I spent almost three years of my life living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  While living there my absolute favorite food was pupusas.  They’re not hard to love, considering they are pretty much like the corn tortilla version of pizza (which I am rather obsessed with).

It’s a simple idea, you take a ball of masa dough, make a hole in the center and stick in a lump of cheese, or meat, or veggies, or a mixture of those, pat it flat, fry it up with a decent amount of grease, and serve it with a variety of spicy cabbage slaws and krauts.

I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but the main type of kraut used on top of pupusas is called curtido, which is pretty much just a broad term for pickle.

I have played around with various non-fermented versions of curtido over the years but it wasn’t until I won a copy of Fermented Vegetables by Kirsten and Christopher Shockey (available also in Canada) that it finally hit me what was missing from my version—mine wasn’t fermented!

The recipe is very simple, just cabbage, carrots, onion, garlic, and chile pepper flakes, and oregano and cumin.  You can take the curtido in different directions by tweaking the ratios, making it hotter or milder, more herbs or less, more of one vegetable or less, and so on.  I was running out of carrots the day I made mine so I think I’ll use more next time, partly because it will add more color to the final product.

The recipe is adapted from Fermented Vegetables, and if your library doesn’t have this book I highly recommend getting yourself a copy (or asking them to get it!).  I’m so happy to have won a copy because I love the book and have read through pretty much the whole thing!  Now I see before me a summer full of fermenting….

It will be a week or two before it’s fully fermented, but making it now will help connect you to the spirit of Cinco de Mayo, which is ¡perfecto!  Once it is ready make your favorite tacos, burritos, or even try making pupusas, and then be sure to put tons of curtido on top.

(It’s of course also available online but you should really buy it from your local book seller, if you care about the future of books and publishing and do not want them to be destroyed by the Amazonian beast’s every widely-reaching tentacles that would like to crush and devour all local businesses and become the one-and-only purveyor of all consumer goods, which in this case here in KW means a place like Words Worth Books.)

Anyways!  Although Farmacology came out in 2013 it has remained popular at our local library so when I finally got a copy a month later I could only keep it for three weeks.  Luckily since I was so enthusiastic about the book I was able to get my own copy from the publishers along with two copies to send out as giveaways, boo-yah!  It turns out that this is my first time giving something away on this blog that is not just for local readers and is not homemade by me.

More importantly though, I wouldn’t host a giveaway for something that I wasn’t totally excited about, and this book is just that kind of something!  So enough about the giveaway, and on to the book.

Several years ago, family doctor Daphne Miller decided to embark on a journey to visit innovative family farms to explore what sustainable agriculture can teach us about health and our bodies.  Her journey took her to a wide variety of farms with their respective farmers, and each helped her to see a different aspect of health and healing.

The book has already been widely and positively reviewed by influential food and health writers, including Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and Alice Waters, and it’s worth checking out a few of those reviews.  Thus, rather than walk you through the whole book in summary form, I would like to share with you a few of the things that have influenced me since reading the book.  A few of these I was already in favor of but now have more support for, and others are brand new!

1. Don’t Wash All Your Veggies

More and more people are talking and writing about probiotic bacteria and their importance in our lives these days, and the discussion often involves fermented foods.  However, we can also get some good members of the microbiota from our local environment straight from the soil.  The easiest way to do this is by NOT thoroughly washing all of our veggies.

I have been incorporating this into my diet lately by only lightly washing the veggies from my garden.  When thinning carrots and other root vegetables I’m even making sure to eat a few of them right after picking them, after just rubbing off some of the dirt.  This has meant a few mouthfuls of grittiness, but I’ve also enjoyed the absurdly fresh bites!

2. Buy The Ugly Veggies

For the last 100 years or so farmers have been selecting and breeding vegetables and fruits mainly based on appearance.  This is because consumers have demanded produce that looks perfect and can withstand massive amounts of transport.

Sadly appearance is pretty much the worst indicator of health and flavor when it comes to fruits and veggies.  In previous generations seeds were selected from the fruits and vegetables that had the best flavor, as well as from plants that had the most vigor and ability to survive and thrive.

It turns out that flavor is an important indicator of nutritional content.  Furthermore, plants that have gone through some hardship actually produce more nutritional compounds which are found in their fruit.

The problem is that grocers and markets reject produce that has too many blemishes. Ironically these are likely the ones that have the most flavor and nutrition! Luckily, in some cases these fruits and vegetables can be purchased as “seconds” or “#2’s.”  What’s awesome about these seconds is that they are not only healthier but also cheaper!

3. What’s Good for Animals is Good For Us

In recent years there has been much more awareness about the horrific conditions within factory farms.  Not only are these conditions unethical simply regarding the treatment of animals, but they also create environmental problems.  Furthermore, the meat, dairy, and eggs produced in factory farms is not good very healthy.  This is one reason that my family has started getting eggs from our CSA that are not only free range but also pastured.  Access to pasture ensures that the chickens are healthy and happy (this is actually research-based) and that their eggs have much better for us.

However, what was cool about this chapter of the book was that Dr. Daphne explores the parallels between stress for animals and humans.  It turns out that the same things that help chickens to be healthier and happier are true for humans!

It may seem intuitive, but access to the outdoors, and not being “cooped up” all the time inside will help us to have less stress in our lives, and lead healthier lives.  This is one more reason for us to shoo the young assistants out the door every day and encourage them to dig in the dirt.

4. Garden in the Front Yard

In a chapter focused on gardening Dr. Daphne explores the health benefits for whole communities when gardens are public and visible.  My family has always done some (or all) of our gardening in the front yard and we were quickly made aware of how this would become a talking point with many of our neighbors (or in some cases something that was discussed without us present).  Sometimes the reaction has been skepticism (that was more an issue in Atlanta than here in Kitchener), but mostly it’s a positive reaction.

What we weren’t aware of was the fact that community gardening can actually have trickle-down health effects within a community, affecting even individuals who aren’t involved in the gardening.  For example, children who participate in gardening at school end up influencing their parents to eat healthier.  And neighbors of people who garden also end up eating more fresh vegetables and fruits.

After reading this chapter I’m more inspired than ever to continue ripping up the front yard and boulevard and filling in the space with delicious and healthy edibles!

5. Use Plants for Skin Care

Lately I’ve been kind of annoyed with the endless talk on homesteading blogs about essential oils.  Part of my annoyance stems from the fact that all the people talking about the amazing benefits of these oils are also trying to convince their readers to buy them.  There’s really nothing wrong with selling a product, and I should be happy that the products are all-natural, and good for health.  Maybe my other problem with it though has more to do with my own skepticism about the benefits of oils.

However, I am a little more open to essential oils, plant-based health products, and skincare after reading about Dr. Daphne’s own experience with a funny discoloration on her face.  Her own personal health journey that begins with a lightening cream and ends with an atomizer.  In the end through trial and error she finds that what works best for her skin (and doesn’t destroy it like the chemicals she begins with) is a simple mist of distilled rose geranium, in the form of a hydrosol.

Part of the reason that plants are a better source of health and beauty products is somewhat of a mystery.  Researchers often think they’ve found a compound that is responsible for some cure or health fix but when it’s used in isolation it no longer works.  The health effects particular compounds from plants often only work when they are accompanied by all the other individual components of the plant.

Since reading this chapter I’ve felt inspired to begin learning more about herbs and plant-based healing, and to start making hydrosols.  I’m going to see what I can put together based initially on designs like this one from Mama Rosemary.

So, that is just  a little bit of what I’ve learned from this book but it’s not really why I enjoyed reading it.  Dr. Daphne is a great writer and teacher, and this comes through in the book.  It’s an easy read yet full of tons of awesome and interesting information.  Rather than being preachy, the tone of the book is humility, humor, and open-mindedness.  The reader is left feeling inspired without feeling criticized. I can’t wait for you to read it and tell me what you think!

The giveaway is thanks to the folks at Harper Collins and I’m grateful to them!  I was not compensated with $ for this review but I received a copy of the book in addition to the giveaway copies.  I plan to pass that copy along to friends and family (first dibbs anyone?).  The giveaway is open to anyone in the US and Canada, and there will be a winner in both countries.

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Our family—primarily Madame—loves waffles, and for me as a sourdough aficionado (huh, or geek) I like to turn all pastry and baked goods into sourdough versions.

Enter Food and Wine’s Yeasty Waffles recipe.  Yes, this is an excellent recipe, and one worth making.  However, it doesn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities when it comes to health.  Thus I replaced all the all-purpose white flour with light spelt flour and added a spoonful of sourdough starter to the batter.  The results were far better than the original, but with all the great qualities that made the original so good; the waffles are light and airy, crispy yet soft, and most importantly full of rich, nutty flavour and good nutrition (plus some extra fat…).

Try them out, and if you can’t get light spelt flour try a 50/50 combo of all-purpose flour and whole spelt or whole wheat.

Sourdough Habits and Techniques

The journey to understanding a sourdough culture and its uses has been a long one for me.  What I mean is that it took a long time for me to really understand both what a sourdough was and how to use it.  Even now there is some mystery in it all and I can’t always explain why some batches of bread turn out better than others, but I do feel like the process is much clearer to me than it was nine years ago when I first started playing around with it.

Initially I thought a sourdough should be fed sugar.  That was a mistake.  I also thought a sourdough should smell bad.  Hmm, that also was a mistake.  Let’s see, I also thought a sourdough had commercial yeast added to the culture.  So if you can picture, I kept a container full of a foul smelling, strange looking, pretty much useless batter that I would add sugar, flour, water, and yeast and periodically attempt to incorporate into breads.  If I had been willing to do some reading I could have been baking delicious sourdough breads much sooner.  Sadly in my post-college resourcefulness I had the impression that most knowledge could simply be learned through experience and experimentation, which was not altogether wrong but missed the obvious point of “don’t reinvent the wheel.”

Strangely my interest in sourdough never had much to do with health, but the more I’ve read in recent years the more I’ve been convinced it’s a healthy decision.  Initially I was drawn to sourdough for the self-sufficiency of it as well as the challenge.  There was something very alluring to me about acquiring wild yeasts and putting them to work in my kitchen, in exchange for providing them with some nice room and board and the chance to perpetuate themselves indefinitely.

Back to the point of health, it seems that the slow process of souring and proofing (allowing the dough to develop and rise) allows for several beneficial things to happen.  One result of the souring is that phytates are neutralized.  These compounds are initially present in the dough and block the body’s ability to easily absorb vitamins and minerals from flour.  Once neutralized the body has access to those vitamins and minerals, which is good, right?  The lactic acids that make the bread sour also help to lower the glycemic index of the bread, by slowing the release of glucose into the bloodstream.  The lactic acid also helps to make gluten (everybody’s favorite food villain) more digestible.  [sources]  Given that members of my extended family have gluten sensitivities, including celiac disease, I’m always conscious of gluten and want to take steps to deal with flour in such a way that it is as healthy and nourishing as possible.

So, sourdough is healthy, which is good, but that’s not why I make it every week.  I make it every week because it is delicious and magical.  I make it because it connects me to the past and the world around me.  And how cool is it that tiny microorganisms are willing to collaborate to make something as awesome as a big loaf of tasty and nutritious bread?

First, Just Make Some Bread from a Trusted Recipe

Before you start experimenting like I did and trying to figure out how to do sourdough by trial and error it’s worth establishing a few basics, by learning the following things:

1. How to bake simple yeast breads.
2. How to bake delayed-fermentation breads.
3. How to bake whole-grain breads.

To learn those three things I recommend starting with one or two of Peter Reinhart’s books, which should be at your local library (and if they aren’t you should request them, that’s how I get all my books!):

1. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (Canada)
2. Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads (Canada)

Or if you don’t want to read a whole book about baking then at least try a simple recipe for a yeast bread that incorporates a few techniques from those books, like this one, the 2:2:2 Bread:

Now Start Your Starter

While there is something very satisfying about starting your own sourdough starter it’s also nice to get right down to business baking a sourdough bread, and the fastest way to do that is to get a starter from a friend.  This is not only convenient, it’s also reassuring because you can know for sure that the starter is viable and you can even test the results by tasting your friend’s bread (so if you’re in the KW area I’m happy to share some starter with you, just leave a comment and let me know!). But if you really like doing things from scratch then by all means make your own sourdough starter.  It will take you 5-7 days:

Day 1

1. Mix 3 ½ tablespoons whole wheat or rye flour with ¼ cup water or unsweetened pineapple juice (see here for why pineapple juice is a good idea).  Cover loosely with a plastic grocery bag or plastic wrap, and leave at room temperature.
2. Stir the mixture 2-3 times daily for 48 hours.

Day 3

3. Add 2 tablespoons whole wheat or rye flour and 2 tablespoons water or pineapple juice to the original mixture (which we will henceforth call “the sponge”).  Cover again.
4. Stir 2-3 times a day for 48 more hours.

Day 5

5. Add 5 tablespoons whole wheat or rye flour and 3 tablespoons water (no more juice) to the sponge.
6. Repeat with the daily stirrings and by now the batter should start getting bubbly.

Day 6

7. Get rid of half of the batter by making sourdough pancakes.  Add 7 tablespoons flour and 3 tablespoons water to the remaining sponge.
8. Let the sponge rise for a day (could be a bit more or less) and then it’s ready to be used to bake a bread.  If you don’t use it transfer it to the fridge in a covered container (I like these containers).

(Above) A happy sourdough culture ready to be weighed to make some delicious bread!

Happy Sourdough Equals Happy… um, What Rhymes with Sourdough?

I bake bread about once a week, usually on Tuesdays. This means the process usually begins on Monday night.  When I worked full time as a teacher I did my baking on Saturdays, thus I would begin on Friday night.  You have to find what works for you. I don’t get stressed if I can’t bake some weeks, but I am aware of the sourdough starter’s needs, which sometimes include being fed even if I’m not baking.  I figure it can last a few weeks in the fridge without being fed, but it’s happier being fed on a consistent weekly basis.

Our other family secret for maintaining our sourdough culture’s health is to use the starter to make sourdough pancakes, which we have at least once a week.  Pancakes are much more forgiving than sourdough bread because they don’t depend on the sourdough for rising, but use baking powder and soda.  The sourdough simply helps the dough to be more nutritious and tastier, as explained above.

When our starter needs to be fed and there’s no time for baking I simply take it out of the fridge, discard some if I have more than a few tablespoons, then add some flour and water.  How much?  Well the goal is to at least double the starter in size, so if I have about 2 tablespoons of starter I’m going to add at least one tablespoon of water and one of flour.  My preferred flour for feeding is rye, but I change it up to keep the starter adaptable. Keep in mind that you can always add commercial yeast to a sourdough bread, but there is a huge amount of satisfaction that comes from baking a bread using only wild yeast for leavening.  Thus a healthy starter is very important.

Standing on the Shoulders…

My current go-to sourdough bread recipe is sort of a combination of several baker’s recipes.  I have been influenced by the great bakers Peter Reinhart, Chad Robertson (I’ve just requested his latest book, Tartine No. 3, for our library), and the author Michael Pollan (who while not being a professional baker, knows how to make a great sourdough, and spends over a hundred pages describing the process, science, and history in his latest book, Cooked).  The recipe that follows is influenced by all three authors:

Multigrain Sourdough Bread (Download the recipe as PDF)

Makes 2 large loaves

Ingredients (I recommend a scale, not just for precision, although that is very important to achieve consistent results, but also for the ease of not having to use measuring utensils):

Sponge

• 25g starter
• 100g whole wheat or rye or spelt flour
• 100g water

Soaker

• 200g whole rye flour
• 200g spelt flour
• 200g other grains (I enjoy using “spent grains” from beer) but oats, barley flakes, and other whole grains will work here)
• 600g water

Final Dough (next day)

• 300-400g all purpose flour
• 50g oil (this is optional, and I mostly add it when making sourdough ciabatta or pizza dough)
• 10-15g salt

Begin by making the sponge and soaker.  Mix both together in separate bowls, cover (a plastic grocery bag is great for covering bowls of sourdough, rather than dealing with plastic wrap) and allow to sit overnight.  (These can also be left in the fridge for up to three days.)

In the morning mix together the sponge and soaker.  (You can test your sponge for its yeastiness by taking a small piece of it and putting it in a cup of water.  If it floats you’re good, if not then you can add ½ tsp. of yeast).  Add the flour, oil, and salt and mix together until all of the flour is incorporated.  I do this with a mixing stick (something a family member made on a lathe, just a smooth stick of wood), but if you’re stand mixer is a good one with a dough hook it should be able to handle this).

(Below) Checking for bubbles and doing the “float” test:

Let the dough sit for 1 hour.  Then use wet hands to grab the dough, pull it up and fold it on itself.  Do this four times, reaching from each side of the dough, always folding it back on itself.  This is called, fairly obviously, “the stretch-and-fold method.”  It is demonstrated here: The Stretch and Fold Technique from Peter Reinhart.  If your dough is way too sticky add more flour.  You can add a little flour every time you stretch and fold.

Set your timer for another hour (it’s okay if it’s a bit longer too, sometimes I forget the timer and just do it when I think of it), and repeat the stretch-and-fold method.  Repeat this process (and the hour wait) 1 or 2 more times, for a total of 3 or 4 strech-and-folds, and yes, this will take a good chunk of time.  The choice to do 3 or 4 sets of stretch-and-folds depends on how your dough is responding.  After 3 sets if the dough seems to be rising and holding its shape well then you can move on.  If not then you can do a 4th set.

After the last set of stretching and folding let the dough sit one more time for about 30 minutes.  Now it’s time to shape the dough for its final rise.  You have a few options:

1. Classic bread loaf.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces, flatten each on a counter into a rectangle the same width as your bread pan.  Roll up the bread and pinch the seam closed.  Roll it back and forth a bit to make it even and then place it in an oiled bread pan, cover with a cloth and let it proof (rise).  Before baking score the loaf down the center with a sharp knife.
2. Batard: Also sometimes called a “torpedo” this is like a baguette that hasn’t been stretched out.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces, flatten each on a counter into a rectangle.  Fold the top half of the dough to the middle, then fold the bottom half over that, pinching shut the seam.  Roll the dough back and forth until it is about 8-10 inches long.  Place it on floured parchment paper, cover with a cloth, and allow to proof.  Before baking score the loaf down the center with a sharp knife.  See a full video here.
3. Boule: This is a big round ball of bread.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces, flatten each on a counter into a square.  Pull the corners of the dough to the center, then flip it over and using one hand rotate the dough and with the other hand push the edges underneath toward the centre, which stretches the outer surface of the bread tight, creating good surface tension.  Flour the dough, then place it upside down in a floured bowl that is slightly larger than the bread.  Cover it with a cloth and let it proof.  When proofed you will need to move the dough from the bowl to something that can transfer it to a preheated baking stone, like a floured pizza peel.  (I use a super peel which I love. See it in action here.)  You can also turn the dough over onto a lightly floured baking sheet and bake it on there.  In both cases make sure to score the loaf before baking, either in a cross shape, or in a square shape.  See a full video here.
4. Ciabatta: Probably my favorite method, because it is the hardest to mess up.  Divide the dough into 4 pieces.  On a floured surface stretch a piece of dough and fold one end to the center, then the other end to the center.  Do this with all four pieces of dough, let them rise on the floured surface until almost doubled in size.  Once the dough has proofed, pick each piece up with floured hands, flip it over and stretch it a bit and place it, seam-side down on a peel or baking sheet. Transfer to the a stone in the oven or bake on the baking sheet.  Ciabatta cooks much faster than the larger loaves above, so set a timer for 15 minutes, rotate the loaves, and then 5-10 minutes more.

In all three cases you let the dough proof until it is ready to bake.  Usually with a sourdough this takes about 1-2 hours.  The dough is proofed (risen) when it has almost doubled in size.  Another way of checking is by poking it with your finger—if it leaves a dent it’s ready, if it fills back in quickly it’s not ready. Before the dough is proofed preheat the oven to 500^◦F.  If you are going to bake on a stone make sure it is in the oven.  When the dough is proofed place a pan or baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven.  Pour one cup of very hot water into the pan and close the door, it will be very steamy but don’t take your clothes off or do, it’s your choice.

Lower the temperature to 450^◦F and bake for 20 minutes.  Rotate the dough 180^◦ and bake another 15-20 minutes, until the dough sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.  If you have a cooking thermometer stick it in the bread, if it reads above 190^◦F and comes out without any sticky dough on it the bread is done.  Allow it to cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it.

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Making ketchup has been at the back of my mind for quite a while now.  I had read about a girl in our community who makes her own and I was like I can do that!  So now I did.  Turns out it’s not much work, you just need to have an afternoon where you can leave a couple jars or cans of tomatoes slowly cooking down on the stove.  My recipe is fairly standard, and similar to the one linked above.  However, I use only local ingredients in my ketchup, and allow it to ferment a bit, taking inspiration from Sandor Katz:

“The revival of fermentation at the local and regional scale goes hand in hand with the revival of local agriculture in the movement toward relocalization of our food and our economics.”

-Sandor Katz, The Art of Fermentation, p.369

Of course projects like this raise the question of “why bother?”  Well, I bother partly just because I can, but also because I like knowing what’s in my food and where it came from.  I know the farmer that grew the onion, some of the tomatoes came from our backyard, the vinegar is from apples we pressed into cider last fall, the maple syrup and honey are from local farms, and there are no mystery ingredients!  But ultimately it’s about taste, this ketchup is really super tasty.  Sadly I didn’t make a huge batch, so maybe next time I’ll double this one.

The Process:

Cook the canned tomatoes for a long time over low heat, stirring a few times every hour.  You can use a slow-cooker, I just used a Dutch oven over very low heat.  Let them cook for 4-8 hours, however long it takes to get them thick.  If they are not sufficiently uniform puree them in a food processor or with an immersion blender.

While the tomatoes are cooking dice the onion and soak it in the vinegar to infuse it with some oniony goodness.

After the tomatoes have reached your desired thickness cook them a bit more.  Then add 1 cup of the onion-infused vinegar along with the honey, maple syrup, garlic, mustard, salt, and cook 15-20 minutes more.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

When the ketchup is cool mix in the rest of the vinegar and the whey.  Transfer to a jar and allow to ferment at room temperature for 1 or more days.  Then store in the fridge.  You can even transfer it to a store-bought ketchup container in hopes of fooling your kids who may have a preference for how ketchup “should” taste….

I’ve been enjoying my  hot fermented carrots for a couple weeks now and will soon be making another batch.  Well, actually the next batch will be different, as I’m going to try different flavors than this batch because it ended up being a bit hot for Madame and way too hot for my Young Assistants.  However, I’ve enjoyed adding the spicy tangy carrots to different meals so maybe the next round should feature one jar of super-hot ones, and jar of not-hot ones.  The options are pretty endless in terms of the herbs and spices you can add to a simple jar of fermenting carrots.

 Okay, so those carrots were photographed last summer… these days carrots don’t look quite so lively, but it’s nice to remember what summer looks like….

The process is fairly straight forward.  But before I get to that I should also say if you’re new to fermenting and are considering where to start I would recommend NOT starting with Kimchi.  Not because Kimchi isn’t good, on the contrary it’s amazing!  But it is tons more work, probably 10 times the amount of work, what with all the chopping, dicing, pureeing, packing….  In the case of fermenting carrots you’re really not doing anything new if you already like cutting and eating carrots, therefore this is a good place to start.

Here’s how to get started fermenting:

1. Make a salt water brine with 2 cups hot water and 1 ½ teaspoons salt.
2. Peel and cut up carrots, place them in a wide-mouth pint jar (500 ml), packed to about 1 inch from the top.
3.  Add desired spices, herbs, seasonings to the jar.
4. Allow the brine to cool close to room temperature, dump it around the carrots.
5. Cover the carrots with a cabbage leaf and weigh down everything in the jar with a smaller jar filled with water.  Cover with a towel or plastic bag and let ferment for 1-2 weeks.
6. Start eating them.  When they taste the way you like transfer them to the fridge.  Otherwise let them keep fermenting until you reach your desired sourness and tangy-ness.

You can see the clove of garlic and the cabbage leaf floating amongst the carrots.  Eventually you can remove the cabbage leaf, it just helps get the fermentation going and can also act as something to help hold the fermenting vegetables down.

Notice that the brine is a bit too close to the top; leave a bit more space as fermentation can cause the brine to overflow a bit.

Read my original, more thorough post at Bailey’s Local Foods.  Guidance for making these fermented carrots came from Food Renegade and Well Preserved.

This post was originally written for Bailey’s Local Foods.

I’m very new to the world of fermentation, especially when it comes to foods.  I didn’t grow up eating sauerkraut and still find it a bit odd.  However, the first time I had kimchi I knew I’d have to learn how to make it (because I’m kind of cheap, but mostly because I love learning how to make new things!).  So I took two recipes and made my own version using as many local ingredients as I good.  The result is KWimchi, or KW-Chi, or a Kimchi for KW.

Trying to emphasize the ingredients we have available from local farms this kimchi is a bit more of what Sandor Katz would call a Kraut-Chi.  Regardless of what you call it, it is delicious enough to eat by itself (which I’ve been doing lately!).

Our recipe is based on these two:

The Kitchn’s How to Make Easy Kimchi at Home

Nourished Kitchen’s Hot, Salty & Sour: My Kimchi Recipe