Author and fermentation fetishist, Sandor Katz, considers fermented foods to be an important part of his healing as well as the healing of our planet. His book, “Wild Fermentation” doubles as a cookbook and manifesto on “cultural” rehabilitation - the return from cultural and political homogenization to social and culinary diversity. While inspiring us with a delicious mélange of traditional cultured foods, Sandor encourages us to take back our culture as well as our health from the hands of medibusiness and the agricorporate monopoly.
Growing and fermenting our own food encourages a rich community lifestyle. We become actively involved in the sustainability of our environment, our wealth and our health. The process of preparing delicious, homemade, fermented creations calls for an enjoyable experience of community. It is fun to spend an afternoon cutting and brining vegetables and sharing the results with your clan.
For over 5o years now, Westerner’s have focused on destroying household micro-organisms under the guise of protecting our health and largely for the benefit of corporations pushing antibacterial chemicals. This obsession with waring against ‘germs’ has brought us nothing but epidemics of disease and environmental destruction. We are rapidly awakening, searching for ways to encourage harmonious biodiversity in our culture, our environment and within our own bodies.
Those of us considering alternative ways to wellness often come across probiotic supplements marketed for quite considerable sums of money. Sandor’s journey into wild fermentation gives us alternatives more appropriate financially and geographically. Eating foods grown in one’s own soil and fermented in one’s own kitchen encourages a more holistic relationship with micro-organisms native to us; and it’s cheap as chips. The food we grow and prepare ourselves is not taxable (yet) and so frees us financially to pursue industry that nourishes our family and local community.
We were fortunate enough to meet Sandor Katz at the Woodford Folk Festival in 2004 where he spoke about the science and art of traditional culturing and his adventures as a fermentation fetishist. Upon our request, he agreed to be interviewed…
Nourished: Thanks for the opportunity to spread your tasty word. How did you first discover fermentation? What was your first experiment?
Sandor: I have always loved sour fermented foods, long before I knew what fermentation was. Sour (brined) pickles were a favorite food of my childhood. I spent a couple of years following a macrobiotic diet, which recognizes the digestive benefits of live-culture pickles, and that was when I first started thinking about these foods I had always loved in terms of their health benefits. However, it wasn’t until I started gardening, and found myself with over abundances of vegetables all at one time, that I started learning how to ferment anything myself. Once I started learning, I kept branching out and developed what I describe as my fermentation fetish.
Nourished: Since publishing your book you have travelled extensively speaking about fermentation. Tell us about some of the the cultural and culinary experiences your travels have brought you.
Sandor: Actually, other than Australia, all of my travels speaking about fermentation have been within the U.S. But everywhere I go I meet people with vivid memories of immigrant parents and grandparents who maintained regular fermentation practices. I hear memories of ferments from all over the world, and I try to encourage and empower people to reclaim these lost traditions. Ferments are not mere culinary novelties, but rather cultural practices which evolved alongside agriculture and language and are an integral element of any living and thriving culture. It’s no coincidence that we talk about food cultures and cultured foods.
Nourished: You are living with HIV and you look great. What health changes have you noticed using fermented foods?
Sandor: Live-culture fermented foods improve digestion, absorption of nutrients, and immune function. This is well-established in medical and scientific literature, and it has been confirmed by my own experience and anecdotes from people I meet in my workshops and receive emails from. I wish I could tell you that fermented foods and healthy living alone kept HIV from progressing in my body. For many years they did (I first tested positive in 1988), but in 1999 I got really sick, classic wasting syndrome: persistent nausea, weight loss, loss of strength and stamina, fainting spells, etc. and I decided to try a protease cocktail, which I’m still on 6 years later, strength and stamina restored. Nothing — not even live-culture food — is a panacea.
Nourished: What health changes have your readers related to you?
Sandor: People regularly report improvements in all sorts of digestive disorders. I’ve also heard of kidney disease, liver disease, and cancers resolved by using live-culture ferments. When I was in Melbourne, a Russian-born woman at my talk told me her husband’s skin cancer was healed by sauerkraut poultices.
Bacteria are not our enemies. They are our ancestors and can be powerful allies in healing.
Nourished: What particular fermented foods would you recommend highest for health recovery?
Sandor: Fermented vegetables — sauerkraut and similar foods — are my most regular and beloved ferments. Yogurt kefir, and other cultured milks I also recommend.
Nourished: Tell us about your community. How did you come to live in an intentional community? What changes has fermenting brought to you all?
Sandor: I live in a very remote area in a community called Short Mountain Sanctuary. About 20 of us live here, all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgendered, and because we are a sanctuary our doors are always open and we have a steady stream of visitors. I’ve been here for twelve years; we have residents who have been here for as long as twenty years. I met some folks from here quite randomly at a time when I was living in New York City and looking to make a big change in my life. I feel very lucky to have found this place. I started fermenting after I came here, as an outgrowth of getting involved with gardening. All the cabbage were ready at once, so I learned how to make sauerkraut. Many of my fellow-communitarians have gotten involved in fermentation. In addition to sauerkraut, we make lots of wines, beers, and meads, yogurt, kefir, and cheeses, miso, and bread. fermentation is an ongoing aspect of our communal life.
Nourished: Is it easy to ferment or do you need specially designed equipment? How do you know if your recipe has worked? Can you poison yourself?
Sandor: Fermentation is easy, in general. These are ancient rituals which human beings have been practicing for millennia. Generally, fermentation involves creating conditions where a desired type of microorganism will thrive. Special equipment can help, but is generally not necessary. Improvisation works fine. Generally your nose can confirm that a ferment has worked. Fermentation is extremely safe. The acids and alcohol that are created inhibit the growth of food-poisoning pathogens.
Nourished: Which recipes are easiest to begin fermenting successfully and to include in one’s lifestyle?
Sandor: Sauerkraut or kimchi is the easiest way to start.
Nourished: Last question, can we come to your place for dinner?
Sandor: You are cordially welcome any time you come to Tennessee!
The editors of Nourished.com.au host non-profit community fermentation workshops monthly in Byron Bay. Fellow fermentation fetishists are welcome to come and share recipes and stories while we work and to take home to their pantry, their share of the goodies. There are quite a few chapters of the Weston A Price Foundation around the country and globally who offer such workshops. Check our WAPF page for your local chapter or the Weston A Price website for chapters around the world.
Sandor Ellix Katz, is a fermentation fetishist. His site wildfermentation.com, was created to spread the tasty word of ancient fermentation methods he rediscovered over the past 15 or so years. His Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods was recently released by Chelsea Green Publishing Company.
About the Author...
Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).
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