking them will remove a lot of anti-nutritional elements. Sorry if that’s an inconvenient truth. But it is. 

The good part is that soaking foods with skins and hulls can increase their nutritional value. But that’s just one small part of it. 

Germinating food, cooking it, malting it, or fermenting all do that as well. While removing lots of different types of anti-nutrients. 

Kambu Koozh

Using yogurt and all it’s helpful microbes to do so as Priya Mani does in her video on Vethal, or as is done by Dr. Deepa Reddy in her fermented millet dish called Kambu Koozh video are great demonstartions of how fermentation can not just preserve food, but make it more nutritious and tastier. 

The video (subscribe to watch this post’s video) in this post is free to view by anyone. Please make comments or ask questions if you want. If you have subscribed to our Substack – paid or not – you got links to other videos as well. Please consider subscribing, and helping us out if you can. 

Our videos are viewable whenever, and from anywhere you have internet access. Most are closed captioned making them easy to understand or to translate into another language. Here’s a short video on the history and role of fermentation. 

The new October showcase of videos for monthly and annual subscribers is now available, with dozens of new videos currently streaming. Join us? Annual Membership and Annual Subscriptions is now only $30. You can do that here or at our PayPal site. 

There are also 200+ videos in our other showcases. New passcodes are available, so contact us if you are a Paying Subscriber or Annual Member. Videos are streaming now. There are 3 months left in 2023. At this point, you get a full membership until the end of 2023.

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Thanks to the incredible volunteer work or Stewart Kerrigan, Lia Somebody and Ken Fornataro these videos are closed captioned after being extensively edited.


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Millets and Indian Staples


The earliest evidence that exists of noodles in China indicates that they were most likely made from millet. Many thousands of years ago. A beverage called Raksi, a made at home alcoholic drink in Tibet, India, and Nepal, is typically made from millet. (Video available to paying and free subscribers at Substack)

Millet porridges, both sweet and savory, are typical items in Chinese, Russian, and German home cooking. They are common around the world, especially among those that can’t affords higher priced, sometimes unavailable grains like wheat.

Pearl Millet. No Gluten. Nutritionally Dense.

2023 has been declared the International Year of The Millets. The reason why the word millets as opposed to millet is used is because there are just so many different kinds. With different names depending on where they are being used.

Millets are enormously important crops in tropical and subtropical climates, especially throughout Africa and India, but also in the Southwest and other areas in the US and Mexico.

Low moisture environments, highly acidic soils, hot climates, high salt content soils, and generally infertile soil don’t prevent millets from growing, providing a significant source of protein and calories in areas where wheat and corn just don’t survive.

Millets also make great rotation crops, and some types can grow very quickly.

Some people think millet tastes a little like a slightly nutty, less sweet version of corn, but. it depends entirely on the type of millet and how it is prepared.



Master Class in Home Made Indian Breads: Bajra Roti

The millet used is this bread or roti is most likely pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus). Known as Bajra in the Hindi language, millets of all kinds are widely cultivated in India for the same reason millets are grown throughout the world. They grow well under severe conditions.

Anshie Renu Dhar is a brilliant baker. And teacher. There are several classic India breads she demonstrates in this year’s showcases. Dosas, idly, flatbreads known as Roti made traditionally and in unique new ways are now streaming, closed captioned.

This is a gluten free, unleavened flatbread made from only pearl millet. Anshie shows both the traditional ways to make this roti, including using a clay skillet more common in rural India.

She also quite brilliantly uses a tortilla press as a hack for those who can’t afford $1200 for a machine called a Rotimatic. (Rotimatic.com, of course). Anshie shows you how it’s been made in India for thousands of years. It’s flour, water and salt.

With ghee when eating for the win, of course.

Bread is an amazing thing. The staff of life can be made from many things. Our goal is to show yo as many of them as we can. Join us? Annual Membership and Annual Subscriptions for $30. You can do that here or at our PayPal site.

The new October showcase of videos for monthly and annual subscribers is now available, with 10 new videos currently streaming. There are 200+ videos in our other showcases. New passcodes are available, so contact us if you are a paying subscriber. All these videos are streaming now.

Our videos are viewable whenever, and from anywhere you have internet access. Most are closed captioned – all the new ones are, thanks to Lia, Stewart, and Ken –  making them easy to understand or to translate into another language.

There are 3 months left in 2023. At this point, you get a full membership until the end of 2023.

Vimeo is where Annual Members, and Substack subscribers, access all our videos. Thanks to the incredible volunteer work or Stewart Kerrigan, Lia Somebody and Ken Fornataro these videos are closed captioned after being extensively edited.

There are many showcases that are frequently updated. Paid Subscribers get the address links and passcodes for the English language closed captioned videos, and access codes for any event we have. You contact us each month for the new addresses and passcodes codes.

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Asparagus Season


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 Ferments we 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 

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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.

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Sun Fermented Soy Sauce

OZZY HSIEH

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.



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KojiCon 2023

Presenters

Connie Chew @Crazy_Asian_Ferments_Official @Conniechew.lifestyletravel

Vanika Choudhary @choudharyvan @noonmumbai @sequelmumbai

Eric Dawson @yellowfarmct Yellow Farmhouse Education Center 

Alyssa Dipisquale @the.koji.club_ @alyssamikiko

Christopher Feran Christopher Feran @christopherferan

Ken Fornataro @cultures.group Cultures.Group Vimeo

Dr. Maya Hey Maya Hey @heymayahey

Ozzy Hsieh Yu-Ding-Shing

John Hutt @crasstafarian

Euka Isawa @eukaisawa

Andrew Jack @ajjack_Umami Salt

Yong Ha Jeong @YonghabrewsYongha Brews

Nichole Jewell @yellowfarmct Yellow Farmhouse Education Center

Alice Jun  Hana Makgeolli @hanamakgeolli

Sandor Katz  @Sandorkraut

Mara Jane King @zukemono

Caitlin Koether @Wild_Provisions_Fermentation @Lightly_Effervescent

Dr. Lee Yoon-hee  @Yangjohakdang Yangjohakdang

Meredith Leigh @mereleighfood Meredith Leigh @thefermentationschoolThe Fermentation School, @carbonharvest, Carbon Harvest  

Arline Lyons  Taste Translation @tastetranslation Twitter

Leslie Merinoff @matchbookdistilling @thebookofbam

Eleni Michael @elenimichl Eleni Michael

Yuichiro Murai @kojiyasanzaemon Kojiya Sanzaemon

Hiraku Ogura Hakko Department @hirakuogura Twitter

Dawn Petter Visit Petalune Herbals to learn more about her offerings. @petaluneherbals Facebook Twitter

Jennifer Rothman @yellowfarmct Yellow Farmhouse Education Center

Takashi Sato @takashi_tamari Hakko Hub.

Robin Sherriff @thekojikitchen @robinsherriff Koji Kitchen

Rich Shih  @ourcookquest OurCookQuest

Markus Shimizu @mimiferments Mimi Ferments @markusshimizu

Dr. Julia Skinner @RootKitchens @BookishJulia

Soirée-Leone @soireeleone Soirée-Leone

Jeremy Umansky @larderdb @tmgastronaut

Corky White Merry Corky White

Irene Yoo @Yooeating Yoo Eating YouTube

David Zilber @David_Zilber



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Ferments and Cultures

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

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.

$150.00


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