DJ Jimbo won't be spinning at the festival but he's put together a kick-ass salty/spicy/stiiiiinky festival playlist for us this year!

DJ Jimbo Jams for the Portland Fermentation Festival

October 22, 2015 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Uncategorized

The final countdown has begun and this year's Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust is less than a week away -- this coming Tuesday, Oct. 27th from 6-9:30pm! Purchase your tickets now ($10,$20) and you'll have a lot less of a wait on Tuesday to get in. Day of is cash only -- ATM in the building. Children 12 and under get in for free.

On the rooftop you can purchase cider from festival royalty Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, sandwiches from festival co-organizer Bingo Sandwiches, beer AND you can shake a leg to the first ever festival playlist curated by my fine fellow DJ Jimbo!

Here are the songs -- first the actual songs and then their fermenty-pun counterparts. I'd make a Spotify playlist but there are too many songs that they don't have on there to do the list justice. You'll just have to come to the festival to hear it!

Alemany Shintay - Love Is Love Gregory Isaacs - All I Have Is Love Kickball - Sauvie Island The Weather Station - Came So Easy Pinback - Hurley Arlo Guthrie - The Motorcycle Song Justin Timberlake - Strawberry Bubblegum Prince - Raspberry Beret MY BODY - Clementine Ahmad Jamal - Autumn Leaves Goodie Mob - Soul Food The Stone Roses - Elephant Stone Tom Waits - Jockey Full Of Bourbon Typhoon - CPR/Claws Part 2 Gillian Welch - Red Clay Halo Townes Van Zandt - Don't Let The Sunshine Fool You Peter Tsotsi, Nashil Pichen and the Equator Sound Band - Pole Musa (Kenya) Spoon - Who Makes Your Money Wild Ones - From Nothing D'Angelo - Devil's Pie Clams Casino - All I Need [Soulja Boy] Milosh - It's Over

Their Portland Fermentation Festival DJ Jimbo treatment:

Alemany Shintay - Love Is Lacto Gregory Isaacs - All I Chop I Love Kickball - Salty Island The Weather Station - Pickled So Easy Pinback - Vinegurley Arlo Guthrie - The Motorpickle Song Justin Timberlake - Stinky Tofu Bubblegum Prince - Raspberry Lacto-Fermented Beret MY BODY - Clement Wine Ahmad Jamal - Autumn Pickles Goodie Mob - Soul Fizz The Stone Roses - Elephant Stiiiiink Tom Waits - Stoneware Crocky Full Of Bourbon Typhoon - CPR - Crocks Part 2 Gillian Welch - Red Kraut Halo Townes Van Zandt - Don't Let The Fermentation Fool You Peter Tsotsi, Nashil Pichen and the Equator Sound Band - Miso Musa Spoon - Who Makes Your Honey Wild Ones - From Salting D'Angelo - Anaerobic Pie Clams Casino - All I Mead Milosh - It's Demented Fermented

Festival Details:

Portland Fermentation Festival's Facebook event page.

This year we’re having a panel of experts kick of the fest rather than one guest speaker. The inaugural Portland Fermentation Festival was in 2009 with Sandor Ellix Katz as guest speaker and we were lucky enough to get him back to speak at the 2013 fest. Sandor is one of our heroes and favorite people so we asked him to speak again at last year's fest and this was his response:

“sorry can’t make it this year. have fun and keep me posted on future festivals. i’m heading to the boston fermentation festival next month and austin (tx) festival in november. you were the pioneer fermentation festival and they keep spreading…..”

Let’s all be super proud to be a part of “THE PIONEER FERMENTATION FESTIVAL”! We can’t wait to see you all on Tuesday at the STIIIINK!

PRESS RELEASE

Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Tuesday, October 27th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food/drink sales from Bingo Sandwiches, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider & salty/spicy tunes by DJ Jimbo 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 Children 12 and younger attend for free www.portlandfermentationfestival.com PURCHASE TICKETS!

Today is a big day in Portland because October 1st is the first day that you can purchase recreational weed legally AND it's also the first day you can purchase tickets to the Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival! Weed! Mead!

Kicking off this year's festival at Ecotrust is the panel of experts at 6pm moderated by co-organizer George Winborn. On this year's rad panel we have Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, festival co-organizer David Barber of Picklopolis and Bingo Sandwiches, Tressa Yellig of Salt, Fire & Time and Broth Bar, Matt Choi of Choi's Kimchi and Tara Whitsitt of Fermentation on Wheels covered by The New York Times +++. Tickets for the panel plus first tasting are $20 and tickets for either of the tastings solo are $10.

The Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival is on the evening of Tuesday, October 27th at Ecotrust. As always it's an open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kraut, try kraut. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing, and tasting event of the year. Taste and share live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 600 attendees in 2014.

Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food fermentation enthusiasts, attend fermentation demo's and sample everything from sour pickles, miso and kefir to cheese, hard cider, and mead.

Admission for the 7:00 or 8:00pm Tuesday tasting sessions and fermentation demos is $10. For $20 attend the 6:00pm panel of experts on all things food/drink fermentation in addition to the 7:00pm tasting and fermentation demos. Enjoy salty/spicy rooftop tunes curated by DJ Jimbo, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Visit http://portlandfermentationfestival.com/ for more information.

Purchase tickets!

MEDIA COVERAGE THIS WEEKThe Oregonian

MEDIA COVERAGE OF FESTIVALS PASTKGW Cooking Up A Story Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland KBOO Food Show OPB Willamette Week

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.com Facebook Twitter

This year's festival poster by Tim Root! He always makes us the most incredible festival posters. Download it over on our website and help us plaster it around town and spread the word.

Tickets on Sale -- Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2015

October 05, 2015 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Uncategorized

Since 2009 my friends David Barber, George Winborn and I have put on the annual Portland Fermentation Festival with/at Ecotrust ((THANK YOU ECOTRUST!!)) and every year it gets bigger and better. We’re only three weeks out from this year’s festival — Tuesday, Oct. 27th from 6-9:30pm — so I’m taking a moment to let you know all the stiiiiinky details in one place.

Most importantly, online tickets are on sale now ($10, $20) and you can purchase them here. Secondly, you can still apply to be an exhibitor — more info. here. Beyond that I’m pasting the press release below and some recent media links. Here’s the Facebook event page.

Let’s all be super proud to be a part of “THE PIONEER FERMENTATION FESTIVAL”! We can’t wait to see you all in three short weeks at the STIIIINK!

PRESS RELEASE

Visit http://portlandfermentationfestival.com/ for more information.

Purchase tickets!

MEDIA COVERAGE THIS WEEKThe Oregonian

MEDIA COVERAGE OF FESTIVALS PASTKGW Cooking Up A Story Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland KBOO Food Show OPB Willamette Week

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.com Facebook Twitter

Keep on rockin' in Neil's free world and in our fermented world.

Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2015

August 20, 2015 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Pickles, Uncategorized

Since 2009 my friends David Barber, George Winborn and I have put on the annual Portland Fermentation Festival with/at Ecotrust and every year it gets bigger and better. This year we'd set the date for Wednesday, October 7th until earlier this week when Neil Young announced his tour dates for his October tour of The Monsanto Years album. When is he playing Portland for it you ask? Wednesday, October 7th! (Tickets on go on sale for the University of Portland show tomorrow at 10am PT!) So we did what any Neil loving fans would do -- we changed the date so we and YOU can go! Below are all the details for this year's stinky good time -- the 6th Annual Portland Fermentation Festival.

FULL PRESS RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

George Winborn gw dot winborn at gmail dot com

David Barber briney at picklopolis dot com

Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival NEW DATE!! Tuesday, October 27th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 Children 12 and younger attend for free www.portlandfermentationfestival.com

Earlier this week Neil Young announced the October tour dates for his The Monsanto Years album and guess when he's going to play in Portland? Yep, on Wednesday, Oct. 7th at the University of Portland -- the very night we had planned to host this year's Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. As lifelong fans of Mr. Young we have a strict no-compete clause with him in our heart of hearts so we've changed the Portland Fermentation Festival date so that no one in Portland has to choose between rockin' in Neil's free world and rockin' in our fermented world. You're welcome. Tickets for Neil's tour go on sale this Friday at 10am by the way. See you at the PDX show!

So, please, please join us now on the evening of Tuesday, October 27th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kraut, try kraut. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing, and tasting event of the year. We are very pleased to announce that this year's special pre-tasting event is a panel of fermentation experts soon to be determined.

Come celebrate pickling season at the Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 600 attendees in 2014.

Admission for the 7:00 or 8:00pm Tuesday tasting sessions and fermentation demos is $10. For $20 attend the 6:00pm panel of experts on all things food/drink fermentation in addition to the 7:00pm tasting and fermentation demos. Enjoy rooftop music, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Visit http://portlandfermentationfestival.com/ for more information.

Festival coverage past and present:

KGW http://www.kgw.com/media/cinematic/video/15892130/pdx-tonight-fermentation-festival/

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland http://www.lizcrain.com/foodloversguidetoportlandblog/2014/10/portland-fermentation-festival-2014-redux/

Cooking Up a Story http://cookingupastory.com/annual-fermentation-festival-opens-world-ferments

KBOO Food Show http://kboo.fm/node/24469 http://kboo.fm/content/foodshowon10151983

Portland Monthly http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/eat-and-drink/articles/four-reasons-to-get-excited-about-the-portland-fermentation-festival-september-2014

Willamette Week http://wweek.com/portland/article-18099-how_to_pickle_almost.html

Portland Mercury http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2014/10/15/fermentation-fest-what-microbobes-can-do-for-you

OPB http://www.opb.org/artsandlife/article/portland-fermentation-festival-offers-diy-techniques-tips

www.portlandfermentationfestival.com Twitter @PDXFermentFest Facebook Portland Fermentation Festival

My new batch of miso salted in and in the crock! The oldest I have now that's still fermenting is 5 years old.

Yard Fresh Pt. 31

June 19, 2015 in Cookbooks, Edible Gardening, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Foraged Food, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

Well, well, well, it's been a year since I did one of these installments. Time flies when you're having fun and I've been having a lot of fun lately. Candle both ends as usual. The last Yard Fresh I wrote in May 2014 right when my kitchen was going into remodel surgery. That seems like years ago -- so many parties and dinner parties and cooking fun has transpired in it since. I am so grateful to my good friends at St. Johns Design Build for making my kitchen dreams come true. I couldn't love my kitchen more or recommend these fellows more highly for any home remodel project.

I'll get to the food photos in a second but here's a quick recap. of the past few months. I got to do my very first writing residency for my novel at The Sou'wester in April and it was awesome. I cranked out 3,000 words a day on average and even managed to cook and eat all kinds of tasty treats that you'll see below. I also got to go to San Francisco in early May to interview one of my food heroes Mark Bittman for a magazine I've subscribed to and loved for years. That interview won't publish for awhile and I'll be sure to let you know when it does.

For now, I'm still loving my work at Hawthorne Books which recently merged with Dzanc Books, working on my novel one day a week, we just finished the Tasty Cookbook proposal (we originally proposed a brunch book but now it's AM plus PM dishes mmmm) and our agent is sending it out, I'm working on a hard cider book with someone near and dear, we're about to set the date for the 6th Annual Portland Fermentation Festival this fall and get cracking on that again, I'm doing all kinds of fun things with Team Gorham as always, and I'm working on something with the fine folks at Inkshares this summer. Sheesh. That's a lot.

This summer I plan to be the river rat that I always am when the days are long and this time around it will often be with my sweet, sweet fellow Jimbo. That makes me very happy. I also plan to camp and cook outside a lot and use my pie irons often. We're going to the Outer Banks with my family in a month. I have 200 bottles of homemade plum wine to bottle this year from the Brooks Plum tree in the front yard. And, you know, drink. Friends make the world go round so I will be playing in the sun with them a whole heck of a lot in upcoming months.

Hope you've been working on good projects, having fun with friends and family and cooking and eating delicious food. I harvested my garlic one month early this year -- so hot these days! -- and now I have flashy trout's back lettuce and kale and soon tomatoes, chiles, zukes etc. SUMMMMMMMMMER! Love to you and hope you have an incredible summer. Do all the fun things as much as you can. Summer is magic and it always goes fast.

I didn't actually cook this buuuuut isn't it pretty?! My super talented friend Tom Humphrey designed it and John G and I and his team worked our arses off putting this FIFTY page book proposal together. Going out to publishers this week!

Potato taco time! My friend Raquel's late mom Anna taught me how to make these. These mean summer and love to me.

Potato tacos at night aaaaand potato tostadas in the morning! With soyrizo and eggs. Yummmmm.

Plum wine bottling and drinking with my housey and friend. And the White Wolf. Only 25 more gallons to go!

Plum wine in Grolsch bottles and getting fizzzzzzy.

Flashy Trout's Back lettuce from Territorial Seed. Have twenty this size in the backyard. Salad Dayzzzzz

Straining my homemade vinegars -- plum wine vin and grapefruit. My friend Gilion gave me the vinegar mother and I've made a bunch of these and pineapple vinegar so far. Love them.

Nettle pesto fixings -- olive oil, toasted hazelnuts, asiago, olive oil. Added bonus: flash boil the nettles for the pesto and you get nettle tea too.

Nettle pesto orzo with home canned tuna and pickled peppers.

Beach Bloody Mary and oyster bar with friends. And TINY TABASCO!

Backyard garlic harvest one month early this year.

Razor clam deviled eggs!! Sou'wester owner Thandi brought the clams to my trailer and I made us these with preserved lemon, pimenton and lots and lots of olive oil. One of my best deviled eggs to date and I LOVE deviled eggs. Dreamy.

Mr. Bittman's wacky good Manchurian Tofu and Cauliflower from his latest cookbook How to Cook Everything Faster which I love and have cooked a ton from.

Leftover mac and cheese from Dig A Pony with my kimchi and eggs. I want this now!

I'll leave you with this picture of spring/summer happiness: solo early eve Sazerac on my trailer stoop at the Sou'wester. Life is sweet.

Food Lover's Guide to Portland TIQUE BOX! Available for pre-order!

Pre-order Food Lover's Guide to Portland Tique Box

December 05, 2014 in Book News, Food Fermentation, Food Gifts, Portland Cheese, Portland DIY, Tique Box, Uncategorized

I had so much fun putting together this Food Lover's Guide to Portland Tique Box with Tique founders Inger McDowell and Paige Buckner when they reached out to me several weeks ago. The mission of their business is very similar to the mission of my book -- celebrate talented and passionate local artisans, oftentimes lesser known ones.

There are all sorts of fantastic Portland foods/drinks/crafts/art that these ladies have put together into pretty boxes for subscriptions (I have a year-long subscription and just got my first box!) or for individual purchase. For my Food Lover's Guide to Portland box I wanted to include treats made by folks who I love and admire that just about anyone will use and enjoy (in other words -- accessible) which is why I included easy to love salt, hot sauce, peanut butter, honey, chocolate, candy and cheese. That said, these are all elevated, unique and, of course, delicious renditions of these classics. Go Portland!

This box makes a fantastic gift for locals and folks afar and you can pre-order it now for $45 here to ship by Priority Mail on Dec. 15th -- just in time for the holidays. Here's what you get:

Meeting of the minds -- Paige (left) and Inger at our initial Food Lover's PDX Tique Box meeting at Breken Kitchen.

Inger (left) and Paige with their Tique Boxes.

My November Tique Box -- delivered to my doorstep! Love it.

Purchase the Food Lover's Guide to Portland Tique Box at www.tiquebox.com $45, ships via Priority Mail on Dec. 15th

The dapper foodists -- ferment fest co-organizers George Winborn, Liz Crain and David Barber.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2014 Redux

October 20, 2014 in Ecotrust, Edible Portland, Food Fermentation, Keep Portland Weird, Portland Fermentation ..., Uncategorized

Thank you to everyone who came out last week and made this year's FIFTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust such a stinky great time. It's unanimous amongst David, George and I (festival co-organizers/founders) that this year was the most fun for us and I hope for you.

Every year has been fantastic but the three of us got to enjoy ourselves a lot more this year. I got to sample everything! In years past I always find myself running around too much to sample the ferments. I made a pact to try everything this year and I did and it was deeeeeelicious. Thanks in no small part to all of the festival's awesome volunteers, participants and attendees. We've hit our stride. I guess five years has taught us a thing or two about throwing a big fermenty Portland party.

We put the Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours and as always we're so grateful that Ecotrust puts up with us year after year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you.

We had some great coverage this year including this spot on KGW News PDX Tonight with Drew Carney, as well as the KBOO Food Show with Chris Seigel, this Portland Monthly story by Kelly Clarke, Portland Tribune story by Jennifer Anderson, Portland Mercury coverage, Willamette Week and moooooore. I guess Portland is ok with us. Happy.

If you'd like to keep up with local fermenty goings-on please check out our website, Facebook and Twitter.

Below are a whole bunch of photos from Stinkfest! If you have some great ones too please post them to the Facebook page or Twitter them with the hashtag #pdxfermentfest.

Thank you, thank you, thank you and see you all again next year we hope! Stay stinky!

We kicked off the night with a fermentation experts panel with left to right: moderator George Winborn, Josh Grgas of Commons Brewery, David Barber of Picklopolis and Bingo Sandwiches, Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery and Eric Finley of Chop B… — We kicked off the night with a fermentation experts panel with left to right: moderator George Winborn, Josh Grgas of Commons Brewery, David Barber of Picklopolis and Bingo Sandwiches, Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery and Eric Finley of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie.

Expert Panel 2The panel sold out weeks before and folks asked a lot of great questions. Most importantly we all learned that size does really matter especially in regard to fermenting cucumbers for sour pickles ;)

And then the madness of the first tasting ensued.

Perennial festival favorite -- Matt Choi of Choi's Kimchi.

OlyKraut brought all kinds of awesomeness including super tasty krauts and sour pickles and...

Thank you Sash! She recommends using it in Bloody Marys and I am definitely going to.

Sweet Honey Farm's Lil and Jme serving up yummy krauts.

Cute shot of Lil right before the doors opened.

Out on the mezzanine the lovely Claudia Lucero did a fresh cheese demo with recipes from her hot off the presses rad book One-Hour Cheeses. Love her.

And on the other side of the mezzanine another perennial festival fave Heidi Nestler (heidinestler.com) and her husband Daisuke did a natto demo.

KGW News' Drew Carney came and shot the beginning of the fest for PDX Tonight. "Bow ties and beards right there. Surrounded."

Snapped this one during set up of my friends Teresa and Rich of Pitch Dark Chocolate. Kind of wild how many folks don't know that chocolate is fermented.

My boots photobombed their chocolate. So yummy.

Jon Westdahl getting cozy with one of his crocks.

The awesome salame spread from Chop Butchery & Charcuterie.

Connie and Brian Shaw of Oregon Brineworks with all kinds of super tasty ferments including fermented hot sauce and ketchup, beet kvass, ginger gold kvass and more. Love these guys.

My friends Jess Bull and Jemma Stromwick at ticketing in the lobby. Couldn't do it without all of our amazing volunteers. Thank you!

It was a beautiful night and on the rooftop we had food and drink from Bingo Sandwiches, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Commons Brewery and...

Music from DJ Pickle Barrel! The first time I got up to the roof he was playing Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I Put a Spell on You. So good.

Ecotrust/Edible Portland superstar and part of the fest dream team Lola Milholland having a tasty Bingo Sandwich with Patrick Barber. We took some swigs from my flask and talked about soy sauce. Geeky goodness.

Cute Colin Franger of Blue Bus Cultured Foods before the flood of people.

Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery's favorite ferment of the night -- the Blue Bus Kraut-chi. Pretty stinking tasty.

Definitely the craziest ferment of the night -- Nat's LAMB hard cider.

David Barber's friend Patrick Barber setting up Picklopolis samples. David was probably putting on his NASA socks when this photo was taken.

Love festival moments like this -- Gabe Rosen chef-owner of Biwa, Alem Gebrehiwot owner of Queen of Sheba and Eric Finley of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie shooting the shit and drinking hard cider on the mezzanine.

Biwa's Gabe and Ed demo'ing miso. They brought three of theirs and made a miso soup. Biwa is one of my very favorite Portland restaurants and they always come to the festival.

Careen Stoli's beautiful handmade crocks.

Brad's Bread -- soooo many awesome sourdoughs.

Cute depot -- Tim Root's daughter Lil and Adelaide and David Barber's tiny lil Junior. Kids 12 and under get in for free.

Tim Root's incredible poster. We are so lucky to have him as our festival poster artist. Yes!

The cuteness doesn't stop -- David and Junior.

Tasty jun and all kinds of yummy kombuchas -- coffee kombucha?! -- from Symple Foods.

Festival fave and veteran Tress Yelig of Salt, Fire & Time. I had seconds of her rose kombucha ;)

Portland Kraut Cooperative filling up samples.

Regular Portland Bread. They got a little newsy love on KGW.

Allison Kirley and Cathy right before the panel. Their kombucha was great.

George, me and David before we did our news spot. I love these two so much -- brothers from another mother.

Always my favorite closing shot -- George with his jet pack vacuum cleaner. All cleaned up and ready for cocktails!

Thank you everyone for making this year's fest one of the very best. We love you!

Tim Root's sweeeeeet ass poster for this year's Portland Fermentation Festival

Fifth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2014

September 30, 2014 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Uncategorized

Since 2009 my friends David Barber, George Winborn and I have put on the annual Portland Fermentation Festival with/at Ecotrust and every year it gets bigger and better. We're only two weeks out from this year's festival -- Thursday, Oct. 16th from 6-9:30pm at Ecotrust -- so I'm taking a moment to let you know all the stiiiiinky details in one place.

Most importantly, online tickets are on sale now ($10, $20) and you can purchase them here. Secondly, you can still apply to be an exhibitor -- more info. here. Beyond that I'm pasting the press release below and some recent media links. Here's the Facebook event page.

This year we're having a panel of experts kick of the fest rather than one guest speaker. The inaugural Portland Fermentation Festival was in 2009 with Sandor Ellix Katz as guest speaker and we were lucky enough to get him back to speak at last year's fest. Sandor is one of our heroes and favorite people so we asked him to speak again at this year's fest, knowing full well he'd probably be too busy for it, and that we were being a little greedy. Just want to share these words that Sandor wrote back to us in response:

"sorry can't make it this year. have fun and keep me posted on future festivals. i'm heading to the boston fermentation festival next month and austin (tx) festival in november. you were the pioneer fermentation festival and they keep spreading....."

Let's all be super proud to be a part of "THE PIONEER FERMENTATION FESTIVAL"! We can't wait to see you all in just over two weeks at the STIIIINK!

PRESS RELEASE Fifth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 16th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music from DJ Pickle Barrel 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 Children 12 and younger attend for free www.portlandfermentationfestival.com

Open-to-the-public, all ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kraut, try kraut. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing, and tasting event of the year. We are very pleased to announce that this year's special pre-tasting event (special ticket must be purchased to attend this panel) will be a panel of fermentation experts. Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery, David Barber of Picklopolis, Eric Finley of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie and Josh Grgas from Commons Brewery will answer questions and talk all things food/drink fermentation. Bring questions!

Come celebrate pickling season at the Fifth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 500 attendees in 2013.

Talk to fellow 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. Enjoy rooftop food and beverage sales from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Commons Brewery and Bingo Sandwiches and music from DJ Pickle Barrel as well as fermentation demos from Claudia Lucero author of One-Hour Cheese, Gabe Rosen chef-owner of Biwa, Eric Finley butcher-owner of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie and Heidi Nestler teacher of Heidi Nestler Cooking Classes.

Tickets will be available online at portlandfermentationfestival.com on September 30th! Admission for the 7 or 8pm Thursday tasting sessions is $10. For $20 you get to attend the 7 pm tasting as well as fermentation demos and the 6pm panel of experts on all things food/drink fermentation.

Visit the website above for more information on how to enter your fermented goods and cultures for the event.

MEDIA COVERAGE THIS YEARBuzzFeed Portland Monthly KBOO Food Show Portland Tribune

MEDIA COVERAGE OF FESTIVALS PASTCooking Up A Story My redux on this blog with photos OPB Willamette Week KBOO Food Show

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.com Facebook Twitter

Planning committee.

Long Live Jorinji Miso

April 05, 2014 in Food Fermentation, Portland Food Products, Portland Miso, Uncategorized

My friend Earnest Migaki, pictured above, needs your help. It's not just the residential rental market in Portland that's tight -- the commercial rental market is as well and Earnest has been without a production facility for his Jorinji Miso company for several months now. In a month he will run out of all of his already produced miso currently available throughout Portland in markets such as Uwajimaya and Anzen. Portland, we cannot let that happen.

I first met Earnest and his late wife Sumiko when I was researching the first issue of my book Food Lover's Guide to Portland -- they were the first interview that I conducted for it. And every year following they participated in the Portland Fermentation Festival. Earnest's miso is some of the very best that I've ever had (I really love miso) and if you haven't tried it you better help Earnest find a new commercial kitchen otherwise you won't get to! Miso takes a loooong time to make. The youngest miso that Earnest makes takes four months of fermentation.

Why should you care? My friend Earnest is an amazing human being and he has endured so much hardship in the past year -- more hardship than I've endured my entire life. Earnest has been to hell and back again and now he needs Portland's help. Step one: help Earnest find a commercial kitchen for Jorinji Miso. Please email me at liz crain at gmail dot com with any leads and I will pass them along tout suite to Earnest.

Please SHARE THE FUCK out of this -- word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter, bulletin boards, forums, get it tattooed on your FACE. Thank you. Don't actually get anything tattooed on your face. Your face is beautiful just the way it is.

Earnest is looking to lease: A standard commercial kitchen space that is 1,000 to 2,000 square feet that is $2,000 or less a month in Portland, ideally Southeast Portland. The kitchen can be shared but he can't work with anyone working with yeast because the koji for the miso doesn't work when yeast is present. Ideally the space will have plenty of storage space, a 3 basin sink, an 8-10 gas burner, room for a large industrial mixer and AC.

The day I met Earnest and Sumiko five years ago.

www.jorinjisoybeam.com

I had a big party for my 37th and this kimchi jjigae is one of the things I cooked for it. Really, really tasty.

Yard Fresh Pt. 29

January 02, 2014 in Cookbooks, Food Fermentation, Homemade Food, Jacques Pepin, Portland DIY, Portland Gardening, Uncategorized

It's been a crazy fall and winter with the launch of the Toro Bravo cookbook, our book tour, local events and media and everything else in my life. I really couldn't be happier these days. 2013 was a big, beautiful year for me -- following a very rough 2012 -- in fact it was one of the best of my life, if not the best. There's a term that I learned recently that pretty much sums that up -- post-traumatic growth.

Despite the wild ride and burning the candle on both ends I still managed to cook and eat a lot of good food at home and at friends' and family's homes and I'm including some of those things here. I hope that you've enjoyed a great closing of 2013 and start to 2014 too -- food-wise and beyond. Food is one of the great pleasures of life if you let it be -- especially if you treasure it and share that magic with those in your life. The love you have is the love you give. Cook something delicious for someone that you love today. Cheers to 2014!

I also made a huge batch of kimchi bacon fried rice for the party. Breakfast the next day...

Citrusy golden beet salad for my friend Michelle's birthday.

Jacques Pepin's delicious Provencal beef stew -- Beef Daube Arlesienne -- loaded with nicoise olives, capers and tomatoes.

Super yummy garlic cheese grits, bacon and eggs breakfast.

Garlic cheese grits, kimchi, bacon and eggs.

Future Toro Bravo limoncello from the book.

I used the juice of those lemons for lemon curd and lemon syrup from Linda's Ziedrich's book.

Aaaaand Grand Central's lemon bars that a friend said were the best he'd ever had. Really tasty.

Toro's crepes with berry syrup and maple yogurt sauce.

Eggs wtih salami, olives, cheese and homemade hot sauce.

Christmas family food tradition -- olives stuffed with cream cheese and roasted almonds.

Toro's Jerez Negroni in the book. Cheers to 2014!

Festival co-organizers me, George Winborn and David Barber with this year's special guest speaker Sandor Ellix Katz.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2013 Redux

October 30, 2013 in Ecotrust, Edible Portland, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Portland Farming, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Sandor Ellix Katz, Toro Bravo Cookbook, Uncategorized

We couldn't be happier about this year's fourth annual Portland Fermentation Festival. We got Sandor Ellix Katz back as guest speaker, we had more exhibitors sharing fermented foods and recipes than ever, we took the party to another level literally on the rooftop with D.J. Pickle Barrel, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Upright Brewing, we had advance tickets sales and the talk and first tasting sold out and we had demo's on everything from natto to nightshade-free kimchi.

It was a stinky good time and thank you so much to everyone who participated and attended! We put Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours and as always we're so grateful that Ecotrust puts up with us every stinking (literally) year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you. Thank you to festival sponsor Willamette Week and to this year's poster designer Tim Root as well.

If you'd like to keep up with local fermenty goings-on please check out our website, Facebook and Twitter.

I was able to take a good amount of photos at the festival last week so here they are in no particular order. I know that I missed some exhibitors and I may have even mixed up some names and folks. If so please let me know and sorry in advance. Alright, on to the photos. See you at the stink next year!