Looking forward to the Boston Fermentation Festival this Sunday, October 4, 10am – 4pm at the new Boston Public Market.  Fermented foods including kim-chee, sauerkraut, yogurt, kombucha, pickles, are among the most delicious and healthy foods you can eat, and easy to make at home.  In case you haven’t already caught the fermentation bug, check out our fermentation for taste, nutrition, preservation page here on the Shared Harvest website, or, attend the FREE festival this weekend for sampling, workshops, and the help desk.  You can also get locally crafted crocks. (I just use jars, but the crocks are nice for bigger batches.)

Since it preserves and enhances the food while keeping it uncooked, fermentation is one of the keys to eating fresh, local, nutrient rich veggies all through the winter here in New England.

And, for the most successful fermented foods, it is best to use the freshest possible and organic from a biologically rich farm. That way your needed microbes are already, happily, living right there on the veggies you are about to ferment!

Through Shared Harvest, you can order–direct from the organic farms here that grew them–a bushel or two of the freshest organic veggies, including cabbage, garlic, carrots, beets, radishes, kale…  Each month, you’ll get an email with the list of available bulk vegetables to order in time for the pickup day at your location.   Rule of thumb is that about 2 pounds of vegetables, when salted and pressed, fit into a quart jar.  So, a 20 pound box of cabbage (in the neighborhood of $18/box) plus a little sea salt, yields 10 quart jars of sauerkraut.  Voila! For less than an hour’s time of chopping and stuffing jars (simple, low-tech, no heat!), and a bit of time tasting the product over the next couple of weeks (yum!), you have plenty of kraut for a couple of months, plus unique gifts to give (and brag about)!

So, go for it!  Sign up for Shared Harvest, attend the Fest, get some jars (and friends to join in the chopping?) and you’ll be ready to get fermenting this fall!