The classics of Chinese medicine describe the digestive system in terms of what today we’d call a compost pile.
Indeed we symbiotically live with, and are dependent on, a population of microbes that outnumbers our “human” cells.
Our modern day war on the bacterial world is perhaps a bit misguided. And rather than trying to assassinate a few bad bugs, it might be a better idea to cultivate a diverse population of other microbes that naturally work to keep the troublemakers in check.
Our guest in this episode takes us into the world of beneficial bacteria and how we can use food to eat our way into a better balance with our own personal microbial community.
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6:07 The difference between pickling and fermentation.
9:35 Fermentation has traditionally been essential to food presentation.
11:40 The war on bacteria and why microbial murder is not the answer to illness.
13:30 Raw vegetables are more a source of illness than fermented foods.
15:46 Benefits of bacteria.
19:35 Except in laboratory petri dishes, microorganisms do not exist singularly.
21:02 Getting started with your own fermented foods.
28:03 Different parts of the process give rise to different microbes.
30:23 The difference between probiotic capsules and the microbes in your DIY sauerkraut.
35:09 Spicing up your ferments.
38:50 Making your own ginger brew.
42:49 Using Kefir to make fermented beverages.
47:55 What is the distinction between food that is fermented and that which is rotten?
Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. His books Wild Fermentation (2003) and the Art of Fermentation (2012), along with the hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts.
A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, the New York Times calls him “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” The Art of Fermentation received a James Beard award, and In 2014, Sandor was honored with the Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance.
For more information, check out Sandor’s website www.wildfermentation.com
Links and Resources:
Follow Sandor on Twitter
Or visit his Facebook page
And while you are at it, enjoy this short video
Invite Sandor into your kitchen with this DVD on DIY’ing your own fermented foods
