Food Lover's Guide to Portland is my 2010 book from Sasquatch Books. This blog is a collection of some of the research, recipes, images and culinary adventures that went into it. I started the blog in February 2009 as a companion piece to the book and to help organize my thoughts while researching and writing it. I didn't think I'd like blogging but it turns out I really do. I'm currently working on the Toro Bravo Cookbook for McSweeney's Books due out in fall 2013.
Matt Choi serving up his spicy, crunchy, awesome kimchi.
What an amazing event and turnout! Yes, we know that many of you got stuck in the long line last night that snaked down the stairs, out the building, and around the block but we hope with all hope that you stuck it out and found that the wait and the crush was worth it. We put Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours and we’re so grateful that Ecotrust puts up with us every stinking (literally) year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you.
But yes, we do hear you, it was too crowded and the line was too long this year. We’ll problem solve and come back in briny style next year for 4.0. Thank you so much to everyone who exhibited, volunteered and attended! Portland Fermentation Festival is an annual love letter to our fair city. True blue Portland spirit fuels it and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Thanks again to everyone who was a part.
If you’d like to keep up with local fermenty goings-on please check out our website, Facebook and Twitter. This year we had a very generous serving of media attention. Here’s a slice of that coverage if you didn’t get enough firsthand last night…
I was able to take a good amount of photos at the festival last night before we opened the doors as well as after…
Erica Fayrie's as good as it looks sauerkraut with beets.
Eva Sippl's Eva's yummy Herbucha in the house.
Lynne Van Dusen's Vine to Brine lacto-fermented sodas. Really tasty.
Festival co-organizer Mr. David Barber of Picklopolis aka King of Brine! Ghost pickles! Ah!
Peg Butler and posse serving up krautini (fermented cabbage tonic), fermented garlic, sour dills and sourdough rye. Yum!
Galen Williams and Pete Mulligan's delicious hard cider.
Biwa chef-owner Gabe Rosen and Kina Voelz serving up Biwa's hurts so good spicy daikon kimchi.
Earnest and Sumiko Migaki of Jorninji Miso cooking up a stockpot of their amazing miso, and sampling miso sauce and amazake made with their own koji.
Allen Field rocking his spicy kimchi and Turkish sauerkraut.
Nat and Sarah West sampling tart and tasty hard cider. Ridiculously good.
Anna Stulz with more fiery good kimchi.
And then the doors opened and the crowd moved in...
Courtlandt Jennings' Pickled Planet with all sorts of big, briny goodness.
Curious Farm's Cathy Smith serving up leek horseradish kraut, fermented chili sauce and more.
And the crowd kept growing...
Hank Tallman's Mama Hank's Pickled Veg. The spicy fermented green tomatoes were kick-ass good.
The line wrapped around the staircase out the door of Ecotrust and around the block within twenty minutes. We knew that the festival was going to be big this year but we didn't realize it'd be this big. Wow.
The lovely Kate Patterson sampling her festival favorite-- fermented salmon. Mmmm.
Festival organizers David Picklopolis Barber, me, and Mr. George dapper foodist Winborn right before the doors closed at 8pm.
One of the better looking cleanup crews in town! Good night and good luck.
Thanks to everyone who made the third annual Portland Fermentation Festival happen! We love you.
This Thursday night is the Third Annual Portland Fermentation Festival and we really hope that you’re either participating as an exhibitor or volunteer or planning on attending to sample all of the awesome homemade food ferments that will be available! It’s going to be delicious and so much fun. It always is…
And just so you know, even if you aren’t signed up as an exhibitor please feel free to bring any homemade food ferments, cultures, recipes, info. etc. to share with others on the fly. This event is very unique in that it’s a no sale/no buy, skill-sharing night. (Check out last year’s Portland Fermentation Festival.) In other words, you pay your $5 to get in and then it’s all about interacting, trying tasty things and hopefully learning enough to make them yourself. It really is unique and we’re proud that Portland Fermentation Festival so accessible and fun for all ages without any corporate ties.
Come out and see for yourself — find out what’s stinkiest and tastiest this year! See you Thursday I hope.
Third Annual Portland Fermentation Festival
Open to the public, all ages When: Thursday, October 20th 6-8pm Where:Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center on the second floor, 721 NW 9th Ave., #200, Portland, OR What: Sample and learn about all sorts of food and drink ferments Cost: $5 at the door info@portlandfermentationfestival.com Twitter @PDXFermentFest
Facebook Portland Fermentation Festival
We’re in countdown mode now for this year’s third annual Portland Fermentation Festival on Thurdsay, October 20th from 6-8pm at Ecotrust! We’re still accepting applications from folks who want to sample their homemade fermented food and drink. Here’s the entry form. And we’re also looking for more volunteers to help set up and break down and work the door. If you’d like to volunteer please send us an email at info at portland fermentation festival dot com. Also, if you want to help spread the word please print out some of these posters and put them up around town. See you at the Portland Fermentation Festival in a few short weeks!
Third Annual Portland Fermentation Festival
Open to the public, all ages When: Thursday, October 20th 6-8pm Where:Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center on the second floor, 721 NW 9th Ave., #200, Portland, OR What: Sample and learn about all sorts of food and drink ferments Cost: $5 at the door info@portlandfermentationfestival.com Twitter @PDXFermentFest
Facebook Portland Fermentation Festival
I’m so happy to announce that we’ve set a date for the third annual Portland Fermentation Festival — Thursday, October 20th 6-8pm at Ecotrust! Thank you SO much Ecotrust for kindly allowing us to stink up the space yet again! We couldn’t do it without you.
And we couldn’t do it without YOU! We hope that you will come out and celebrate the wide world of fermented food and drink with us this year. More than 500 of you did last year so maybe you’ll each bring a friend and we can double attendance. Actually, that might be a little too crowded.
If you don’t know about the Portland Fermentation Festival listen up. At PFF you get to hang out with fellow food/drink fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food fermentation enthusiasts, and sample everything from sour pickles, miso and kefir to cheese, hard cider, and mead. Good stuff.
We’ll be getting more details out in upcoming weeks here and over at the official website but for now the main issues to attend to are 1.) Sign-up to sample fermented food and drink at the event here 2.) Shoot us an email if you’d like to volunteer at the door or for set-up/clean-up at info at portland fermentation festival dot com. In exchange for volunteering you’ll get good things, we promise.
Check out some previous Portland Fermentation Festival coverage:
Third Annual Portland Fermentation Festival
Open to the public, all ages When: Thursday, October 20th 6-8pm Where:Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center on the second floor, 721 NW 9th Ave., #200, Portland, OR What: Sample and learn about all sorts of food and drink ferments Cost: $5 at the door info@portlandfermentationfestival.com Twitter @PDXFermentFest
Facebook Portland Fermentation Festival
Peas in a pod. Hariet Fasenfest's new DVD Preserving with Friends is fantastic! So is her book...
I’m so happy that I got an advance copy of Harriet Fasenfest’s DVD Preserving with Friends (190 minutes, watch the trailer here) but I do have one gripe — I wish it had been available when I started my journey into the wide world of food and drink preservation. My hand holders were books — Sandor Ellix Katz’s Wild Fermentation and Linda Ziedrich’s The Joy of Pickling. So I’m very pleased to now own Preserving with Friends, which features both Ziedrich AND Katz, along with host Harriet Fasenfest (author of A Householder’s Guide to the Universe) and another guest who I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting — Marge Braker.
The DVD takes you through demos of everything from homemade jam/jelly/preserve making, home pickling (with Linda Ziedrich), home fermenting sauerkrauts and kimchi (with Sandor Ellix Katz) and home food dehydration and more (with Marge Braker). It’s really nice to be able to watch, listen and learn the techniques from seasoned home food preservers.
I do a lot of home food and drink preservation — everything from homemade fruit wines, hard cider, and miso, to sauerkraut, beef jerky and kimchi — and I can tell you from experience that this video is invaluable if you’re just setting off into this territory. It’ll save you a lot of grief and give you loads of great ideas.
