Let’s just start by looking at some pictures, shall we?
Aren’t those some of the prettiest foods in jars you’ve ever seen?
I haven’t made a single one, but I’m telling you: if I could go visit Wardeh and her family out in Oregon, I’d make the trip in a blink and try every single one (even though I’m terribly afraid of the taste of fermented foods other than yogurt!).
Other than looking pretty, fermented foods play a huge role in overall health and wellness and can really help improve one’s diet. Wardeh’s family eats a ferment at every meal (and there’s one included in each weekly meal plan that GNOWFGLINS eCourses also offers), and she is certain that a portion of their continuing and improved good health can be attributed to the wealth of probiotics the family consumes.
You know me – we couldn’t live without our homemade yogurt – but I don’t ferment a whole lot beyond that. I bow to people who do, though! Aren’t you ready to learn the basic skills (and beyond)?
The Lacto-Ferments class at GNOWFGLINS is accessible with any level of plan, starting at only $8/month! You get complete access to all courses, including fermentation, sourdough, cultured dairy and cheese, and the original Fundamentals eCourse. OR WIN IT THIS WEEK right HERE!
If you’re currently a member on any of our eCourse plans, you already have access to this class!
I’m going to turn over the keyboard to Wardeh now to tell you a bit about the course:
What Are Fermented Foods?
When you ferment or culture foods, you make them better! Fermented foods are foods that have been cultured by beneficial organisms. In the right conditions, beneficial organisms feast on the food, producing beneficial acids, and transforming the food into something better. This culturing develops complex flavors and pleasing textures, while the food becomes more nutritious than it was before. And the acids preserve and protect the food from spoiling. It is really a miraculous process!
Not Just Sauerkruat
Fermenting foods covers a lot more than sauerkraut! Did you know you can ferment fruits, vegetables, beans, meats, dairy, and grains? You can even ferment condiments like mayonnaise that you use on a daily basis. Don’t be scared – these foods are so delicious!
Traditionally fermented foods contain vitamins, enzymes, and active cultures – conveying benefits to your gut, your immune system, and your digestion.
You can’t buy many of these true fermented foods in most grocery stores. The sauerkraut or pickles on the shelf are cooked-to-death veggies in white vinegar and are devoid of any beneficial organisms or nutrition. Sausages are pumped full of nitrates and fake flavors, rather than long fermented with beneficial organisms.
Simple, Easy, Delicious
The Lacto-Fermentation eCourse offers simple lessons and tasty, nutritious recipes for pickles, chutneys, relishes, condiments, pickled fish and meats, sourdough, simple cheeses, beverages, and more! The weekly video demonstrations give you multiple opportunities to practice the principles of lacto-fermentation in limitless ways. Visit this page for more information about what’s covered in the class.
What You’ll Learn And Do
- The history of lacto-fermentation
- The science of fermenting foods
- Why fermented foods are supremely digestible and nutritious — the best kind of food for your gut!
- How fermented foods help you embrace the harvest
- Save your appliances, resources and energy by going low-tech with traditional fermentation methods
- How to ferment fruits into delicious relishes, chutneys, jams and beverages
- How to turn vegetables into fantastic pickles, relishes and krauts
- Culture dairy into tasty and nutritious butter, sour cream, yogurt, kefir, cheese and more
- Use traditional methods of sourdough to prepare your baked goods and pastries for the best nutrition and digestion
- Pickle and preserve meats in traditional methods
- Ferment beans to make dips, spreads, and pastes the old-fashioned way
- Learn how to give your homemade condiments a probiotic boost
- Master making the most delicious and refreshing natural sodas and other probiotic beverages
- Learn formulas and rules for making up your own ferments to use up your seasonal produce
- Put fermented foods into your daily diet with our meal and menu planning helps
Lacto-Fermentation eCourse Lessons And Topics
- About Lacto-Fermentation
- The Lacto-Fermentation Story
- Fruits: Chutneys
- Fruits: Whole Fruits
- Veggies: Krauts
- Veggies: Salsas and Relishes
- Veggies: Pickles
- Condiments: Mayo, Mustard & Ketchup
- Condiments: Horseradish & Hummus
- Beverages: Beyond Water Kefir
- Beverages: Kombucha & Kvass
- Beverages: Natural Sodas
- Beans: Bean Paste, Natto and Tempeh
- Cultured Dairy: Clabber, Cultured Butter and Yogurt
- Cultured Dairy: Soft Cheeses
- Meats: Red Meats
- Meats: Pickled Fish & Eggs
- Curing Olives
- Grains: Sourdough Starters, Pancakes, Waffles and Crepes
- Grains: Sourdough Advanced
- Meal Planning
- “Create Your Own” Formulas
- Bonus! TBA
Note from a reader: a concerned KS reader wanted everyone to know that in SOME folks, fermented foods cause migraines – she and I both would hate for you to try to make your family healthier and end up hurting someone without knowing what’s going on. I don’t think it’s anything to be afraid of, but something to be aware of.
June/July Thank You Gift
If you sign up for the standard or premium plans, you get the monthly thank you video for free, with lifetime access. July’s video, just announced, is a probiotic quinoa salad – a cold grain salad perfect for a summer side dish or even a light meal! To learn more about the various plan options, click HERE.
Do you know how to lacto-ferment things? Do you want to? (Are ya scared like me?)
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I’d love to see more of you! Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.
If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.
Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money. If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.
Disclosure: I am a partner with the eCourses and revenue share when my readers sign up…but I’m also a guest lecturer and work with Wardeh on just about everything because she’s awesome! 
See my full disclosure statement here.
I am definitely interested in learning more about Kombucha and Sausage. Just don’t know if I actually have the time and resources to do it.
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Katie Reply:
June 30th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Katie,
Katie
Time is always the bugger, isn’t it? One nice thing is that you can download the PDFs to tackle anytime you get a chance, which I love to do when I need a new sourdough recipe.
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How come is says $8 a month on here but on her website the lowest I see it is $10/month?
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Katie Reply:
June 30th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Julie,
Katie
Good question – if you sign on for a whole year, $99 divided by 12 months is $8.25 (I guess we rounded down!), so that’s where the “good deal” price happens.
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I have fermentation fears big time! I have tried NT’s kimchi, ginger carrots, and pickles with little success. I think the recipes worked ok, but they just didn’t taste good enough to do more than choke down. So I have sorta given up for now, but want to try again. This post is making her course very tempting!
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I’ve been exploring some fermenting for about a year. Kombucha’s about perfected! Not so great with kefirs yet (milk or water). I’ll be doing tons of pickles in a few weeks here when they start coming in. I can buy the Bubbies brand, which are actually fermented, and we all like those. Of course it’s expensive! I would love to know more about the “create your own recipe” because I’ve been thinking about using vanilla beans and fermenting them with sugar water to come up with a cream soda-like drink. The vanilla beans I had were a cross between ‘cream’ and ‘root beer’ and my husband would be so happy if I were able to create a probiotic drink from them! I wish I did more fermented foods in our diets but I’m a little afraid of the whey aspect because I really don’t like fermented dairy very much (cheese being an exception).
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Katie! I’m surprised at you, I thought as into real food as you are, you’d be all about fermentation. It’s so easy, really, and so tasty! I’m sure you would like fermented veggies. Try the ginger carrots recipe in NT. Even my toddler loves them.
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Katie Reply:
July 1st, 2011 at 10:48 am
Liz,
Katie
That’s so funny! I think people think I’m much more of a purist than I am…I’ve only been into real food for just over 2 years, and you know, I’m a baby step girl! I tried LF salsa and pickles and they did NOT go over well. With all that’s happening in life (baby, moving, blogging, gluten-free) I just haven’t been able to add that “one more thing” to my kitchen list. We all have our gaps to fill!
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Liz Reply:
July 1st, 2011 at 12:03 pm
I didn’t mean to sound snotty or critical- I love you and your blog. I just think you’re missing out! Fermented veggies are super tasty
)
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Katie Reply:
July 1st, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Liz,
When life settles down….fermentation’s on my list! 
Katie
Don’t worry, no offense taken. I just think it’s funny how people tend to think I “do it all” real food style, when I’m such a compromise girl!
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TRY Wardeh’s 5 Spice Apple Chutney recipe! It takes about 5 minutes to put together and is totally yummy–great in yogurt, on oatmeal, on rice pudding, and it occurred to me yesterday that it would probably be awesome on vanilla ice cream, too. My kids call it “apple yummy stuff”, and, since we have apricots ripe, I have an apricot version fermenting in my kitchen right now.
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I’m so intrigued by fruit….hmm. Now thinking about it.
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Don’t be scared! Some fermented foods you will like, others you won’t. I personally don’t like kefir or water kefir. No one at my house would touch the kefir (other than the chickens) so we stopped making it, but my son drinks the water kefir. I’ve also made naturally fermented soda, cider mead (not that good, IMO), ketchup, mustard, barbeque sauce, mayo (but I messed that one up), sauerkraut, sour pickles (so yum- we plow through them, I’m going to have to make like twice as many this year… but they lasted over six months because we were hesitant to eat them at first), kombucha, buttermilk, creme fraiche (my personal fave- a must if you love sour cream)… and, of course, lots and lots of yogurt. Just jump in there, it’s a very rewarding thing to do! Next I want to try fruit ferments- those straberries look awesome! I already bought the Nourishing Kitchen fermentation course, but now I’m temped to buy this course as well… and I’m rationalizing it by the fact that I’ll also get access to the other courses…
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Katie Reply:
July 1st, 2011 at 10:51 am
Brandis,
Thanks for the encouragement! I’m mentally noting that I need to try the apple ferment when apple season hits in a few months. I actually do water kefir, so who knows? Maybe that’s helped train my palate (and my kids’) for ferments. I’m guessing my husband will struggle…
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Heather Reply:
July 1st, 2011 at 12:02 pm
That apple chutney doesn’t taste fermented. It tastes like apple pie in a jar. I have an apple tree, so should have lots of apples in a few months, but the recipes only calls for about 4 large apples’ worth of pieces, so I don’t mind buying for it.
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Brandis @ crunchy thrifty cool Reply:
July 4th, 2011 at 11:35 am
It is a developed thing, I think. But I have noticed that we really don’t like anything that tastes fermented, we all like things that are similar to things we’ve always liked- like my sweet toothed son likes water kefir mixed with apple juice ( as long as it’s not over fermented) and I, who have always been obsessed with pickles and the like, love sour pickles and sauerkraut, like I can sit down and eat half a jar of sauerkraut straight out of the jar. I think that’s why I’m more wary of fruit ferments- how are they supposed to taste, sweet, sour, both?
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So glad you sound so human like the rest of us. I feel that I only have so much time–so what is important enough to do myself..If I spent all my time at fermenting everything would I even have time to cook a healthy dinner. I make my own yogurt–love your recipe Katie.. and bread and etc.. It is very time consuming but I do love it, however there is laundry, floors and toilets to be cleaned. We do what we can and every little bit helps. Right?
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Katie Reply:
July 5th, 2011 at 1:06 am
Teresa,
Then I go to someone else’s house and realize just how different and wacky my standards are! 
Katie
Tee hee! Probably moreso “human” than most, really. Some days I feel like I just play a real foodie on the Internet but real life is so THERE that I can’t live up.
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