Ninth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2018

The Portland Fermentation Festival aka Stinkfest is three months away! I'm pasting the press release that I just sent out below. Please have a gander and save the date! Want to participate as an exhibitor or do a demo this year?! Info. on how to do so at our website portlandfermentationfestival.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

Heidi Nestler heidi dot nestler at gmail dot com

Claudia Lucero claudia at urbancheesecraft dot com

Joy Church jcplayswithfood at gmail dot com

Ninth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival

Thursday, October 18th 6-9:30pm

Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center

Rooftop food and drink sales and music

Special guests in attendance this year from Japan

Panel of Experts topic: Japanese Ferments!

721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR

All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 advance, $15-$25 cash at door

Children 12 and younger attend for free

TICKETS ON SALE!

A limited number of cash-only tickets will be available at the door the night of the festival $15/$25

At a time in Portland when it feels like just about everything is undergoing or has recently undergone great change, it's nice to have some things remain the same year after year. Thank you, Portland Fermentation Festival. No big changes, same old STINKFEST! It's our ninth annual Portland  Fermentation Festival and we are very proud that our festival was one of our nation's first. In fact, our festival inspired Tokyo's own annual fermentation festival, the Fermentation Future Forum, in 2017 and it also led to Beaverton City Library starting its own this September.

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 18th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Taste and share live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 400 attendees in 2017. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting event of the year. 

This year we will have special guests traveling to Portland from Japan! These folks will be a part of our 2018 Panel of Experts, which kicks off the festival from 6-7pm. The topic: Japanese Ferments. Panelists from Japan and Portland will dig deep into the wide world of Japanese food and drink ferments and answer attendees fermentation questions. 

Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food/drink fermentation enthusiasts, attend fermentation demo's and sample everything from sour pickles, fermented hot sauces, miso and natto, to cheeses, hard cider and kombucha.

Admission for the 7:30pm or 8:30pm Thursday tastings and fermentation demos is $10 advance/$15 cash at the door. Admission for the Panel of Experts plus the first tasting is $20 advance/$25 cash at the door. Enjoy rooftop music by DJ Jimbo, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and others TBD.

Festival coverage:

Portland Culinary Podcast 

KGW 2017

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland 

Cooking Up a Story

Portland Monthly

OPB

Facebook Portland Fermentation Festival

Twitter @PDXFermentFest

portlandfermentationfestival.com

Steven Raichlen Powell's Books Event for Project Fire

I’ve been very lucky over the years to get to be “in conversation” with all sorts of incredible food and drink people such as Mark Bittman, Dana Cowin, Sandor Ellix Katz and now Steven Raichlen at my favorite bookstore on the planet — Powell’s Books. Steven Raichlen was in town last week for various events on his book tour for Project Fire, and I was the lucky one who got to spend the night asking him questions in front of a lively audience at the Cedar Hills Powell’s Books. Thank you, life.

Good looking books! Sold and signed a bunch.

Long line for after the event for Steven to sign copies of Project Fire. 

Treats from Steven's book!

Steven knows Portland well because Reed is his undergraduate alma mater, where he graduated with a degree in French literature, and was awarded a Watson Fellowship post-graduation to study medieval cooking in Europe. While he was a student at Reed Steven worked at Otto's Sausage Kitchen on Woodstock! 

Steven arrived in Portland a day before our Powell's event, and he had already had a couple of yummy meals in town by then that he talks about in the beginning of our conversation linked below. He dined with some of his dear old Reed friends at Kachka and Afuri, and he told us about those meals, particularly the grilled components -- lamb at Kachka and robatayaki (skewered and grilled carrots and baby turnips) at Afuri. Steven was born in Japan, and there are some Japanese recipes in Project Fire, including a really yummy sounding yakitori recipe, that I'm looking forward to making this summer. I always wear a headlamp when grilling, but this summer I have to get my hands on these. Do you have these? So cool.

During the event, Steven and I drank rye from my lucky author flask that my friend Loly made and we laughed a lot. He's such a great storyteller! I guarantee you'll learn a few things and get some serious grill inspiration by listening to the audio. Intimate, engaging, inspiring and a wee bit revealing -- as all great book events should be. I really enjoyed his Bali story about making babi guling and slaughtering the pig. I also now really want to visit Chappaquiddick Island were Steven and his wife live for part of the year. And, I want to dine on a marzipan castle with a lake of wine. It will all make sense when you listen to the audio. 

For those of you who couldn't make the event, I uploaded the audio here:

Steven did some radio and TV segments while in town including this KATU News AM Northwest spot with lovely host Helen Raptis. He also recorded an episode of The Four Top with Katherine Cole. I'm not sure when that becomes available, but I'm looking forward to tuning in. 

Thank you so very much, Steven and Powell's, and thank you to everyone who came out for the special event!

Purchase Project Fire.

Fermentation Future Forum 2018

I had the extremely good fortune to be invited to speak at Tokyo’s second annual Fermentation Future Forum (F3) earlier this month. I attended and spoke at the first F3 in January 2017 and I spent that week in Tokyo and at the forum wide-eyed, so happy and with a very full belly. F3 is organized by cultural luminary Teruo Kurosaki and his bright and creative staff including festival creative director Kentaro Ichiki. Kurosaki-san is a world renowned designer, former founder-owner of Idee, founder of the Tokyo United Nations University Farmers Market, publisher-owner of Media Surf, owner-founder of Midori co-working spaces, Freedom University and much, much more. I had the pleasure of initially getting to know him through a project that I edited for Hawthorne Books — the English edition of True Portland — which came out summer 2017. Check out our super fun launch party for it last June at Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery.

Pretty soon after Kurosaki-san and I met in 2016 he was interested in the annual Portland Fermentation Festival which I co-founded with my dear friends George Winborn and David Barber in 2009. Some folks close to him attended our late October 2016 festival and the next thing you know I had an invite to come speak at his first annual Fermentation Future Forum in early 2017. Kurosaki-san (and his bright team!) works fast!

Check out my post about last year's F3 here. 

There is much to share about this year's 2018 F3 and I think that photos do the best job. They give you an eye into just how special and inspiring the weekend was. The audio both of my talks are embedded below if you want to have a listen. The translated talks took place at Akarenga Sake Brewery aka Red Brick in Kita and in the Fermentation Lounge at the United Nations University in Shibuya.

I am so honored that I got to be a part of Tokyo’s first and now second annual Fermentation Future Forum and I hope that we have many years of colorful, creative and inspiring collaboration ahead between the Fermentation Future Forum and the Portland Fermentation Festival which inspired F3. I'm also so very happy that Jimbo and I got to attend F3 together and both contribute to the great energy and vitality of it all. Check out Jimbo's awesome F3 playlist here. So good! 

I didn't end up using the closing words that my dear friends Earnest and Yuri Migaki of Jorinji Miso translated and helped me to speak so I'm posting that below as well as a belated thank you to everyone who attended, organized and made this year's F3 in Tokyo so wonderful.

Thank you Earnest and Yuri!

Fermentation Future Forum (F3) fermentationfutureforum.org

My talk with Teruo Kurosaki (Mediasurf, Midori++) and Hozu Yamamoto (Tokyo Art Gallery), moderated by Etsuyo Okajima (Freedom University) at F3 at Akarenga/Red Brick Sake Brewery: 

My Q&A moderated by Etsuyo Okajima (Freedom University) and translated by Masaki Yam (United Nations University Farmers Market) and Takeshi Okuno (Mediasurf++):

Without further ado, all sorts of 2018 F3 pics:

F3 always has such smart and creative design. I grabbed this from the festival homepage when Jimbo and I were officially invited to attend earlier this month.

I asked Jimbo to snap this photo of me as we arrived at Akarenga Red Brick (home of F3 on Saturday and Sunday). Festival talks,panels, performances, tastings and more were held throughout the enormous 100+ year old no longer operating sake brewery as well as outside surrounding it -- primarily to the left and back of the building as oriented in this photo.

This year all festival staff and volunteers wore these rad F3 lab suits. Some folks wore these last year but not as many as this year. I want one! I should have asked...

My first (of many) F3 familiar face! My friend Etsuyo Okajima. Jimbo took this photo of us right before a panel that Etsuyo moderated titled Borderless Fermentation.

We showed up a few minutes early to Akihiro Lio's (of 123-year-old vinegar brewery Lio Brewery in the seaside town of Miyazu) vinegar talk and I'm sure glad we did because it filled up to capacity and standing room only in this room and the adjoining room (at 90 degree angels from the stage -- so two same-sized rooms in an L shape toward the stage). Lio was one of the F3 speakers I was most excited to hear and meet. Lio is a fifth generation vinegar maker and at Lio they control the process of vinegar making from start to finish even cultivating some of their own rice and making all of their own sake which they ferment into award-winning vinegar. It's 100% new-harvest, pesticide-free rice that goes into their delicious rice vinegar which is aged eight months or longer.

I'm very glad that there were photos to go with Lio's talk because there were no friends nearby to translate. We still learned a lot from Akihiro Lio.

Choose your own adventure! And these are just the indoor adventures at F3...

We chose the subterranean adventure -- downstairs to the basement art and performance space after Lio's talk for an INCREDIBLE liquid light show set to beautiful often discordant music by Akiko Nakayama. She calls her liquid light shows "alive art" and we were absolutely transfixed. Find her on social media. So inspiring.

I'm including this one because it really shows in contrast the thick nearly 1/4-inch of mold on the sake cave walls. So wild.

F3's awesome Friday and Saturday schedule.

Me and Jimbo with the Oizumi Kombucha crew. These folks are bringing their delicious kombucha to the Portland Fermentation Festival this year!!! Love them and their super tasty kombucha. 

The sake governing body office adjacent to the festival. All sorts of sake vials and scientific charts en route to the festival loo. 

Before we caught our subway back south to our Suidobashi/Jimbocho hotel in the evening Jimbo and I grabbed a couple tasty handrolls here -- tuna and uni. YUM!

My suitcase to Tokyo was half-filled with gifts for lovely F3 folks this year -- most of which I brought with me on day two. All sorts of Portland goodies!

The sun came out on day two in full force. Such a beautiful F3 day!

Snapped this after the first session as attendees lined up for different fermented lunch goodies from booths and carts. 

Jimbo's dear old friend Eli, who's lived in Tokyo with his wife and family for several years, met up with us and attended some fun festival events. Long time no see for these two and my first time meeting sweet Eli.

We got to see Nhhmbase play!!! So good. I still haven't found one of their albums yet (tried at one shop in Tokyo) but will soon. Really dig their sound and energy.

Everyone did.

Right when Nhhmbase was done F3 staff swooped in and got the space ready for the next few talks with Shohei Yasuda of Restaurant Kabi, Shinobu Namae of L'Effervescence and other inspiring folks speaking to all things fermentation. 

We snooped around the old sake brewery a little. No longer in production but still a lot of great equipment.

Really yummy F3 beer from Kokage. 

We got the sampler and shared. 

I LOVED the Fermented Book Bar by Book Truck!

So many fantastic Japanese fermentation titles that I hope will be translated into English in years to come. 

Zone 2 of F3 where a lot of the panels took place. 

Restaurant Kabi serving up delicious fermented treats -- lightly fermented mackerel with broccoli shoyu, tsukemono and cheese. Every F3 attendee had a token in their tote bag for one of these. 

DJ Jimbo!!!!! Apple of my eye. I posted the link to his F3 playlist above. Do your ears a favor and have a listen!

Love Me And Miso Soup's pour-over miso!! 

I got the single-origin demitasse with Get Lucky miso from Kumomoto ;)

They only had one left but I reallllllly  wanted this miso zine that they produce. I didn't ask for it but I probably should have at the end of the day. Oh well.

So cute!!

My talk with the hugely inspiring Hozu Yamamoto of Tokyo Gallery (Japan's first commericial contemporary art gallery started by his father), Teruo Kurosaki and Etsuyo Okajima. He and Kurosaki-san talked about the importance of curating art at home in Japan and how home fermentation is very similar -- largely a lost art. Cultivating both is important and we need to do better. I agreed, added to that and talked about our polarizing political climate in the US and how catalyzing and diversity-celebrating events such as the Portland Fermentation Festival are important. Long live STINKFEST and F3!!

Flyers handed out after my talk and at the end of the day for Sunday's day 3/final day of F3 at United Nations University.

We made it to the second level of the brewery for the very last pour of the Fermented Bar. So glad that I made it because I hadn't had a chance to check the Fermented Bar out.

This man poured me...

A 30-year-old inky, rich, chocolately tasting mirin!! Tastebuds danced for hours after. I can still taste it. 

The very special sake list.

Aaaaand after a night out post-day-two of F3 spent visiting Bar Martha listening lounge in Ebisu (so cool!!) we were up bright and shiny to head to day 3, the final day, of the Fermentation Future Forum at United Nations University.

Kurosaki-san's UNU farmers market is such a great market! If I lived in Tokyo I would shop here regularly. We had a chance to walk around a bit before my talk and Jimbo's DJing. I got some really yummy citrus and shoyu.

Fermentation Lounge F3 at UNU!

Grape Republic wines, some really yummy sakes...

I hope that Grape Republic will come to the Portland Fermentation Festival. I told everyone that we don't have festival sponsorship or a travel budget but that we can put them up (my place, friends' places) if they can get to Portland to be a part of the festival.

DJ Jimbo making everyone feel so good.

Yas pouring Portland beers and ciders before my talk. Reverend Nat's Cider went fast...

This was a really yummy slightly crunchy ferment that I *think* is butterbur/fuki -- toxicity removed via fermentation.

I talked for an hour and Etsuyo asked questions and cycled through Portland Fermentation Festival slides. The link to my talk is above but some topics discussed include promoting diversity and countering xenophobia (particularly in relation to US political climate) through exposure to welcoming, tasty, funky diversity with the Portland Fermentation Festival and F3; our festival's history, the importance of skill sharing, how festivals such as ours and F3 build community and create lasting change and impact in cities and beyond, use it or lose it -- encouraging and inspiring youth to ferment, how fermentation is an antidote to glabal sameness and industrialized story-less foods. It was a really fun talk and during it you can hear the miso making demo with Miyamoto Miso talking place in the background -- in the back of the room. The loud buzzing is the sound of the electric grinders grinding the steamed soybeans. I love that both were taking place in the same space and at the same time.

This is one of the slides  from the Portland Fermentation Festival that attendees loved during my talk. I told them how in 2015 we found out that Neil Young was coming to Portland to play a show for his The Monsanto Years tour after we'd already set the Portland Fermentation Festival date ON the same date so we sent out a change the date email with this photo as part of our apology. I CANNOT miss Neil Young!! Not possible.

Pickle pins!! Many F3 attendees got pickle pins this year thanks to Loly LeBlanc and Phoenix Rath. They flew first class ;) This is another slide that attendees loved. XOXOXO

After my talk I served up samples of some of my homemade 2 1/2-year-old miso and plum wine vinegar that I brought from home. So glad that I brought these to share!

AND I even got to get in on the miso demo action after my talk. I got to mix a batch of koji and steamed ground soybeans with sea salty water, form that into balls and throw them into the big buckets. I've never thrown my miso (I didn't know people do -- to eliminate air bubbles) and I will now forevermore. Practical and so fun!!!

THIS guy is the most fun ;) DJ Jimbo brightening up the room with all sorts of great tunes. 

Me and my friend Etsuyo Okajima after our Q&A. I love Etsuyo. She comes to Portland often.

One of the wildest bites of F3 this year was the fermented fugu roe aka pufferfish roe. Fermentation deactiviates the toxicity. It was really salty, sour and yummy -- nice pop.

Fermented squid. Verrrrrry flavorful. This wasn't my favorite but I'm very happy that I got to try it.

My friends Takeshi Okuno and Yusuke Tanaka -- both integral to F3 -- having fun at the end of F3.

Me and the Oizumi Kombucha crew again. Throughout the festival I had three of their delicious kombuchas -- hibiscus lemongrass, yuzu and chai. So excited that they are coming to Portland Fermentation Festival this year!!

Me and Akihiro Miyamoto of Miyamoto Miso! I am so happy that I met Akihiro and I hope to visit his miso factory in Uozu the next time I'm in Japan. He loved my miso and I loved his :)

Me and DJ Jimbo! We really are the luckiest. So happy we got to attend F3 together.

F3 would not be possible were it not for mastermind Teruo Kurosaki and his super creative and capable staff. Every year that I know this man seems like 10 because of all of his accomplishments in a 12-month span. He constantly inspires me and I'm so grateful to know him through editing True Portland (English Edition 2017, Hawthorne Books) and attending his first two F3s thanks to him making it happen. His closing remarks at F3 this year were inspiring and educational. Looking forward to all the greatness to come from Kurosaki-san and F3 in years to come.

Peace out and thank you F3 -- all on one hand ;) Thanks for checking out this post. I hope to put together another post about all the amazing things we got to do in Tokyo on this visit at some point in the future. For now I'm going to rest my brain bean which I mildly concussed en route home in the Tokyo subway system. So, peace out for real. XOXO Thank you F3!

Portland Dining Month Giveaway

Irma is the lucky winner with comment #5! Congratulations Irma!

March is Travel Portland's annual Portland Dining Month with $33 unique 3-course meals offered nightly at 100-plus participating Portland restaurants. Travel Portland started Portland Dining Month in 2009 as a way to promote overnight travel to our fair city. Some of the many Portland restaurants that I love that are participating this year include Andina, Autentica, Biwa, Davenport, Departure, Kachka, Ken's Artisan Pizza, Little Bird, Ned Ludd, Olympia Oyster Bar, Radar, Trifecta, Xico and so many more.

New this year, Feastly Portland has joined Travel Portland’s lineup. The pop-up dining experience will feature 21 top chefs from around the world in to-be-released locations around the city. The focus this year is on ethnic cuisine including Ethiopian, Pilipino, Turkish, Puerto Rican and Nigerian dishes. Find out more at eatfeastly.com.

I have two gift cards -- one for Ataula and 1 for Ray -- that each entitle the bearer to a 3-course Portland Dining month dinner this March. All you need to do to be entered for this drawing to win BOTH cards is leave a comment here about some sort of food or drink (or food adventure) that you've had in another city in the US or abroad that you'd love to see in Portland. OR you can comment about something like this that you've never experienced firsthand but have dreamed of and would like to see here. I'm writing down a number now and will snap a photo of it. That numbered commenter will be announced at the end of next week and then I'll mail out the cards.

Whether you win or not I highly encourage you to make your reservations for Portland Dining Month via portlanddiningmonth.com. Travel Portland has partnered up with OpenTable and a donation will be made to Oregon Food Bank's hunger-relief efforts for every reservation booked through the website. Please share this any way you can/want. Thank you!

Grow Your Own Book Launch Party

Our beautiful book! It was really fun to throw a party for it ;)

Oh my goodness what a blast our Grow Your Own: Understanding, Cultivating, and Enjoying Cannabis (published by Tin House, Sept. 2017) launch party was this past September at Holocene! So, so fun and hundreds came out for it. I've been meaning to post photos from it for far too long because words alone can't do it justice. We had all sorts of wonderful coverage for the launch in the weeks leading up including this and this. I'm so happy that we were able to heavily feature and celebrate women as party presenters and speakers. From the get-go with this book project with Tin House we wanted to create an inviting, accessible and more female-voiced cannabis book. It feels so lovely to have succeeded at that both with the book and with the launch party. No mansplaining!

Night-of-the-party highlights ranged from Bill Murray being in attendance (see below ;) and DJ Jimbo spinning vinyl to our Cannabis Community Fair with all sorts of bright and brilliant folks from Botanica, Broccoli Magazine, Van Der Pop, Phylos Bioscience, Pearl Extracts, Hana Medicinals, and Make & Mary sharing their cannabis wares and wisdom. On Holocene's upper stage I emceed a wide range of kick-ass speakers for our Women in Cannabis talks. I've pasted the schedule and details below. I really wish that we'd filmed the talks. So fun and inspiring.

With everything going on these days regarding U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinding those Obama Department of Justice cannabis memos (inviting federal prosecutors to enforce federal cannabis laws aggressively) I think it's more important than ever to stand loud and proud for state rights in regard to cannabis legalization. The fact is -- a real fact! -- the majority of our country's population has chosen and voted to decriminalize and legalize cannabis in one way or another. We've got this. We won't let anyone take it away from us.

Grow Your Own celebrates all of this and then some and it turns out A LOT of us on this green legalize it and celebrate it team are strong, smart, savvy women. Below are a bunch of launch party photos that illustrate this point and give you a feel for just how creative and fun growing your own can be. Also, you can treat your ears to a live recording of part of DJ Jimbo's Grow Your Own party set here. And if you want to hear Nichole and I talking up the book you can have a listen to our recent KBOO News In Depth interview. We also had a great Powell's event in January that I've linked up the audio for below. At Powell's we discussed everything from the importance of terpenes in the plant kingdom and cannabis smell/flavor profiles, to pesky pests in cannabis cultivation and the unstoppable power of women in our current era of cannabis decriminalization and legalization. Grow Your Own also made it into Esquire Magazine's Encyclopedia of Epic and BuzzFeed Books Gift Guide! Had to share.

End-of-the-year Esquire Magazine's Encyclopedia of Epic!!!

Next up, some words from Nichole Graf -- cannabis queen, my dear friend, designer extraordinaire and co-author of Grow Your Own about the party:

After four years in the legal recreational cannabis world, I'd been to enough "weed events" to know that I don't feel like I belong at most of them. When Tin House gave us the reins to throw this book launch party, I wanted to be sure to seize our chance to change the perception of what cannabis industry celebrations can look like. This was also an opportunity to expose an entirely new swath of Portland to our world, so we wanted to be very intentional in shaping the rhetoric of the evening. No internet misinformation, snarky budtenders, or interrupting bros who have "a friend who used to grow" and thus assure you they knew more about weed than you likely do. We got a rapt audience at Holocene, hungry to hear how we want the world at large to understand cannabis.

I met so many incredible women while making the rounds promoting Grow Your Own and networking through Raven that were (and are) making unbelievable things happen in the world of legal weed. Using our event to give them a platform to share their passion projects was a complete no-brainer. Plus, these women know how to party! Heads up -- if you're throwing a party and want to seed your crowd, I've got a killer guest list of charismatic, intelligent, magnetic broads to send your way. There was so much love, enthusiasm, and energy that went into planning this night and it came through in this feeling of electric excitement from seemingly everyone who walked through the door. Our aim was to create a magical vibe, get people feeling groovy, and simultaneously teach them many incredible things happening right now in cannabis. We definitely succeeded. Looking back at these photos, I still get the giddy stomach flip of feeling like we managed to pull it off with bells on. Yearly reunion? 

GROW YOUR OWN LAUNCH PARTY WOMEN IN CANNABIS SPEAKERS

7:00PM — ANDI BIXEL, Creator of Drip Sweets 
Cannabis as Medicine for Our Culture
Let’s talk about the ways that normalizing cannabis can make big waves for our culture. Andi will explore the importance of properly introducing the plant to newbies and how we can play with and understand our experience of cannabis.

7:30PM — CAROLYN WHITE, Marketing Manager of Phylos Bioscience
Staying True: Building a Values-Based Brand in the Cannabis Industry
Carolyn will talk about the Phylos Bioscience model, science, and dreams for the industry. Get ready for a deep dive into the Phylos Galaxy and learn about the organization’s ambitious goal of mapping the cannabis genome.

8:00PM — MARY J POPPINS, Founder & CEO of Sativa Science Club
The Importance of Education and Advocacy in the Cannabis Industry
Mary will discuss the need for foundational science education for all those involved in the cannabis industry—professionals and consumers alike. She’ll also dive into why she founded Sativa Science Club and how to empower cannabis users through education.

8:30PM — EMMA CHASEN, Cannabis Educator at Sativa Science Club
Counter Culture: Re-framing Your Relationship with Cannabis in a Dispensary Environment
The wonderful world of legal cannabis can be overwhelming to the novice consumer. That’s why we have budtenders to guide our dispensary experiences. But what happens when the budtenders are ill informed? How can we as consumers ask the right questions? Emma Chasen, recently named Portland’s Best Budtender of 2016, will share helpful tips to make sure you get the most out of your dispensary experience.

9:00 PM — APRIL PRIDE, Founder of Van der Pop
Hot Box: Women’s Sexual Health in the Age of Legal Cannabis
April, founder of cannabis lifestyle brand Van der Pop, will share all she’s learned on how cannabis inspires sexual freedom in relationships and sexual satisfaction while alone. With only one approved medication dedicated to women’s sexual health (as compared to 26 for men), cannabis promises to close the gap.

9:30PM — NICHOLE GRAF, co-author of Grow Your Own and Creative Director of Raven Grass & LENA DAVIDSON, Director of Community Outreach at Botanica Seattle 
Ask Us Anything (About Cannabis)
Join Nichole and Lena for a frank conversation about cannabis as a movement, our power as professionals and consumers, and the importance of Growing Your Own now more than ever. They’ll also be answering the questions you’ve dropped in the “Ask Us Anything” box over the course of the night.

Amy Risch, founder and CEO of Hana Medicinals, helping Seattle's Botanica with their table. Everyone helped everyone. Super sweet and fun party set up at Holocene.

Kick-ass Tin Housers Alana Csaposs (left) and publicity manager Sabrina Wise taking a quick photo break with the huge blow-up of the book cover before the doors opened.

Nichole made all of the women speakers gorgeous cannabis and herb corsages. So beautiful.

The very cutest DJ I know. My fine fellow DJ JIMBO!!

I told you that Bill came! He was feeling a little shy so he hung out in Holocene's photo booth ;)

On the day of the party I had the fun job of snipping all sorts of herbs from my garden for...

This awesome Raven Grass + Pearl Extracts Seattle hands-on terpene station. You could smell and touch all sorts of herbs with the same terpenes (aromatic and flavorful organic chemical compounds that have a large role in the physiological effects of cannabis) as all sorts of cannabis strains.

My friends Robin and Mike were amongst the first to arrive. Here they are talking with Yvonne Perez Emerson of Make & Mary. Portland-based Make & Mary offers up all sorts of rad creative arts and crafts cannabis workshops.

Party time! View from DJ Jimbo's perch when the doors opened.

Another early in the night Holocene pic.

It filled up pretty fast ;)

Me and super sweet Andi Bixel of Drip Sweets right before her inspiring talk. Our kind of patriotism shining through.

Party attendees got a sneak peek at former Kinfolk art director Anja Charbonneau's new smart and beautiful cannabis magazine Broccoli (for women by women) from Anja herself!! The magazine launched in late 2017 and issue 2 comes out this spring. And....

We got to show off our Grow Your Own coverage in it! Read next to my thumb ;)

Smart and inspiring Carolyn White of Phylos Bioscience gave the second talk of the night all about her work and Phylos' work mapping the cannabis genome. 

So much learning. Each talk was 15-20 minutes and they ran throughout the night.

Botanica's Hilary Brown and Lena Davidson teamed up with Drip Sweets (cannabis-infused ice creams and sweets) to sample salted caramel cookie sandwich dipped in chocolate shell (we have a recipe for cannabis-infused chocolate shell in the book) MAGIC! No one could sample cannabis at the event as per Oregon law BUT folks made cannabis-free versions of their deliciousness. 

The whole Phylos Bioscience team!

Nichole put together an awesome eyemelt slideshow that cycled above the bar here and above the stage throughout the night. You'll see a bunch of the images in the shots of the speakers.

Next up was Mary J Poppins of Sativa Science Club. She gave party attendees the lowdown on why she founded Portland-based Sativa Science Club and how SSC plans to empower cannabis users through education. Really happy to know Mary. She's doing such great work with SSC.

After Mary, Emma Chasen took the stage for her talk Counter Culture: Re-framing Your Relationship with Cannabis in a Dispensary Environment. Tips on how to make the most of your dispensary or rec shop visits. I learned a lot.

It was really fun to play emcee for the night.

Full-on party time!

We got all the speakers together and then some for this sweet shot. Women in cannabis!!!

Thank you to Broadway Books for selling Grow Your Own throughout the night! They sold out! 

Me, Sabrina and Nichole. The three of us worked for weeks to make this awesome Grow Your Own launch party happen. Couldn't be happier with the end result.

April Pride of cannabis lifestyle brand Van der Pop had one of the most well-attended talks of the night. Sex and cannabis. So fun and STIMULATING ;)

And finally, to cap the party Lena Davidson of Botanica Seattle (and now Good Egg with her partner Alice Hunting on Bainbridge Island!!!) and Nichole Graf took the stage to talk about cannabis as a movement and answer all sorts of party attendees' questions from the “Ask Us Anything” box that we had out throughout the party. So many smart and fun questions. I didn't want it to end.

And, I just want to conclude here with this ladybird. Throughout the course of working on the writing and editing of Grow Your Own with Tin House and our editor there, Tony Perez, we sent one another "stoned" animals pics. This was one of my favorites. You're welcome. I hope that you had fun checking out all of our launch party pics. I wish we could do it all over again. Maybe we will! Stay greeeeeeen!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2017 Redux

Thank you so very much to everyone -- there were hundreds of you! -- who came out last week for our EIGHTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust! We had 100-plus tasty funky fermented foods and drinks to sample, smarty-pants exhibitors and attendees, all sorts of fun DIY demo’s, rooftop good vibes thanks to my fine fellow DJ Jimbo (I'll post his 2017 playlist once he puts it up), Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider and Cinder BBQ.

Thank you all for coming out for it and joining the stink! And thank you to our newest recruit who joined us as a co-organizer this year -- festival friend and participant since day one Heidi Nestler of Wanpaku Natto. Heidi kicked-ass and you could feel her awesome months-long event organizing effort in many ways throughout the festival. Heidi really helped us focus on more diversity on the exhibitor floor. She got a lot of new folks to sample their yummy ferments this year and we are so grateful.

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 segment on KGW News with Christine Pitawanich and this Portland Monthly story by my friend and one of my all-time favorite editors Kelly Clarke. We're very excited that Japan's Elle Magazine was in attendance to cover the fest. I will shout that feature out from the rooftops once it prints. 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 festival Facebook and Twitter pages.

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 or Instagram them with the hashtag #portlandfermentationfestival.

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!

Festival founders -- the Dapper Foodists! Marty snapped this one of us a few minutes before we opened the doors. Left to right -- David Barber, me and George Winborn. Year after stinky year. XO

People were lined up and chaming at the bit to get in. As always.

And  once the doors opened it filled up quickly with hungry folks ready for fun and all sorts of special food and drink ferments.

Maria Llull brought her delicious fermented whole grain mustard.

Maria's fermented mustard!

It makes me really happy that Gabe Rosen of Biwa /Noraneko comes to the festival every year. This year he made one of my favorite festival bites -- freshly fried potato chips tossed in dehydrated powdered house kimchi and served with a sour cream dip blended with dehydrated flaked and powdered house sour pickles. Chip and dip dream come true!

So fun having Thubten Comerford bring his sweet energy and super tasty fermented sour pickles, corn relish and sauerkraut to this year's festival. They were all so good and it was really nice to have so many new, vibrant folks sampling this year. We were aiming for more non-commercial fermentation enthusiasts and we got it with Thubten and others. Love this pic.

Thubten's tasty trio of ferments.

I am the lucky one who gets to organize the ticketing table volunteers annually and it makes me really happy to have my strong female friends volunteering as the fest welcoming committee in five shifts of two. Here are my friends Phoenix and Kelli at the lobby ticketing table's first shift before the doors opened. XOXO

One of the first two demo's of the night was the packed fermented nut cheese fondue with my friend Claudia Lucero pictured here. Claudia is working on a step-by-step vegan cheese book at the moment and I can't wait to get my hands on it when it publishes!

I got to try some of the vegan nut cheese fondue and it was sooooo good. Everything Claudia makes is delicious.

Festival co-organizer Heidi Nestler was doing a fermented natto demo (her biz is Wanpaku Natto) at the same time across the mezzanine. I really love that we have all of these tasty demo's every year. Inspiring and empowering

My youngest in the best friends realm -- almost 11-year-old Kylie (my Michelle's daughter). She loooooves the Portland Fermentation Festival. Her favorite tastes this year were Heidi's natto and a couple of the kombuchas.

Me and Kylie before the doors opened.

And if you were wondering what those cute pink things are that we are wearing they are festival SCOBY  (the host of bacteria and yeast that you use to make kombucha) pins that fest volunteers and dear friends Loly, Phoenix and Kelli dreamed up and made. So cute

This year's festival poster that the talented artist Tim Root designed for us -- as he does every year. Headless Horseman!!

Lovely Amelie Rosseau brought her pinot noir and homemade fermented hot sauce to the festival. Thank you Amelie! So happy that you came and sampled this year.

Susan Laarman of Swarm Portland brought her tasty fermented honey! She has a few accounts in Portland but please check out her website swarmportland.org for more info. about what she does.

Close-up of Susan's yummy fermented honey.

Photographer Shino Yanagawa (on the left) of Japan's Elle Gourmet Magazine came and shot photos of the fest this year! Can't wait to see them when the story publishes!

Photographer Joshua Eddings (check him out on Instagram at skyturtlestories) took this great shot on the rooftop this year. It always amazes me that we never get a rainy festival despite the fact its always in September/October. It's always beautiful. We had ciders from Reverend Nat Cider up there, barbecue by Cinder BBQ and...

Music by DJ Jimbo. Every year my sweetie Jimbo makes us a festival playlist that cycles good vibes on the roof. Once he posts the playlist online I'll share it on our festival social media.

Me and George taking a quick and sweet rooftop breather. We found out he can emcee from the roof and everyone can still hear him in the main hall of the festival a floor below. Hilarious. Photo by Loly.

Us earlier in the day hunting and gathering for the festival. AND getting a little sweet pick-me-up from Nuvrei which we both adore.

Festival favorite Sash Sunday of OlyKraut! We look forward to seeing Sash (she lives in Olympia) and tasting all of her awesome ferments year after year

Really yummy fermented breads spread from Tabor Bread at SE 50th and Hawthorne. We LOVE Tabor Bread... 

And John from Tabor serving them up.

Careen Stoll is another tried and true festival friend. Every year she brings her beautiful hand thrown porcelain crocks that you can purchase at various galleries and shops around town.

Careen and one of our favorite festival veteran volunteers -- Marty Dooley.

SOMA brought all sorts of tasty kombuchas this year. Love that they had kombucha taps to serve from.

This was a really, really yummy fest sample -- Cultured Manifestation's Yummus. Hummus made with fermented garlic, lime kefir whey, cumin, sumac and more.

Made by these two! Val Pena and Paul Castoral of Cultured Manifestations.

 We loved having Madi Kay of Imperfect Produce at the festival this year to talk with attendees all about the good work that the company does. Please check them out at imperfectproduce.com if you haven't already. Inspiring.

KGW's Christine Pitawanich came and did a live segment in the main tasting hall at 7pm and we had fun showing her different ferments and taking her around. You can check out the segment at the link in my post above.

We first took her to the Choi's Kimchi table with Matt and Chong Choi and Elmo. Choi's is my very favorite kimchi. Matt and his mom come to the fest every year. We love them.

We also took them by Fumiko and Jason's Obon PDX table. Fumiko was sampling their delicious tofu misozuke.

We tried to make it to the Jorinji Miso table with all of these fine folks including Earnest and Yuri Migaki but they were too popular and their table was too crowded. Earnest and Yuri are my dear friends and I love them and their miso so much! If you haven't tried it before get some! Photo by Loly Leblanc.

A close up of their misos. They made all sorts of tasty miso treats throughout the night including white miso granola, roasted miso chicken and miso dressing, tonjiri with red miso, pork and winter vegetables plus miso soup. YUM!

Heidi Nestler at her Wanpaku Natto table -- natto sampling (navy bean natto with mustard and natto kimchi) and educating.

Heidi's felted SCOBY looks A LOT like her new Wanpaku Natto logo. Cute!

Another festival friend year after year -- Colin Franger of Blue Bus Cultured Foods with all of his tasty treats.

Tina Johnson giving her super informative demo all about fermenting and curing olives.

Tina's cute sign.

Anja Spence and Bill Jones of Miss Zumstein's Bakery and Coffee Shop sampled their bright and delicious house fermented hot sauces. So yummy!!

John Westdahl of Squirrel & Crow Tempeh serving up his fried chickepea and sunflower seed tempeh along with his split green pea tempeh aka tempea ;

Festival ticketing volunteers Loly and Kelli (thank you also to Jess, Jemma, Phoenix, Michele K, Michelle G and Stacy!!) enjoying the festival fun

Brian Shaw of Oregon Brineworks serving up the wild and beautiful array of super tasty ferments that he and Connie always bring to the festival. I helped at his table a bit under the guise of "helping" -- really I just wanted to be closer to all of those yummy samples ;)

And a sweet goodbye from all of the fine folks at SakeOne in Forest Grove who came out and poured all sorts of lovely sakes. They sent me home with a bottle of their pear sake. Happy.

And, as always, the final festival shot goes to George Winborn -- co-founder/co-organizer extraordinaire.  The final fest pic is usually of him wearing the shoulder strapped vacuum pack but I guess Ecotrust finally got rid of that vacuum so now no vacuum pack.  Still so cute ;)

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who came out this year for our EIGHTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival. This year felt really special. I think we all needed to get together and have some good old fashioned stinky fun. I know I did. Thank you and see you next year. Happy fermenting!

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival -- TICKETS ON SALE!

The Portland Fermentation Festival aka Stinkfest is less than a month away! I'm pasting the press release that I just sent out here below. Please have a gander and save the date! Want to participate as an exhibitor or do a demo this year?! Info. on how to do so below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 26th 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 advance, $12 cash at door Children 12 and younger attend for free www.portlandfermentationfestival.comTickets on sale! We are now less than a month away from the EIGHTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival! Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 26th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink lovingly referred to as Stinkfest. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. 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 400 attendees in 2016.

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 natto, to cheeses, hard cider and kombucha.

2017 highlights:

Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider will be making and sampling Hawaiian okolehao at this year's festival! For festivals past Nat has made chicha, kumiss, Angel of Death (LAMB-steeped cider!) and other gutsy ferments. We always really, really look forward to the wild (in more ways than one) ferments that Nat experiments with and brings to the festival. Love it.

Imperfect Produce recently launched in Portland and they'll be joining the Stinkfest festivities this year in order to talk up what they're doing, hand out some of their Imperfect Produce and give fest attendees recipes to ferment their produce with.

Some of the fermented treats already on the roster to be sampled in the main festival hall from amateur and professional fermenters include Korean makgeolli, fermented mustards and ketchups, adaptogenic herbal kimchi, Wanpaku Natto from Heidi Nestler, Soma Kombucha and Elixirs, Eva's Herbucha, Squirrel and Crow Tempeh, Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft's vegan fermented cheeses and much, much more.

On the beautiful Ecotrust rooftop (with its lovely open hearth to cozy up to and pretty strung lights) we'll have food and drink for sale. Reverend Nat's Hard Cider will be pouring delicious hard cider and Cinder BBQ (at Bushwhacker Cider every Thursday) will serve tasty sandwiches. DJ Jimbo will make his annual pickled playlist for the fest so you can sip on cider, eat a 'cue sandwich and listen to sweet and salty Jimbo tunes under the stars. We have surprisingly *never* had a rainy Portland Fermentation Festival. Strange but true.

Festival demo's will take place throughout the night. Please check our social media closer to the date for details.

Admission for the 6pm or 7:30pm Thursday festival tastings and fermentation demos is $10.

Online tickets are on sale! A limited number of tickets will be available at the door the night of the festival and will be $12/cash only.

If you or your business has a ferment that you'd like to sample and/or demo at this year's festival please visit our website for info. on how to apply to be a part.

Festival coverage:

KGW

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland

Cooking Up a Story

KBOO Food Show

Portland Monthly

Willamette Week

Portland Mercury

OPB

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

Grow Your Own Book Launch Party at Holocene Wednesday, September 27

In 2015 and 2016 I got to write two books and edit one. It was a wild (and very busy) ride that allowed me to have one book launch party in July -- True Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People, another launch party in August -- Hello! My Name is Tasty and a third launch party in September -- next week's Grow Your Own: Understanding, Cultivating, and Enjoying Cannabis!

We have put together one of the most ambitious and awesome book launch parties for Grow Your Own and I really, really hope that you can come. The party is next Wednesday, September 27th at Holocene from 6-10pm and it is free, open-to-the-public and 21+. There will be no cannabis on site as per OLCC rules but there will be all kinds of cannabis experts, growers, appreciators ++ on hand for an evening of green appreciation and education and last but not least CELEBRATION!

My fine fellow DJ Jimbo will be spinning music all-night long, I'll be emceeing on the upper stage throughout the night, the super smart and on-the-scene Ravens from Raven Grass -- coauthors of Grow Your Own -- will be tabling, talking and whooping it up in general and the fine folks of Tin House Books who brought this book to life will be the hosts with the most.

Did I mention that Bill Murray will be in the photobooth? Yep. You'll see what I mean. Did I mention that there will be a giant blow-up of the book's cover and rad Tin House interns snapping instant photos of party attendees with it? Yep. There will also be a special Grow Your Own cocktail of the night that I helped conjure up, all sorts of treats to try, herbs to sniff (as a part of the cannabis terpenes informational display), cannabis crafts to make (thanks to Make & Mary), and much, much more.

Below I'm including descriptions of all of the talks that will be taking place throughout the night on the upper stage by rad, super smart women in cannabis from throughout the Pacific Northwest. Curious about sex and cannabis, particularly how it affects women? We've got you covered. Have a question regarding growing or consuming cannabis that you've been wanting to ask? Stop by the 9:30pm Q&A with Nichole Graf and Lena Davidson.

I'm also including a linked list of all of the awesome businesses and organizations tabling at the event's Cannabis Community Fair in the main dance area of Holocene.

Please mark your calendars and help us to spread the word! This is the fist event of its kind in Portland -- a noncommercial, free, learn from the experts, cannabis education and appreciation event. Portland is lucky to get it and I'm lucky to be a part. I'm particularly excited about all of the women in cannabis talks and the terpene station. Thank you Holocene, thank you Tin House, thank you Ravens and thank YOU for reading this and coming out for our Grow Your Own launch party spectacular next Wednesday night!

XOXO

CANNABIS COMMUNITY FAIR TABLERS

Botanica Hilary Brown will be on hand to demo the Magic Shell recipe from Grow Your Own and talk through her recommendations for flavor pairings with cannabis, based on her experience as a world renown chocolatier. Plus, get ready to sample all of Botanica’s delicious (non-cannabis infused) treats!

Broccoli Magazine Get a sneak peek of this new to-launch women-in-cannabis quarterly from Anja Charbonneau the creator of Kinfolk. Van der Pop Check out samples of all of Van der Pop's beautiful offerings with April Pride.

Phylos Bioscience Get hands-on experience with the Phylos Galaxy model and learn how to track the strains you purchase from your favorite growers.

Hands-on Terpene Station from Pearl Extracts ++ A hands-on terpene station sponsored by Pearl Extracts and led by Grow Your Own author Micah Sherman — Learn about these aromatic cannabis compounds by interacting with them in person. Gain confidence in selecting strains based on terpene profiles, which can help you predict how different strains will interact with your body much more accurately than the old standbys of indica vs. sativa and THC potency.

Hana Medicinals Learn from Amy Risch all about the health and healing side of cannabis particularly its use in combating chronic pain in topicals.

WOMEN IN CANNABIS SPEAKERS

7:00PM — ANDI BIXEL, Creator of Drip Ice CreamCannabis as Medicine for Our Culture Let’s talk about the ways that normalizing cannabis can make big waves for our culture. Andi will explore the importance of properly introducing the plant to newbies and how we can play with and understand our experience of cannabis.

7:30PM — CAROLYN WHITE, Marketing Manager of Phylos BioscienceStaying True: Building a Values-Based Brand in the Cannabis Industry Carolyn will talk about the Phylos Bioscience model, science, and dreams for the industry. Get ready for a deep dive into the Phylos Galaxy and learn about the organization’s ambitious goal of mapping the cannabis genome.

8:00PM — MARY J POPPINS, Founder & CEO of Sativa Science ClubThe Importance of Education and Advocacy in the Cannabis Industry Mary will discuss the need for foundational science education for all those involved in the cannabis industry—professionals and consumers alike. She’ll also dive into why she founded Sativa Science Club and how to empower cannabis users through education.

8:30PM — EMMA CHASEN, Director of Education at Farma & Cannabis Educator at Sativa Science ClubCounter Culture: Re-framing Your Relationship with Cannabis in a Dispensary Environment The wonderful world of legal cannabis can be overwhelming to the novice consumer. That's why we have budtenders to guide our dispensary experiences. But what happens when the budtenders are ill informed? How can we as consumers ask the right questions? Emma Chasen, recently named Portland’s Best Budtender of 2016, will share helpful tips to make sure you get the most out of your dispensary experience.

9:00 PM — APRIL PRIDE, Founder of Van der PopHot Box: Women's Sexual Health in the Age of Legal Cannabis April, founder of cannabis lifestyle brand Van der Pop, will share all she's learned on how cannabis inspires sexual freedom in relationships and sexual satisfaction while alone. With only one approved medication dedicated to women’s sexual health (as compared to 26 for men), cannabis promises to close the gap.

9:30PM — NICHOLE GRAF, co-author of Grow Your Own and Creative Director of Raven Grass & LENA DAVIDSON, Director of Community Outreach at Botanica SeattleAsk Us Anything (About Cannabis) Join Nichole and Lena for a frank conversation about cannabis as a movement, our power as professionals and consumers, and the importance of Growing Your Own now more than ever. They’ll also be answering the questions you’ve dropped in the “Ask Us Anything” box over the course of the night.

See you next Wednesday at Holocene! #growyourownbook

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2017

Online tickets are on sale now for $10! A limited number of tickets will be available at the door the night of the festival and will be $12/cash only.

Well, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler AND the pickles are getting longer. Wait, what?! The date for the EIGHTH Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust (as always -- we love Ecotrust!) has been set and we're happy to let you know that it can serve to jump start your Halloween weekend yet again this year on Thursday, October 26th from 6-9:30pm.

Below are all the details from the press release that we have set so far for this year's stinky good time!

FOR IMMEDIATE 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

Heidi Nestler heidi dot nestler at gmail dot com

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 26th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust's Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music curated by DJ Jimbo 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10 advance, $12 cash at door Children 12 and younger attend for freeTickets on sale!

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 26th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting event of the year.

Come celebrate pickling season at the eight annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented foods and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual festival that brought out more than 400 attendees in 2016. 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 natto, to cheeses, hard cider and kombucha. We *just* learned that Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider is making okolehao for the festival this year! Nat always tries his hand at something awesome and experimental year after year for the festival. Check out the chicha he made for last year's festival!

Admission for the 6pm or 7:30pm Thursday tastings and fermentation demos is $10. Enjoy rooftop music by DJ Jimbo, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Festival coverage past and present:

KGW

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland

Cooking Up a Story

KBOO Food Show

Portland Monthly

Willamette Week

Portland Mercury

OPB

Twitter: @PDXFermentFest Facebook: Portland Fermentation Festivalwww.portlandfermentationfestival.com

Kibbe's Tomato Pie

Nearly two years ago when we set off into researching, writing and recipe testing Hello! My Name is Tasty: Global Diner Favorites from Portland's Tasty Restaurants (out August 15th!!) we went on a 10-day Southeastern states road-trip from DC down to Savannah to gather inspiration for the book and get back to chef John Gorham's roots.

Along the way we had plenty of adventures and met all sorts of sweethearts including Kibbe (whose full name is McKibben Dover Nixon) on Halloween of 2015 at Newgrass Brewing in Shelby, North Carolina. Kibbe has spent all her life in Shelby and at the show she was dressed up as a cat and her son's friend, who she was with, was dressed up as the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, just after the Wolf had eaten Grandma.

It was a super fun night and we talked a bunch about food and cooking and Kibbe told me all about her famous tomato pie. She's been making different versions of this yummy pie for the past 16 years and when we parted ways I asked her how I could get the recipe. She said to email her when I got home and she wrote her email address on the back of a Newgrass coaster. I, of course, ended up writing to her and she ever so sweetly and generously sent me her tomato pie recipe so I'm sharing my tested and edited version of it with you all here.

It's tomato time in Portland and if you're at all like me you are going to be eating as many summer tomatoes as humanly possible before the days get short again and those tomato plants get yanked out of the soil. Kibbe uses whatever ground meat she has on hand but typically it will be one part ground meat and one part ground sausage meat. Kibbe also often ups the cheese/mayo mix when she wants to cover the pie entirely with it. If you want to do that just double the cheese and mayo mix below.

Kibbe!

Kibbe's son's friend.

Kibbe’s Tomato Pie MAKES 2 PIES

2 pre-made pie shells 1 tablespoon safflower oil 1 pound ground turkey meat (dark meat if possible) 1 pound ground spicy Italian pork sausage 1 tablespoon butter 1 yellow onion, chopped 2 cups grated cheddar cheese ½ cup mayonnaise 2 large tomatoes, cut into ¼ inch slices 2-3 tablespoons of dried or fresh Italian seasonings (we recommend 2 tablespoons of fresh oregano and 2 teaspoons fresh thyme) Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and remove pie shells from the freezer.

2. Once the oven is preheated and the pie shells are defrosted fork the bottoms of each shell (poking the tines in to them so that you slightly puncture the shell) several times each and bake them for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

3. Put the safflower oil into a large pan over medium-high heat and add the ground turkey meat and ground spicy Italian pork sausage and brown the meat, breaking it up and stirring it occasionally as you do so, for 8-10 minutes.

4. Strain the meat from the pan and set aside.

5. Discard any fat from the browned meat and then add the butter to the pan and set the burner to medium heat. Add the chopped onion to the pan and sauté it, stirring it frequently, for 5-8 minutes until it is translucent.

6. In a medium bowl stir together the grated cheddar and mayonnaise into a stiff mix.

7. Evenly distribute the sauteed onions onto the bottom of each pie crust, evenly distribute the browned ground meat next and top the ground meat with a layer of sliced tomatoes.

NOTE: The sausage, cheese and mayonnaise all contain a lot of salt and most sausage has a good deal of pepper as well. That’s why we haven’t included any salt and pepper in the recipe. You probably won’t want to add any but give the browned meat a taste and season it if you think the pies will benefit.

8. Sprinkle whatever dried or fresh Italian spices you are using on top of the tomatoes and then evenly distribute heaping spoonfuls of the cheese mayo mix over the tomatoes.

9. Bake the pies in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes and broil them for the last 1-2 minutes so that the cheese slightly browns.

10. Remove the pies from the oven, let them rest for 3-5 minutes, slice and serve. And as Kibbe says, “Take care and eat more maters!”