Portland Fermentation Festival 2015 Redux

I was out a town for a week right after this year's Portland Fermentation Festival so I apologize for the delay in putting this post together. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who came out a couple weeks ago and made the SIXTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust a huge stinky success!

This year we had all sorts of new tasty treats including our first international neighbor to the north exhibitor. Todd Graham of HandTaste Ferments came all the way from Vancouver B.C. to take part in the fest, we also welcomed our first New York Times covered guest -- panel of fermentation experts participant Tara Whitsitt of Fermentation on Wheels and we had our first festival playlist curated by my favorite fellow -- D.J. Jimbo!

We put the Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours (thank you sooooo much to all of our kick-ass volunteers!) 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 Live at 7 segment with Cassidy Quinn. We've posted most of the other coverage on social media. 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 this year's 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! Oh, and please let me know if I attributed anything incorrectly. Thanks!

We had to switch the initial Portland Fermentation Fest date when we found out that Neil Young was coming to town that very night. My good friend Steve Bodin made me this image for that press release. Let's just pretend Neil came to the festival and rocked out on an electric pickle.

Festival cuties working the door at Ecotrust. My good friends left to right Wendy Wilson, Loly Leblanc, Kelli Brandt and Jimbo Sandberg.

Before the fest I got some pics of exhibitors including festival royalty Nat West and Sarah West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider.

Aaaaand festival royalty Matt Choi of Choi's Kimchi.

We're so lucky that super talented Portland artist Tim Root makes the festival poster every year. Love, love, love this year's poster!

We kicked off the festival again this year with an hour-long panel of fermentation experts.

Festival co-organizer George Winborn was the moderator and on the panel left to right was Tara Whitsitt, Matt Choi, Nat West, David Barber and Tressa Yellig. AKA all of the fermentation smarty pants.

After the panel we stacked the chairs and in came the crowd of hungry folks for the first tasting. Eat or be eaten!!

Cuties Connie and Brian Shaw from Hood River's Oregon Brineworks brought an incredible spread just as they did last year.

Including their garlic dills, beet kvass, ginger gold kvass, fermented hot sauce, fermented ketchup and more. So good!

Cassidy Quinn of KGW News came and interviewed us at the beginning of the first tasting and she tried some of David's Picklopolis black pepper fennel kraut. She loved it of course.

Emily Squadra's spicy Mexican kimchi and Korean kimchi were both spicy full-flavored hits.

The loveliest Allison Jones of Portland Monthly checking in on the media list and my good friends Koko Wadeson, Jess Bull and Loly Leblanc rocking their door/ticketing shift.

Todd Graham of HandTaste Ferments in Vancouver B.C. handing out samples of the awesome chickpea tempeh that he demo'd on the mezzanine.

Jenny Hogan of NuCulture Foods with her crazy tasty and creamy cashew spreads. A lot of markets in town carry them. Try them -- so good!

Festival alum and sweetheart Claudia Lucero, proprietor of DIY Cheese Kits by Urban Cheesecraft and author of One-Hour Cheese doing her labneh cheese demo. Really popular demo.

Olive Evelyn Bailey of Lion Heart Kombucha serving up all kinds of delicious fruity kombuchas. I tried the raspberry and it was deeeeelicious!

Tabor Bread baker and baking teacher Sarah Black with gratis sourdough cultures and yummy YUMMY natural starter whole grain rye bread.

My friend Kelli Brandt in the foreground trying Colin Franger in the background's Blue Bus Cultured Foods super tasty Shakedown Beet and Kraut-chi.

And then the second tasting commenced! My friends womaning the door left to right -- Stacy Goodwin, Loly Leblanc, Michelle Gilmore and Michele Knaus.

The rooftop in full swing with tunes by D.J. Jimbo, cider from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and sandwiches from Bingo Sandwiches. Beautiful night. Beautiful city.

Me and my fine fellow D.J. Jimbo.

Another rooftop festival cutie -- my good friend Jess Bull.

Crock maker Jon Westdahl on the right, Dario Barone of Sacred Summit and Julie of Squirrel and Crow.

Yummmmm!

Lovely Sasha Sunday and her crew with all kinds of OlyKraut tastiness including Smoke & Kale, Cumin Jalapeno and Sea Vegetable krauts.

Another festival royalty -- Queen Heidi Nestler of Heidi Nestler Cooking Classes doing her always well attended natto demo on the mezzanine.

The super sweet duo from Eva's Herbucha in the eye of the storm.

My good friend Loly Leblanc made a bunch of friends of the festival these awesome fuzzzzzzzy pickles to wear this year!

Beautiful Careen Stoll of Careen Stoll Ceramics with her beautiful handmade crocks.

Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider sadly packing up his milk wine. Every year Nat pushes the fermentation boundaries and brings something wacky that you can only try at the festival. Last year he brought LAMB cider. This year MILK wine. Weird and wonderful.

Closing time with my lovely ladies -- Loly Leblanc, Kelli Brandt, me and Michelle Gilmore. Most fun!

Every great Portland Fermentation Festival concludes with George donning his jet pack. All stinky things must come to an end.

Thank you to every last one of you who came out and were a part of this year's sixth annual Portland Fermentation Festival. We love you!

DJ Jimbo Jams for the Portland Fermentation Festival

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.comPURCHASE 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 PASTKGWCooking Up A StoryPhotos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to PortlandKBOO Food ShowOPBWillamette Week

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.comFacebookTwitter

Tickets on Sale -- Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2015

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.

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 in three short weeks 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.comPURCHASE 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 PASTKGWCooking Up A StoryPhotos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to PortlandKBOO Food ShowOPBWillamette Week

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.comFacebookTwitter

Sixth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2015

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.

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 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/24469http://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 @PDXFermentFestFacebook Portland Fermentation Festival

Portland Fermentation Festival 2014 Redux

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 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...

Their addictive spicy pickle brine.

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.

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.

Including...

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.

One of their many tasty treats.

Awesome crowd.

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!

Fifth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2014

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 YEARBuzzFeedPortland MonthlyKBOO Food ShowPortland Tribune

MEDIA COVERAGE OF FESTIVALS PASTCooking Up A StoryMy redux on this blog with photos  OPBWillamette WeekKBOO Food Show

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.comFacebookTwitter

Portland Fermentation Festival 2013 Redux

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!

Let the madness begin!

Special guest Sandor Ellix Katz's talk.

First tasting!

Perennial festival faves the Biwa crew with their housemade miso. So good.

Andie Thompson sampling her super tasty liquid non-dairy kefir and ice cream.

Connie and Brian Shaw made the trek from Hood River with all sorts of delicious Oregon Brineworks ferments.

Heidi Nestler's very well attended natto demo. Heidi teaches some great cooking classes check out heidinestler.com.

Festival co-organizer Brineyman aka David Barber giving out all sorts of Picklopolis magic.

Tressa Yellig's Salt, Fire & Time kvass samples. As tasty as it is pretty.

Joshua Unterman's beautiful/functional handmade crocks.

Rebecca and Fred Gerendasy of Cooking Up a Story documenting the stink!

Eric Christensen of It's Alive! with his tasty krauts, raw crackers and bars.

Thomas Trotter's spicy/tangy/yummy fermented hot sauce.

Colin and Kristein Franger's of Blue Bus Kraut brought spicy kraut-chi and tasty straight-up kraut.

Lost Art Kitchen's Chris Musser's super informative nightshade-free kimchi demo. Check out www.lostartskitchen.com.

Sash Sunday's OlyKraut with yummy sea vegetable kraut.

Annie Moss with all sorts of fermenty good Tabor Breads.

Jon got Sandor to sign some of his crocks!

Toro Bravo charcuterie manager Josh Scofield sampling Toro's chorizo with the Toro Bravo Cookbook in tote that I was lucky enough to co-author. The charcuterie chapter was one of my favorites to write.

Choi's Kimchi in the house! Sooooo good.

Party on the rooftop with DJ Pickle Barrel, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Upright Brewing and Bingo Sandwiches.

DJ Pickle Barrel and one of Portland Fermentation Festival's best, best friends -- Ecotrust's Lola Milholland.

Amanda Englund's Lion Heart Kombucha.

Robert Jordan's tasty sourdough bread and pancakes.

Coreen Stoli's beautiful porcelain crocks.

More madness!

The dynamic Bitz curtido demo duo.

Ivy Stovall's shiso pretty pink pickles.

Eva Sipple's yummy Eva's Herbucha.

Judge D. Finklea and Lindsay Dekey's fruit kimchi and kombucha.

Megan Denton of Able Farms sampled her kraut and kombucha.

What better way to end this with Lynne Van Dusen's beautiful smile sampling her Vine to Brine lacto-fermented sodas?

See you all at the stink next year & thanks for making this one so fantastic!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2013

We're so happy that we're less than a week away from this year's 4th annual Portland Fermentation Festival! The 2011 festival was so well attended we had a line down the stairs and around the block at Ecotrust. Last year, the thought of tackling such a popular festival was just too overwhelming for David, George and I so we decided to skip it and come back even stronger this year.

We've made some changes this year so that you won't be crushed during the festival and so that you won't have to wait and hour and a half to get in. The biggest changes: advanced ticket sales, different types of tickets: two tastings and Sandor's talk (the talk is sold out -- sorry! Tickets to tastings are still available), use of the mezzanine, and rooftop food and drink sales and music by DJ Pickle Barrel. I'll let the press release speak for itself below. Please come join us for the good, stinky fun on the 23rd!

Aaaand here are a few photos from our crazy 4:30am to 9am stint on KPTV's Fox News Good Day Oregon early this morning to promote the festival from 4:30am to 9am. Ouch.

KPTV Fox's Good Day Oregon covers the 2013 Portland Fermentation Festival. Left to right: Jeanne Kubal of Ecotrust, Andy Carson of Good Day Oregon, Lola Milholland of Ecotrust and David Barber of Picklopolis and co-organizer of the festival.

Me talking up this year's festival guest speaker Sandor Ellix Katz with Andy Carson on KPTV Fox Good Day Oregon.

Picklopolis fermented foods to show off on-air along with other fermenty festival treats.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Organizers & Media Contacts:   Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com   George Winborn gw.winborn at gmail dot com   David Barber briney at picklopolis dot 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 guest is Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, The Art of Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. In addition to all sorts of fermented food and drink samples enjoy rooftop food and beverage sales from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Upright Brewery and Bingo Sandwiches and music from DJ Pickle Barrel.   Fourth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Wednesday, October 23rd 6:00-9:30pm 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   Come celebrate pickling season at the Fourth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share homemade live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the event that brought out more than 500 attendees in 2011.   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.   Visit the website above for more information on how to enter fermented goods and cultures for the event. If you'd like to see what past Portland Fermentation Festivals have been like check out some coverage:   Willamette WeekOPBFood Lover's Guide to PortlandKBOO Food Show Portland Farmers Market video

www.portlandfermentationfestival.com Twitter @PDXFermentFest Facebook Portland Fermentation FestivalPURCHASE TICKETS!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2011 Redux

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...

Willamette WeekPortland TribuneOPBPortland Farmers Market

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.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2010

Last year's first annual Portland Fermentation Festival in late August at Ecotrust was a screaming success. More than 500 people turned out to sample everything from natto, kefir and potato cheese to hard cider, kimchi and kombucha.

A big draw last year was the Mr. Sandorkraut himself -- special guest Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. I had interviewed Sandor several months prior for the May 2010 issue of The Sun and it was an honor to have him visit Portland for the inaugural PFF.

Although Sandor won't be at this year's PFF we hope you will. Event details can be found below but all you really need to know if you love fermented food and drink is when and where. We're honored that Ecotrust has agreed to host the funky fest again this year because let me tell you that a room full of fresh ferments is, how do I put it, well, a little ripe. We're very grateful that they're willing to put up with the stink.

So if you don't love the smell of dill and garlic slapped sour pickles, tart and punchy kombucha, sweet and sour fruit kimchi, or mild and tart kefir don't come. There will be more to sample for the rest of us. That's what the event is all about -- sampling ferments, talking with those who made them and skill sharing.

If you didn't get a chance to sign up as a presenter don't worry. You can still bring your ferments to share. You won't have a table and set-up but that's ok. The more the merrier. So, please, come out for the wild, funky, stinky and delicious Portland Fermentation Festival 2010!

Second Annual Portland Fermentation Festival When: Wed., October 20th 6-8pm Where: Ecotrust, 721 NW 9th Ave., #200, Portland, OR What: Sample and learn about all sorts of food and drink ferments Cost: $5 at the door