Sandor from wildfermentation.com sent out this invitation yesterday. It’s a web-broadcast 2 day live demo of mad fermenting! here is his letter….

Hello friends,

I m venturing into new media as part of my effort to scale back
traveling while continuing to spread fermentation fervor.

On June 7 and 8, I will be teaching an intensive 2-day webinar, to
be broadcast live over the internet from 10AM-4PM (Pacific daylight
time) both days. We will be making kraut, miso, tempeh, natto, kefir,
amazake, mead, fish sauce, sourdough, porridge, and idli. Internet
viewers will be able to email questions, and participants will
receive an edited DVD recording of the workshop. The cost of the
workshop is $60. For further information and registration, visit
http://www.academyofspirit.com/sandor.html
.

Also look for me starting in June on You Tube. By the time I send out
my summer workshop schedule in a few weeks, I hope to have some videos
posted and links to send.

That s all for now. I hear the garden calling&

Sandor

This is going to be awesome. Sandor’s book also titled ‘Wild Fermentation’ is practically holy scripture in my home. I’ll be there Sandor, thanks for bubbling my way =)

J

I’m at my father’s house this weekend. I’m going to go fix Lori’s modem in exchange (hopefully) for some more milk. I didn’t call her until today to let her know I was coming. Here is the milk I got last week. It was fantastic! I haven’t had milk in months, I felt very lucky.

Zach just left to go back home. We had a wonderful time. We went to the hotsprings, played frisbee, went skiing, play a lot of magic, played some duris, and went to the Franti & Spearhead concert! It was a blast, and I’m thinking Zach had a good time, hopefully I’ll get to see more of him. He brought four magic decks with him, a blue pinger deck, a red creature deck, a green lifespring deck, and a black rat deck. We had a freakin blast. I haven’t played magic in such a long time, so many memories!

The batch of kimchi I made and blogged was done last week, I’ve since eaten most of it, and gave a jar to Rachel. Also I made another batch which did Not turn out and needs to be thrown away. It didn’t ’sink’ properly, it made me very sad =(

here me pulling off the rotten layer of cabbage on the surface, and the gold underneath is kimchi.

Here is it packed into mason jars and ready to refrigerate!

Dad is working on a saltwater aquarium, it’s really gorgeous. He has put several large hunks of ‘living rock’ inside. Living Rocks are big hunks of magma rock that someone lays in the ocean for several years until it becomes teeming with life. Then they take them and put them into a saltwater tank, and the rock transformer the tank environment with a perfect mixture of ambient bacterias, creatures, microbes, and creepy crawlies…He is really excited about it and is having lots of fun. Here is a photo of the top tank.(he’s got a really complex multi-tank system planned).

Mariah came back from spring break on thursday. Friday night I was terrible. We went over to spend the last night out with Hailey and Tyler before Hailey has to go back. We played some egyptian rat screw and watched Pan’s Labyrinth. When we got home, I wasn’t acting very well. I was frustrated with Mariah and I wasn’t capable of communicating with her.

It was invariably about sex. I hadn’t seen her for a week…and it really is the only night we’d have the time, I was leaving for my father’s the next morning, and the following week was already busy and picking up momentum. It’s really terrible…why am I not capable of just asking her for sex? Is it just the plain truth of that statement, I’m embarrassed to have to ASK someone for sex. Even if it’s the woman I sleep with? I couldn’t even talk with her about it. I just became more and more frustrated and indecipherable. I don’t get it, I was just too afraid to talk to her, and yet I want it all the more badly. Eventually…late late into the night, we did start to talk.

It’s so easy for me to think well…”Why doesn’t she want me?” or “Why is she leading me on like this?”…and as fast as they crop up, I cut those ones down with “Why are you putting the blame on her?” and “She’s perfectly fine, it’s YOU who can’t handle it.”

Pretty soon I’m getting trampled into the wooden floorboards by legions of hellishly brutal idioms, shouting out all the more intricately and vengefully by the moment.

To Mariah, this is Jared being silent. He doesn’t respond to what she says, he’s quiet. To Jared, this is War. And He’s just scrapping for survival, being clawed and shoved down to the bleeding bottom of the list.

I do not want to continue living like this. It hurts me. Mariah is unfailingly patient with me, but it is not pleasant for either of us. I’m not certain what to do. By the time it hits me, I’m toast…avoidance or prevention even are the shiny words here, but now I actually have to use them. Can anyone out there help me? Please? I know I have to help myself first. But I’m asking anyway. In addition.

A little history

I’m utterly and ghastly in love with kimchi. There are so many different styles and kinds, I’m convinced I could totally live off of the stuff. Korea, as a country, are high Kimchee enthusiasts. Apparently I was born on the wrong side of the world.

Like most of human fermented foods, Kimchi’s history stretches back into the dusty tomes of yesteryore. The earliest known reference can be found in the Chinese Poetry book called Sikyeong, written some time before 1000 b.c. The earliest surviving edition of this book is a fragmentary one of the Han Dynasty, recorded on bamboo strips, it was unearthed in the city of Fuyang, and refers to Kimchee as ‘Ji’.

Anyhow, there are countless recipes for Kimchi, here is one I’ve been working on for several monthes. I’ve tried to model it off of this chi by the Deer Garden people. There have been 3 or 4 bungled attempts. The batch that I have photographed here is my 5th, and it is coming along quite well.

a lively spicy kimchi recipe

2 green cabbages
5 large carrots
1/2 large onion
a handful of gingerroot
a large spoonful of crushed or powdered chillies
a large spoonful of crushed or powedered cayenne
a dab of salt(very little is okay, like 1 tsp or less)

a large mixing bowl
1 gallon ceramic crock
a cheese grater
a small plate that fits into the crock
a clean rock or something heavy
a sharp knife

Preparation & Instruction

1. Pull off 5 or 6 of the outer cabbage leaves, try to keep them intact, save.
2. Slice the cabbage into thin strips, just like you would for Sauerkraut.
3. Do the same to the onion, cut into thin strips and break them apart.
4. Grate the Carrots and the Ginger.

Merge everything into the mixing bowl, sprinkling salt, cayenne, and chillis as you go. Toss and make sure it’s all mixed up well.

Next you are going to pack it into the ceramic crock. Put a few handfuls in, and tamp your chi down with your fists or a potato masher. Fill the entire crock in this manner, leave at least an inch on the top. Take the fully intact cabbage leaves and pack them over the chi to create a tight covering.

You’re prettymuch done here, just take the little plate or saucer and fit it down into the crock, and put a heavy rock or stoneware bowl on the top to keep the pressure. If you use a rock, you will want to wash and boil it first. Now just take a piece of linen or cloth and cover it up to keep the flies and dust out.

Leave it out at room temperature for 1-3 weeks. In my home which is usually around 60f this time of year, it takes 12 or 13 days. Note that the cabbage layer on the top *will* become rotten and very unappealing. After you peel these layers off, the good stuff is waiting for you underneath, and you should transfer it to mason jars and keep it in the fridge. Try some! It’s bubbling with lactobacillic laughter and your body will love it!

Afterthoughts

Kimchi may come in HUNDREDS of different varieties. This one is similar enough to sauerkraut, I sometimes just call it SpicyKraut. or GingerKraut. Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll happily extend my advice. Also…if anyone wants to try some of this last batch…msg me and I will mail you some.

Have you ever had Kimchi before? What do you think of it? Have you ever tried cultivating your own fermented foods? How did it go? What did you try?

Have an idea but short on time? Share it with me, I’m always looking for new projects!

Wild Strawberry Honey Spritzer - very luscious and sweet, has a mild strawberry flavor, just starting to culture a tang. this particular one doesn’t have any carbonation.

Egyptian Bouza Beer - very rough and sour, made from mostly sprouted rye grains, it is a quick 2-3 day ferment and has little alcohol, but is very filling.

Sauerkraut - The plain cabbage always seems to evaporate off all the brine, then it becomes dry and rots. I haven’t had a good plain Sauerkraut turn out yet, the sesame kraut worked well, and the kimchees work too, but so far I have yet to get a tasty plain old kraut.

Spicy Live Kimchee - This is the most exciting venture!!! Mariah helped me a lot and it went much faster with two people. We put chilli powder in it this time, and green cabbage, onions, lots of grated carrots, and grated ginger, and just a teensy tad bit of salt. I’m so excited !!! yes haha!

Sourdough Bread - I took the spent grains from the bouza and mashed into a dough, it’s been resting out on the kitchen counter all day. I’m going to bake it tonight. SandorKraut says to cook it enough to make a hard shell on the outside, but not enough to cook the inside. That way you have a self-contained unit and you can just let it sit out and continue fermenting in the middle for a few weeks. It sounds interesting, I’ll let you know!

Do you remember trying fermented foods? What did you think?

Mariah and I made cookies last night, and kimchee tonight. The cookies are almost gone, (really freakin good), and the kim chee has two weeks of waitin. We’re going up to the bowl tomorrow morning. We climbed up a church tonight. Mariah did excellent. Miguel will come visit sometime in the next few weeks, I miss him, and we will have fun. A week after that Zach is going to come visit. I have his ticket for the Franti & spearhead concert.

I gave in and installed X11 on my laptop. I admit, it’s nice to be able to look at pictures. My conjurer, Cemoyth, on duris, hit level 29 tonight. I started another honey ferment a few days ago, it’s just starting to get good. I also started a batch of Bouza, which is an egyptian simple beer. Basically just sourdough, sprouted grains, and water. It will take a while longer before it’s ready I think. Maybe by the end of the week. I got the recipe from Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation. This book is the closest thing to a religious artifact I own.