Real Food Summit

Room 1
Matt Stone

Room 2
Jenny McGruther

Room 3
Donielle Baker

Reviving the Tradition of Fermentation: How and Why Fermented Foods Heal
Presenter: Jenny McGruther
Website: nourishedkitchen.com
Live Q&A Session: Monday, July 16th on UW Radio

This presentation’s FREE viewing period has ended.

Enter your email address below for instant access to your FREE Real Food Defined presentation with Joel Salatin and to receive news, updates and registrant-only video/audio bonuses during this online event!

Christine

Thank you for this. Do the implements you make the fermented foods in, need to be sterilised first to prevent any bad bacteria present from colonising the culture instead of the good bacteria?
- Jenny
  
  I don’t sterlize equipment. I think that keeping a decently clean kitchen and running what ever you’re using through the dishwasher is sufficient.
  - Jenny
    
    *sterilize
  - Christine
    
    Thank you. I have just thought of another question. I believe I heard you mention fermented fruit. One thing which is coming across on these presentations, is that you shouldn’t eat too much fruit due to the fructose content. Would fermenting the fruit make it better to eat?
    - Jenny
      
      Yes. Fermenting fruit will reduce the sugar content of the fruit just like it does milk. That also means that fermented fruit can become super sour or yeasty / alcoholic in flavor because of the high sugar content. For this reason you should ferment fruits for a very short period of time (2 to 5 days) with a starter to avoid strong and unappealing flavors. Chutneys, fruit butters and things like that do well with whey as a starter or a purchased starter culture if you’re dairy-free.
    - Jenny
      
      Also. I don’t think we should avoid or minimize any one food. I think self-moderation and a relaxed attitude are key to the enjoyment of our foods. We eat plenty of fruit when it’s in season and very little when it’s not.
      - http://wholedei.com/ Dea’
        
        I LOVE this comment and attitude. Thank you for this. I’ve been trying to process the whole “Fruit is Bad! Fructose! Yikes!” attitude with the full statement of “Just eat real food!”. I think this comment is a great approach to eating real food while still being aware of how that food interacts with our bodies, environment, and home.
http://www.naturalhealthandwellnesscenter.org/ Ewhbalance

Great education. Thanks for having this. I have forwarded it to my clients to promote their education in healthy foods/eating. http://www.NaturalHealthandWellnessCenter.org.
Taniko Kishimoto

This is awesome. Probably the most immediate-how-to actionable event this week to date.

I have a strong desire to make kimchee or fermented cabbage in some form. Is there an upper level in kitchen temperature that you (Jenny) avoid? (I don’t have A/C and it is pretty hot here.) Or for any of the other fermentable items?
- Jenny
  
  Fermentation is VERY forgiving. I recommend avoiding temps in excess of 85 if you can, though. The hotter your home is, the faster things will ferment.
http://primaltoad.com/ Todd Dosenberry

I can not wait to start fermenting more foods. I have recently tried a few things and I just need more experience. I do love my kombucha but GT’s brand is super expensive!
Lena Rotenberg

Jenny, I wish your slides were easier to read — font is too small and slides are too dense. You’re doing a fantastic job with the nourishedkitchen.com website, but here I’m wishing you’d allowed Sean’s team more control. I’m on a laptop and I’m actually NOT looking at the screen while I’m listening, because it’s frustrating to me. Thankfully the presentation is clear enough and I’m a pretty decent auditory learner.

(Sean, are you also an instructional designer on top of of all else you do? I’m truly impressed by the quality of the presentations here. I enjoyed the week, thanks so much!)
- seancroxton
  
  Thanks for attending, Lena! I have to give credit to my lovely assistant Allyson. She made all of the slides.
- Jenny
  
  This is great feedback, and I completely agree. Sean’s professionalism always amazes me! Unfortunately for me, we had trouble connecting and my slides just don’t work as well in this instance as they do when I give the talk in person with a nice big screen.
Christi

How did they preserve the ferments before they had refrigerators?
Or were they just REALLY strong come springtime?
- Annanannas
  
  Your refrigerator is replacing the root cellar right now. Plus, they would have still continued to ferment, so they would have been stronger/better by spring.
- Jenny
  
  They would transfer them to cold storage – mostly root cellars which maintain an even, cool temperature year-round.
Ceryniti

Thanks Jenny your info and recipes are amazing!
Barbara Resendes

Thank you so much, Jenny. You’ve given me a format to help the family I rent from, whose son won’t eat vegetables and has many health problems for his young age as well as being pretty hyper. I just hooked up to your newsletter and look forward to delving into your site!
Annelie

Thank you!
Renni_G

Jenny,

Great
presentation although I did need more slides for my notes and in larger font as
Lena expressed.

I have 3
questions:

1)
Regarding vegetables: does dehydrating raw vegetables in a dehydrator
concentrate the vitamins and beneficial bacteria as much as fermented
vegetables?

2) My
house temperature drops to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit at night and rises to
about 95 degrees Fahrenheit during the day in the summer. Winters are cold all
the time in my house. Do you have a suggestion where to ferment in my home?

3) Very important: the theory of
having a Ph balance of the human body being in a healthy state is more toward
an alkaline state. You stated that the fermented food is in hyper-acidic
environment (around minute 36), therefore, could you explain why an acidic food would
be beneficial to the human body? I am not criticizing, just trying to understand.
- Jenny
  
  1. No. Fermentation increases vitamins, dehydration does not. Dehydration also does nothing to encourage the proliferation of beneficial bacteria in the way that fermentation does.
  
  2. Find a warm place in your house with steadier temperatures (on top of the fridge? in a cupboard?) and use that as your fermentation spot.
  
  3. I’m not a believer in the acid/alkali theory. That said, there are many acid foods that are thought to have an alkalizing effect on the body: lemon juice is a good example, sour fruits is another. So just because a food is acidic doesn’t mean it’s acidifying according to that theory of nutrition. Besides, the Body Ecology Diet which *DOES* rely on the theory of acid/alkalizing foods strongly recommends fermented foods at each meal.
  - Renni_G
    
    Good cross reference as you are correct about the Body Ecology Diet using fermented foods. Thanx.
Rachael K.

This offers a little bit off a different opinion regarding what type of containers to use for fermenting….
http://divinehealthfromtheinsideout.com/2012/07/rethinking-lacto-fermentation-are-we-flippantly-fermenting/ I just came across it last week and there seems to be a differing opinion regarding this issue.

Love the programs btw!
- Jenny
  
  Traditional societies fermented in many, many different types of vessels, some were airtight, some were not. I’m not fond of the fear mongering I see in a lot of real food circles. I ferment most of my vegetables in a Polish-style crock or a Pickl-it (I have 6!) however, the implication that anything else is somehow subpar or dangerous or unhealthy is misleading. Further, we all need to start somewhere.
  - Melanie
    
    Just because some cultures did open ferments does not make it right. The fact that most cultures do anaerobic ferments speaks volumes to me. They are not going to go to the trouble to do an anaerobic ferment if they didn’t feel it was necessary. Besides not everything traditional cultures do is right. They might have gotten away with it because they did not have compromised guts like the majority of people do nowadays. They didn’t take antibiotics, were not born by c-section and did not have the toxic load we now bear today. Now that we have the science to understand why they did it, we should try to do it right.
    We advocate raw milk but we don’t tell people to just go to the dairy down the road until they can find a farmer that practices safe methods just to get them started. In the same way, why would we encourage people to ferment in a way that could harm their gut? I do believe in a better, best method in ferment. Better would be the DIY lids (hole in a mason jar lid for an airlock and a good gasket) and best would be a Pickl-It or a Harsch Crock. Or if someone wants to dig a hole in their back yard, go for it.
Ivana

When making raw milk yogurt, I am learning you have to first heat the milk to a point at which you kill off some of the bacteria so they do not overwhelm the yogurt culture (at least with the Viili culture, which is what I am tackling today). Can you explain how that works and why it’s actually a bit harder to make yogurt from raw milk than pasteurized. Thanks!
- Jenny
  
  You can make yogurt from raw milk very easily: take raw milk and bring it up to temperature (108 – 112 F) if you’re using a thermophilic starter or room temperature if you’re making something like viili, whisk in the starter and ferment as you normally would. It’s very easy.
  
  You do need to maintain a pure seed starter, though, from scalded or pasteurized milk and the starter of your choice if you wish to maintain the characteristics of your favorite yogurt. Otherwise, the naturally occurring bacteria in your raw milk will out-compete the bacteria in your starter over time and you will end up with plain clabbered milk (which is lovely too) that may or may not have the characteristics of the yogurt you wish to make.