Organic Growers School hosts fermentation workshop with Sandor Katz Sept. 9 at Warren Wilson College

Press release:

Organic Growers School hosts Sandor Katz in Western N.C. September 9 & 10

Asheville, NC — Organic Growers School continues to reinforce its reputation of offering down-to-earth education, while remaining affordable and accessible, by hosting Sandor Ellix Katz in a day-long “Art of Fermentation” workshop on Friday, September 9, 2016, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, N.C. Sandor, award-winning author of books Wild Fermentation (2003) and the Art of Fermentation (2012), is a ‘fermentation revivalist’ who has helped catalyze an international revival of the fermentation arts, by teaching hundreds of fermentation workshops around the world.

The “Art of Fermentation” workshop is being offered as a pre-conference event, part of the 3^rd Annual Harvest Conference hosted by Organic Growers School. The cost of the all-day workshop is $80. Sandor is also offering a one and a half hour workshop titled “Ferments Q&A” as part of the Harvest Conference, taking place on Saturday, September 10 at AB Tech in downtown Asheville, NC. Registration for that event, which includes 28 classes in seven tracks, is $45.

The “Art of Fermentation” workshop is discovery of the history, concepts, values and processes of fermentation, based on the book of the same title, which was a New York Times bestseller and won a 2013 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference and Scholarship. The workshop is a comprehensive presentation of do-it-yourself home ferments where students learn to preserve and enhance the health benefits of vegetables by making their own kraut, kimchi and other fermented delicacies. The techniques offered are simple enough to guide students through their first experience and in-depth enough to provide greater understanding and insight for experienced practitioners.

9:30-10:15am	Intro to fermentation
10:15-10:45am	Dairy fermentation: Kefir, Yogurt, Cheese
10:45-11:30am	Grain fermentation: Soaking & Pprouting, Sourdough
11:30-11:45am	Break
11:45-1:00pm	Beverages: Kombucha and Water Kefir
1:00-2:00pm	Lunch
2:00-3:30pm	Vegetable Fermentation
3:30-4:30pm	Q&A

 

The one and a half hour Saturday session, taught by Sandor, and entitled “Ferments Q&A,” is part of the 3^rd Annual Harvest Conference program which features 28 workshops in 7 tracks with a focus on Fall & Winter Growing, Cooking, Fermentation & Preservation, Homestead Skills, Self-Reliance, Herbal Medicine, and Wild Ideas. All organically. The “Ferments Q&A” is an open session to informally discuss anything fermentation-related. Students are encouraged to bring questions and issues about aspects of fermentation that they wish to clarify and are also encouraged to share their fermentation projects, both failures as well as successes.

Katz is a self-taught fermentation experimentalist and an activist for food, economics, and health. He sees fermentation as the centerpiece of economic revival and urges us to consider that “Relocalizing food means a renewal not only of agriculture but also of the processes used to transform and preserve the products of agriculture into the things that people eat and drink every day, including ferments such as bread, cheese, and beer.” Katz feels strongly about encouraging folks to ferment in their homes and communities and by using these ancient, simple and profound techniques in order to “reclaim food and with it a broad web of connections.” With more than a dozen years of experience, Sandor offers the unique ability to mentor, encourage and inspire others towards exploration and experimentation.

Newsweek called Sandor’s book, Wild Fermentation, “the fermenting Bible,” and The New York Times calls Sandor “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” Michael Pollen says of Sandor’s second book, “The Art of Fermentation is much more than a cookbook…Sure, it tells you how to do it, but much more important, it tells you what it means, and why an act as quotidian and practical as making your own sauerkraut represents nothing less than a way of engaging with the world.”

Signed copies of Sandor’s books, published by Chelsea Green, will be available at the Harvest Conference exhibit hall in Ferguson Auditorium at AB Tech, downtown Asheville, through Firestorm Books & Café.