Putting By the Harvest
October 3, 2008
We tend to think of canning and freezing as traditional ways of preserving the gardens bounty, but our great, great grandparents and all of their forebears would not recognize either system as a means of preserving food. The short 100+ years that canning and freezing have been used is a mere blink of time compared to the previous 10,000+ year old system used by our forebears. The ramifications of this major dietary change become clear when one realizes that the rise of modern diseases (diabetes, allergies, heart and brain diseases) correlates with the rise of canning and freezing and other industrialized, processed foods.
Because canning and freezing have been around long enough to become embedded in our food culture, it’s a bit disconcerting to think of preserving food by any other means. Just how did our forefathers preserve food prior to Louis Pasteur’s discovery of sterilization by heat (1860’s) and the invention of refrigeration (early 1900’s)? Drying and salting were certainly used extensively; smoking, drying and salting were used to preserve meat and fish and drying was employed primarily for fruit. When it came to preserving everything else, fermentation was the preferred choice. Fermentation? Ughh! Because refrigeration and canning have driven such a permanent wedge between us and our long history with fermentation, many people are now repelled by the thought of eating something thats been fermented. Actually fermentation is still used to make a few common foods and beverages, namely; beer, wine, cheese, yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut and sourdough bread. Unfortunately, except for the latter, all of these foods are typically pasteurized. Why this is a bad thing will be pointed out shortly.
Why would one want to preserve something by fermentation when it can be canned or frozen? There are several very good reasons. Canning and freezing both consume large amounts of scarce energy that we are currently fighting wars over. Fermentation requires no electricity or cooking. Freezing any large quantity of food requires a chest type freezer – a luxury purchase for most. Canning also requires the purchase of additional equipment. Fermentation only requires a water seal crock and recycled jars to take excess production from the crock. Because sealing is less important with fermented food, lids can also be recycled.
Perhaps more importantly, the process of canning – using heat to sterilize food (pasteurization) – denatures food by destroying nutrients and important enzymes that aid in digestion. Conversely, fermentation releases nutrients, making them more available for our bodies to use. Fermentation is accomplished by probiotic Lactobacillus cultures – those friendly guys that live in our digestive system and help us assimilate food. 100 years of refrigeration and canning has separated us from our 10,000+ year long symbiotic relationship with these cultures and research indicates that many modern mental and physical illnesses may be attributed to lack of cultured foods in our diet.
What about bad bacteria getting into food and making us sick? Isn’t that why pasteurization became popular? Three things; 1) fermented foods are made with salt which creates an inhospitable environment for bad bacteria; because our bodies contain salt, friendly lactobacillus bacteria can flourish in a salty environment (we are 80% bacteria), 2) given the right fermentation environment, the friendly bacteria will kill keep bad ones at bay, 3) Luis Pasteur had some very wealthy influential friends who saw the potential of using his process to their financial advantage. The latter was the beginning of the industrialization of food and the downhill slide of human health and historic food cultures.
Another oft asked question is regarding the time it takes to make fermented foods. In reality it takes much less time to go through the fermentation process than the canning process. Canning requires a cooking stage for some foods and the heat sealing stage in a canner. None of this is needed for the fermentation process. The Japanese employ perhaps the easiest system. They use a “koji box” made of rot resistant wood (modified wine barrels work), fill it with rice hulls, add water and salt, inoculate it with culture, put it in a dark cool place and then add whole intact vegetables as they come from the garden. When they need a vegetable, they reach into the box and pull it out. What can be simpler? Rice hulls have a natural resistance to fungus and the addition of the salt and culture completes the preservative picture.
A simple water seal crock is a good way to start fermenting (I got mine online). There are many recipes for fermenting foods depending on the type and desired result. A basic recipe for vegetables is to place them in the crock in layers and sprinkle each layer with salt. Add the inoculant, place a weight on top, cover with water, place the lid on and fill the water seal. The seal prevents entry of undesirables and allows the carbon dioxide given off by the culture to bubble out during fermentation. Whey derived from clabbering fresh goat or cow milk is full of lactobacillus culture and makes a great inoculate. Use a couple tablespoons of whey per gallon. If you have some fermented food and no whey, use some of the juice from the fermented food (as long as it hasn’t been pasteurized) as an inoculate. After 2 or 3 weeks fermentation in the crock (cooler temperatures slow fermentation, warmer speeds it), place the vegetables in jars for longer term storage, freeing up the crock for the next batch. Canning jars as well as recycled peanut butter, pickle or any other jar with a metal lid and a rubber seal will work. Jars and lids should be sterilized. Crocks and jars should be stored in a cool dark place (root cellars are hard to beat). If none exists in your house, put the jars in the fridge for longer storage. I’ve had kraut last for 6 months in jars, out of the fridge. For more info, email me at katbambu@hotmail.com.
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