Winter Fermentation Workshop with Rachel de Thample

Fermented foods have had a lot of interest recently with many books linking healthy gut flora from a diet rich in probiotic foods with a diverse range of health benefits ranging from depression to eczema.  I've read several and they make fascinating reading. We've been eating fermented foods for millennia and many cultures have a long history of extending the life of food by such methods, its only fairly recently that we've forgotten this ancient art and become rather squeamish about bacteria. I've dabbled a little and have made a few krauts as well as sourdough bread but was keen to learn more and as luck would have it, I had the opportunity to spend a day with fermentation expert Rachel de Thample who along with teaching regularly at River Cottage has a enviable career history in the food industry with a particular slant on raising the profile of vegetables, local and organic food.

On a rain soaked and bitterly cold Saturday, a small group of keen fermenters gathered in a yurt at the Skip Garden at the back of King's Cross in London. The Skip Garden, very worth a visit in in own right, is a community garden based in a series of skips, occupying some waste land and fully transportable when its current location come to an end. It has an ingenious and fabulously beautiful greenhouse fashioned from numerous discarded windows and a very recommended cafe serving tasty vegetarian food. 

Our day started with fermented buckwheat crepes and sourdough crumpets with some of Rachel's quite extraordinary honey fermented kumquats and rhubarb whilst she explained her interest, methods and recipes. Her enthusiasm is infectious and our fermented breakfast disappeared quickly whilst she talked. 

Slowly over the course of the day we chatted and tasted more fermented food stuffs ranging from kombucha, green tea jun, ginger beers with blood oranges, rhubarb and roses before breaking for a well earned lunch. Over a delightful vegetarian tagine cooked by the team from the Skip Garden Kitchen we continued our tasting as Rachel opened jars of pungent homemade red cabbage and horseradish kraut, kimchi, celeriac 'krautchi', lacto-fermented golden beetroot, Seville oranges, limes, lemons and kumquats. The yurt filled with the earthy aromas and wood smoke from the fire as we chatted and munched these delicious foods. After lunch we got to work, grating and chopping celeriac before stuffing our individual jars with 'krautchi' to take home. It was a fantastic day, and Rachel was a perfect and generous host. I now have a shelf of jars bubbling away (somewhat slowly but it is exceptionally cold at the moment) and I'll definitely be experimenting with this method some more, so keep an eye open for future fermentation adventures, I'll let you know how I get on.