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Preserve us
20/7/08 11:59Yesterday, Harriet taught me how to make sauerkraut and pickles without fear.
Harriet is the proprietor of Preserve, a school of food preservation that she runs out of her house and garden here in the 'hood. Yesterday's class was Fermentation and Pickling.
We're all sitting in Harriet's former garage, now a screen-house, in amongst her beautiful vegetable garden. We have cups of coffee, we have sweaters (it was chilly yesterday morning), and we have clipboards. Harriet's into her talk, about how much food preservation lore is being lost, how we have to recover it, and how she's going to teach us the basic science behind safe fermentation and pickling, when one participant pipes up about botulism.
( Preserve me from fear. )
Bad bugs can't survive in the salty, acidic, anaerobic environment of pickles and ferments. And fermenting adds enzymes and stuff to the food so that it's even better for you than it was raw, which is why every human culture (hah! culture, see?) has a tradition of fermented live food.
We conclude by reassuring Harriet that the class was awesome and that if Botulism Woman had been a plant from County Extension or the FDA, she'd have stayed, taken notes, and kept her mouth shut, so don't worry and we'll all be back in the fall to learn how to make cheese.
Harriet is the proprietor of Preserve, a school of food preservation that she runs out of her house and garden here in the 'hood. Yesterday's class was Fermentation and Pickling.
We're all sitting in Harriet's former garage, now a screen-house, in amongst her beautiful vegetable garden. We have cups of coffee, we have sweaters (it was chilly yesterday morning), and we have clipboards. Harriet's into her talk, about how much food preservation lore is being lost, how we have to recover it, and how she's going to teach us the basic science behind safe fermentation and pickling, when one participant pipes up about botulism.
( Preserve me from fear. )
Bad bugs can't survive in the salty, acidic, anaerobic environment of pickles and ferments. And fermenting adds enzymes and stuff to the food so that it's even better for you than it was raw, which is why every human culture (hah! culture, see?) has a tradition of fermented live food.
We conclude by reassuring Harriet that the class was awesome and that if Botulism Woman had been a plant from County Extension or the FDA, she'd have stayed, taken notes, and kept her mouth shut, so don't worry and we'll all be back in the fall to learn how to make cheese.
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