To ferment in jars, or not to ferment in jars…that’s the question! Suddenly, it’s the newest topic and most hip thing in the world of fermentive arts, to isolate all variables into a singularity, a point of mutually, scientifically observable focus where all parallel lines of the entire 30,000 years of the fermentative world meet…where the mystery is solved, a thesis given out to the global community to be accepted as an only truth, because a logical argument proves all.
Problems abound! Logical arguments do not end in singularities!!! Logic is a process, that includes the variables presented…so logic is the result of the information presented. Let’s go on!
When one offers a logical proposition, and proves, within their argument, a case, then one has won a logical argument. Then, when one offers it as truth to the whole, well, there’s some problem with that! The problem is not including variables. A + B = C is great when your alphabet has only three letters.
So, the newest controversy to hit the pickling beaches is about the safest, and most healing and regenerative form of pickling. Ay, caramba! Then I found the same sentiments repeated in other blogs and websites. Okay, you got it! The Great Gertrude is gonna play!
To reduce art or health, healing or well-being, locality and roots in land to one process, is to reduce the magnitude of health, nutrition, healing and art that is possible. What is true for one person isn’t necessarily true for others, and if you’ve gotta reduce fermentation to simple quotients of oxygen and organisms in and out, it sounds like fermentation monoculture to me!
I know a minimum of 300 ways to ferment pickles, not because I want to know better than others, but for the simple fact that I live with, on, off and from home-made fermented foods, and I know there is a season for every technique and style on this great earth. I’ve also healed and watched my children heal from severe intestinal distress and autism with simple foods, herbs, ferments and raw milk. Severe, no kidding! And knowing the wisdom of healing, that every body, every one is different and in different seasons themselves, keepin’ an open mind is somethin’ I take a bit seriously! Herbalists have been using pickle healing for thousands of years, and the healing of a community of trillions of intestinal organisms into a functional community is not so black and white.
I would like to take the opportunity here to share many of the ideas about fermenting dangers I am hearing about, and give a few tips, approaches one may use, as well as a larger picture of global fermentation.
One of things that has been brought to my attention, is the burying of fermented foods, and the burying itself keeps fermented food airtight, this being the “scientific” reasoning behind fermented foods must be in airtight containers.
1) Proper fermentation of certain foods require submersion under a brine, and this is “airtight for these purposes”. The definition of “airtight” for industrial food processes has a different meaning for the home fermenter. To make the two meanings the same is to subconsciously make people fear their home-made food, and thus, hinder the healing benefits.
2) Many fermented foods require air to properly ferment, the food, the substrate, the intended product matter.
3) In severe cases of gut inflammation where the mucosa l layer has been destroyed and needs to be rebuilt, the immune system, which primarily resides in the gut, is severely impaired and a short or long time of attention to healing that mucosa l layer often entails a careful preparation of all foods which are entirely cooked, and much bone broth. Since my children have been in this state, I know the steps (sharing them freely in many healing communities while my own children were healing), and they do not all apply to the art of fermenting itself, but rather to certain individuals only. Even so, knowing that one of my sons was slated to have his rectum removed after years of diarrhea, he healed before the marketing of new devices, which in themselves, or no bad thing!
4) The reference to air-tight containers keeps mentioning air-tight methods and containers in the past. There is a huge misunderstanding about fermenting vessels. Prior to these last few generations, glass, any glass, was hard to come by and a privilege to own, and all was used. So the question is, is it unhealthy, knowing our ancestors used many small glasses at times, cloth and hide? How about all these ancient and air-tight fermenting vessels which food was fermented in then buried for storage and aging?
To work with this, and play with these ideas a bit, I look to my own heritage and upbringing. My Hungarian heritage, which is rich is fermentation and pickling, just doesn’t know what air-tight is apart from proper cleanliness, clean fabric, clean crocks and glass, clean string, pickled stained wood, and uneven crocks. Let’s leave this a bit and go somewhere else then.
I spent my time growing up a military brat, living overseas, and learning a thing or two! I hear about buried Korean Kim-chi’s…and yes, and no, it is all right and all wrong. I have heard statements that because Korean’s bury their kimchi, it is airtight. No, while it is possible to buy a really good crock with a good fitting lid, I’m sorry, so many of the pots not only are not air-tight, but not even completely closed or covered! Korean kimchi is completely different in different parts of Korea, as with all fermented food, it is a REGIONAL specialty of the foods available, the season, and proximity to the sea. Many Koreans live in tiny rooms and own no land, and keep their kimchi pots in their living quarters. This becomes even more quirky when one realizes how seasonal kimchi is, and that yes, in winter, it tends to be buried after fermentation as a means for long term storage and the aging of flavors, but the spring, summer and autumn kimchi’s are all produced in different manners, eating in much shorter periods of time, and are not buried, tho’ often stored in the same, non air-tight vessels. Aye caramba! I can’t help myself, I know some deductions in the fermentation community, and the idea of following scientific guidelines sounds appealing with fermentation rules, but one comes back to the fact that life doesn’t work that way.
The peculiar atmosphere of a country, a region, a community, a house, the community of organisms in the air, the kitchen, soaked into the wood of pot weights, the clay of fermentation vessels, the linen of pickle covers, the quality of starter culture, the season, the sun, the plant care, transport and age, the recipe combination, the herbs, the spices, all come together to form a symphony. This symphony is what I AM after. It is the healing, it is the taste, it is the sharing, it can make autistic people speak for the first time in their lives, it can heal that mucosal layer, it is a gift for friends at Christmas or a gift to friends for watching your kids while you spent time at a convention you love. This is Life and Art in action, inseparable! If you want rules and imagined safety to cushion your journey into fermentation, well and good! So many great teachers! There is no substitute, tho’, for your own experience, and for your own body’s messages, which one must follow. A rule for all makes life a formula of exchange only.
Trillions of organisms make up our bodies, to focus on such a small group is limiting. Available on Wikipedia, a study conducted by Seoul National University show that chickens infected with H5N1 virus, recovered after eating food innoculated with the same bacteria and kimchi bacteria. That is food for thought. Perhaps an overly sanitized environment has led to a deficient capacity of our immune systems to properly balance the plethora and variety of microbes found in our own local environments and food. What if the unsanitary fermentation of foods for thousands of years in history actually challenged and kept our immune systems thriving and alive, and the reduction of such exposure due to the standarized and “sanitary” food of the current food system has mono-cultured human intestinal culture? What if we have more people being born, around the world, allergic to local pollens because they do not eat their local food in quantity, fresh anymore?
To assume either that humanity for thousands of years has been making an unsanitary pickling mistake, or that ancient vessels are air-tight, or that what we have now are the effects of a mind-set that will buy anything, any new idea out of safety…in the end, who benefits? People afraid of their food, healing food? Lac to-billi are fascinating and healthful, yes!!! But they are a handful out of trillions of balanced good and bad guys. There are no good and bad guys, only a balance, as in life.
In Korea, people check and eat from the kimchi pot everyday!
Ferment in your glass jars, feel free, and happy, and if you need a bit o’ trouble shootin’ advice, ask someone around you with experience or take a class! There are so many methods, all suitable for particular times of the year, particular people, particular environments, particular air, soil and water.
Many people with intestinal diseases are eating tapeworms and healing. Some are eating their nutritious garden soil in small bites. However your healing comes, it looks diversified, and safe! Happy fermenting! Happy experimenting! Happy art! Happy ancient technology in various forms and actions!!!
Summer Michaelson, CH
(c) 2012, Summer L. Farkas Takacs Michaelson, CH
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