Do you always say “yes” when asked if you want a dill pickle to accompany your sandwich? Does your hot dog not taste right until you’ve heaped it with sauerkraut? When given the choice, do you choose sourdough bread? These foods and many more are the result of fermentation, an ancient practice whose time has come for renewed popularity.
In Berkshire County, we can thank Berkshire Ferments, a group of young enthusiasts who are spreading the word about fermentation. You can learn all about it on Saturday, October 17 from 10-4 at the Great Barrington Fairgrounds. If fermentation excites you, this festival will satisfy. And if fermentation is sort of a mystery to you, well, you can learn all about it from the vendors who will be showcasing their fermented products.
Maddie Elling, Abe Hunrichs, and Michelle Kaplan are the brains and brawn behind this day-long celebration of fermented food. About a year ago, they started hosting potluck meals to encourage local food enthusiasts to learn how to make and appreciate fermented food. This revival of interest in fermentation is not unique to the Berkshires. Fermentation workshops and festivals are happening all over the country, from Boston to Oregon.
The festival will feature more than a dozen vendors who will be serving up samples of their fermented product. If you’re curious about what a sauerkraut tempeh reuben would taste like, the October 17 festival is the place to be.
Don’t worry if you’re clueless about fermentation. There will be workshops of different levels throughout the day. These workshops will be led by fermentation specialists from the Berkshires, the Pioneer Valley, and Vermont. And there will be children’s activities, including a sauerkraut workshop for youngsters led by Jenny Schwartz, the outreach coordinator at the Berkshire Co-op.
This being autumn, you can expect to find a lot of fermented root vegetables and cabbages at the festival. But fermentation is about far more than just vegetables. Fermentation is about sourdough bread, cheese, salami, soy sauce, vinegar, yogurt, chocolate, coffee beans and more.
Luckily for preservation newbies and chronic cookbook buyers, several well-known cookbook authors will be at the festival. Great Barrington author Alana Chernilla will be there to sign your copy of her latest book, “Homemade Kitchen,” which makes a useful companion to her earlier book, “Homemade Pantry.” Andrea Chessman, who lives in rural Vermont, will be there with her latest book, “The Pickled Pantry.” And Leda Scheintaub, also from Vermont, will be selling her new book, “Cultured Foods for Your Kitchen.”
Fermentation, like other food preparation methods, requires more than just ingredients. The right equipment is also important. Among the vendors at the fermentation festival, from the Pioneer Valley and New York State, will be Great Barrington potter Dan Bellow, who has been fashioning appropriate vessels for fermentation projects.
And, I ask you, what’s a festival without music? That will be supplied by Moonshine Holler, a local band you may have heard at the Great Barrington Farmers Market.
Visitors are encouraged to participate in the “culture swap.” Sourdough starters are always growing, and need to be used. So if you’ve got a good one, bring some of it for sharing with others. There also will be a kombucha starter, which for the uninitiated is a fermented black or green tea. It is the functional equivalent of a sour dough starter. Recipe cards will be available for the various starters.
So fans of fermentation and those who might become fans should mark their calendars for Saturday October 17 for the first Berkshire Fermentation Festival.
