Our fridge: filled with delicious things in glass jars
Our own DC State Fair celebrates the growers, the makers, the brewers, the bakers and the fermenters.
Fermenting vegetables?
It’s not just for the Germans, Koreans and bachelors who never clean their fridge.
You can do it – do it this weekend.
You don’t have to grow your own veggies to ferment, just bebop yourself down to your farmers market, buy some stuff to ferment and get to it.
It does take a little planning. Get details below, but you will need non-iodized salt (such as sea or Kosher), an acceptable vessel (a clean glass jar with a lid or a crock) and some recipes call for non-chlorinated water. You don’t need full-blown canning supplies. See how easy it really is:
- Paleo Diet Lifestyle: Fermented Food Recipes so easy your cat can do it. Includes sauerkraut, salsa, sour pickles, kimchi, beet kvass, sauerruben (turnips) and peach chutney.
- Dr. Ben Kim: He wants you to buy stuff from him, so block those pop-ups, but his How to Make Kim Chi gives step-by-step pictures and cheer leading.
- Nourishing Days: Off the grid and into health, Fermented Food for Beginners: Lacto-Fermented Vegetables will have you pining for a root cellar as you bike to the market in search of fresh cabbage. Includes Curtido (the delicious Salvadorian slaw served with pupusas) and pickled cukes.
Once you’ve filled a few jars of fermented, locally grown, organic, hand-picked, biked-it-home epicurean treasure, you’re ready to register for the DC State Fair Fermented Vegetable Contest! (Note: Your veggies do not need to be organic, local or transported by bike to be eligible to compete. DC State Fair suggests reading over these researched recipes for fermenting success. Only 50 entries can be accepted so get busy and register, $5 per entry.)
If your drunk roommate tosses your kimchi at 4:00 a.m. thinking it’s an appropriate time to clean the fridge, you should still join the 2012 DC State Fair fun Saturday, September 22nd, 2012. As part of the Barracks Row Fall Festival along 8th Street SE on Capitol Hill, there will be a little something for everyone.
Even your hungover roommate.
