Fermenting for Flavor and Gut Health

Locavore's Food School is taught by chefs, nutritionists, and food enthusiasts who want you to learn how to make delicious, in season, and local food pop! Learn the secrets of the culinary mind at these exciting classes geared toward the home chef.

In this class, we will learn to ferment vegetables for flavor and gut health. Vegetable fermentation is one of the oldest, and perhaps the most healthful, food preparation (and preservation) methods. This rediscovered culinary art is easy and safe, making it a wonderful, accessible way for even the wariest of cooks. You can take vegetables harvested at the peak of their season and preserve them for maximum flavor and nutrition, whether you grow your own or get them from a local farmer. Learn to use one of the safest, easiest, most flavorful, and healthiest techniques known to preserve while keeping all of the nutrients alive (as well as increasing their benefit). Sound too good to be true? Best-selling authors, Kirsten and Christopher Shockey discuss the health advantages of eating fermented foods and demystify the process by demonstrating how to make apple sauerkraut. Bring you questions and curiosity and go home ready to make your own ferments.

About the Shockeys: Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey are the coauthors of The Big Book of Cidermaking, Fiery Ferments, best-selling Fermented Vegetables and award winning Miso, Tempeh, Natto and other Tasty Ferments. They got their start in fermenting foods twenty years ago on their 40-acre hillside smallholding which grew into their organic food company. When they realized their passion was for the process, they chose to focus on teaching fermentation arts to others. They used to teach worldwide and host workshops on their homestead in southern Oregon but have moved their teaching online to The Fermentation School, an exciting new collaborative of instructors.

Their days are a chaotic combination of grand-parenting, day jobs, writing and navigating whatever the climate and the rural lifestyle throws their way. Every day is different. Christopher and Kirsten can be found watering, preserving harvests, making cheese, planting trees, chopping firewood, mucking stalls, hiking, dreaming up the next project, reading, or dancing on the porch under the stars. At the end of the day they go to bed exhausted and knowing life is good.