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"It's all about life," EagleSong, founder of RavenCroft Garden, tells us as an introduction to our food-fermenting class. She exudes a confidence that I need as I contemplate my niggling fear: I'm certain I'll botch my first batch of fermented food and poison my unsuspecting family. She explains that fermenting is a natural, time-tested process and relays how our culture has all but forgotten the connection of the microbial world to our own well-being. The goal may well be better health through diversity of diet, but it's clear that EagleSong also finds fermenting fun, so I reserve my self-judgment and begin to believe I can do it, too.

Fermented foods are live foods: Fermenting is the process of using salt, vinegars, acids, oils and/or cultures containing yeast, bacteria and molds to start a chain reaction that can preserve, give a distinct flavor to and/or enrich the nutrition of foods or beverages. Familiar fermented foods range from beer, wine, coffee and tea to chocolate, cheese, bread and pickles, and encompass a range of fermenting processes. Our class was preparing to ferment vegetables using salt; I was there for the sauerkraut. Much to my relief, I soon discovered that the acidic or alcoholic environments created by fermenting are not conducive to the bacteria associated with botulism or salmonella.

The reality is that most foods we commonly purchase are highly processed and stripped of nutrients. Often, their chemically altered growing conditions reduce their nutritional value from the start. Fermentation is a method of preserving foods that both retains nutrients and can make the foods easier to digest. The microbial processes present in fermenting can create additional nutrients, for example B vitamins, and increase their ability to strengthen the immune system. For instance, a Finnish study shows that cabbage, already a member of the cancer-fighting cruciferous family, exhibits even higher anticancer properties when fermented.

In the store: Many foods that used to be traditionally fermented are now mass-produced using chemical processes. Some are also heated to a level that kills the very enzymes and microflora that can improve and preserve your food in the first place. For companies that still produce kraut with live cultures, try Diamond Organics at www.diamondorganics.com or Rejuvenative Foods at www.rejuvenative.com.

Beneficial bacteria: I've heard more than one doctor mutter something like, "They keep kids too clean nowadays; they've got no resistance." Even the bottle of pro-biotic in my refrigerator hasn't made a dent in my knee-jerk impulse to view all bacteria as bad. Hearing our kids repeat my less-than-accurate comments about "germs" has encouraged me to rethink my view of the microbial world.

Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz is both fun and informative, inviting us to "collaborate with tiny beings with somewhat capricious habits and vast transformative powers." He has personally experienced how essential microbes are as he continues to support his immune system through bouts with AIDS-related symptoms. EagleSong finds his recipes both accurate and repeatable; I also enjoyed the read.

Embracing a bit of wildness: I looked out my office window the week following our fermentation class and saw my friend Marilene, whose arms were elbow-deep in a bucket, scrubbing cucumbers. Our seven-year-old daughter, Niya, was squatting next to her, poking a thin, pointed dowel through each one from tip almost to end. In a few hours, there were pickles percolating in our garage. Weeks later, I sat in my kitchen, munching on crunchy dills. They tasted incredible — a relief after my lingering dissatisfaction with commercially prepared pickles. But the thought of Niya willingly spending over an hour helping to make pickles on a sunny fall day, while her friends played all around her, is what swayed me most toward fermenting our own foods.

I'm a recipe gal: I feel safer with a precise set of directions to follow that will achieve a predictable result. With fermentation, no matter how careful the setup, the food literally takes on a life of its own, and we adapt our methods to suit it. But it will possess all the unique strengths and idiosyncrasies of our home, family and local environment because it is made with the very microbes from the air we breathe. Introducing our own culture into our foods is going to be fun...

Simple Sauerkraut
*process inspired by EagleSong and RavenCroft Garden

Ingredients and supplies: You'll need several heads of cabbage (choose firm, dense cabbage, more "squatty" than round) and canning/pickling or kosher salt*. Gather a large stainless-steel bowl or food-grade plastic bucket, a sharp vegetable knife, a wooden pounder (or any kitchen utensil that you can pound with). You'll also need a follower*, a weight (the recipe suggests a jar of water; we used a heavy, well-scrubbed rock) and a large glass jar or crock.

"Sauerkraut, Crock Pickles and Fermented Vegetables" class by EagleSong at RavenCroft Garden: 360-794-2938 or www.ravencroftgarden.com Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Ellix Katz Contact him at www.wildfermentation.com. The Permaculture Book of Ferment & Human Nutrition by Bill Mollison

*Follower: A follower is any flat object (wood, ceramic or plastic) that you can place on top of the cabbage and that will "follow" it down as your food ferments. We used a large dinner plate that happened to fit quite nicely inside of our 5-gallon bucket.
*Salt: Kosher salt is a light, flaked salt with no additives. Or use pickling/canning salt which, though granular, dissolves easily. Do not use table salt, as it has additives that prevent caking and will ruin the sauerkraut.

To make:

• Cut cabbage heads into quarters and remove cores. Slice cabbage the thickness of a dime and keep in mounds of about one head each. Even slicing will help the fermentation process.
• Place a mound of cabbage in a stainless-steel bowl or a plastic bucket and sprinkle with a small handful of Kosher salt (3 tablespoons per 5 pounds of trimmed cabbage). Note: If you use pickling or canning salt, increase the amount to 4 ½ tablespoons.
• Pound with a heavy stick or a bat to bruise the cabbage and draw out the juices. Repeat layering, salting and pounding until all of the cabbage has been added. Note: If the cabbage is layered into the bucket with salt one head at a time, it is easier to bruise all of the cabbage thoroughly and evenly. Pounding is complete when you see juice beginning to collect on the top. Keep your cabbage in the bucket or transfer it to a large glass jar or a crock.
• Place your follower on top of the cabbage and place a weight on top of that.
• Brine (salted water, or in this case, salted cabbage juice) is necessary to protect the ferment from airborne bacteria that could cause spoilage. After 24 hours, there should be at least one inch of brine covering the follower. If not, dissolve 1 tablespoon of salt in 1 quart of boiling water and then add 1 cup at a time until the follower is covered by one inch of brine.
• Cover bucket and jar with a dishtowel (your "lid") to keep out dirt and insects and allow kraut to breathe.
• Check the sourness of the kraut every day or two. Take care when opening up the kraut container: Use a clean plate to set aside the follower and weight, and clean utensils to dish out the kraut. Taste the kraut; it will get tangier as time progresses. Rinse off the plate and the weight before returning them to the container.
• If mold appears on the surface, skim it off. The mold is a product of contact with the air; the kraut itself is protected under the brine. Add more brine if the layer drops below one inch.
• Let the kraut cure at room temperature for a week or longer* (depending on the room temperature and amount of fermentation you prefer). When the kraut is as sour as you like it, transfer to glass jars or crocks and store at 50 degrees or cooler to stop fermentation.

To store: If you've chosen to cure your kraut in plastic, consider storing it in a glass jar or ceramic crock. Long-term storage in plastic is not a good idea, as the plastic leaches into whatever it contacts. (See "Hold the Plastic, Please" in issue #7.) To ensure long-term freshness, practice what EagleSong calls "crock courtesy": Whenever you open the crock, scoop out enough for a week's worth of family consumption. Or store in smaller containers at the outset.

Salt police: OK, I was the one who asked for a specific measurement for the salt, much to the amusement of the class. EagleSong encouraged me to begin with that measurement and then start to trust my instincts and taste buds. In my desire to "get it right," I often forget that the first batch of anything is a trial run, that there is no "right way" and that I'll get a feel for it - over time. EagleSong suggests that you randomly taste a bit of the cabbage for saltiness as you layer the bucket. If it seems too salty, cut back on the amount of salt per layer of cabbage. If it's not quite salty enough, add more.

Pounding song: EagleSong had an incredible wooden pounding stick: long enough that you could stand with your bucket on the floor, smooth enough that it was a pleasure to hold and thick enough that it did the job.

My friend Marilene found a branch to suit her and created a pounder for us to use. As I took it from her with a joke about the idea of taking out my frustrations in the process, she suggested a pounding song instead. In her previous catering business, many of her clients were cancer patients, and she wanted to put her love and healing thoughts into the food she made for them. I liked the reminder that whatever energy I am feeling becomes part of what I make with my hands - in the same way that my tone becomes part of my message. A song it is. And if you missed the movie "Like Water for Chocolate," rent it immediately....

*Curing kraut: Curing time depends on the ambient temperature. At a room temperature of 60 degrees, it takes 5 - 6 weeks to cure; at 70 - 75 degrees, it will cure in 3 weeks; above 90 degrees, the curing time is about 8 - 10 days. Enjoy...

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