Even if you are a chronic procrastinator living off the grid without a root cellar, there is still time to preserve some food for this winter and it doesn’t require energy inputs or special equipment.  All you need is some of the least expensive of all local vegetables – cabbage and/or root vegetables – and it is likely that you will find these in ample supply at one of the many winter farmers’ markets throughout the state. 

The preservation technique, fermentation, is the oldest of them all and is the only storage method that yields a healthier result than the sum of its separate ingredients.

On November 30, “Fermentation Fetishist” and author of Wild Fermentation Sandor Katz held a workshop in the Mad River Valley and inspired 25 Localvores to go home and start experimenting with their own creative mixtures of grated or chopped vegetables and salt.  During the workshop, "Sandorkraut," as Katz sometimes calls himself, took the mystery out of turning a pile of thinly sliced cabbage into sauerkraut and showed how by adding a few more vegetables like radishes, turnips, celeriac, and carrots plus some garlic, ginger, and hot pepper to the mix, you end up with the national pickle of Korea, kimchi.  While his book and website offer specific recipes with weights and measures of the various ingredients, he assembled his sample concoction of fermented vegetables by eye-adding more carrot or red radish to make the mixture visually appealing and by liberally mixing in salt to taste.  

Fermenting vegetables is an anaerobic process where the vegetables are submerged under a brine solution (water and salt) and allowed to stand at room temperature for period of time – usually days to weeks.  In the case of sauerkraut and kimchi, the vegetables are cut or shredded (your choice, and you could do some each way) and then massaged with salt.  The salt draws water out of the cells, making the vegetables crunchy while at the same time producing the briny liquid that will cover them during the fermentation process.  

As the vegetables sit at room temperature under the brine liquid, the natural bacteria on the vegetables, or lactobaccili, converts the sugars and starches into lactic acid, a natural preservative.  An additional value of the fermentation process is that it pre-digests many of the complex nutrients in the vegetables or whatever is fermenting, making them easier for our bodies to access and use.  Fermentation also creates new nutrients including Vitamin C, several different B vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and antioxidants, while removing naturally occurring toxins in foods.  The 18th century explorer Captain James Cook effectively eliminated the deadly disease of scurvy on board his ships by feeding his crews large quantities of sauerkraut that was rich in vitamin C naturally produced during the fermentation process.

Does the idea of eating vegetables that have been bubbling away on your counter for a couple of weeks make you a little queasy?  Well consider, as Katz pointed out in the workshop, that just about anything you find in a gourmet food store has gone through a similar fermentation process.  Cheeses are, at their essence, fermented milk and, like sauerkraut production, the process of making cheese takes a natural product with a short shelf life and preserves it.  Likewise, dry sausages, bread, coffee, chocolate, pickles, olives, wine, beer, miso, yogurt, kefir, and vinegar are all products of fermentation, and the list could go on and on.  None of these products were originally invented to fill the shelves of gourmet food shops.  Products of fermentation played a critical role in feeding people for thousands of years until the relatively recent advent of refrigeration.

Perhaps the easiest of all vegetable fermentations is sauerkraut; it requires just cabbage and sea salt and is an easy way to build your confidence in the basic principles of fermentation.  

Sauerkraut is delicious with sausages, in sandwiches, and as a salad in the winter.  Kimchi has even more uses, and can be put into chicken broth with noodles for a satisfying and speedy soup, mixed into a savory pancake batter or wrapped in wonton wrappers and steamed.

So, if you didn’t get any citrus gifts from relatives down south this holiday season, don’t despair.  Get fermenting, and make your own natural and very local vitamin C.

NOTE:  The workshop was sponsored by Katz’s publisher, Chelsea Green, and was filmed by documentary filmmaker Ed Dooley for use on the Chelsea Green website and for promotional purposes.  Katz’s website, www.wildfermentation.com, has several recipes and additional information on fermentation techniques.