Advertise on podcast: The Fermenters Guild Podcast

Robin is joined this week by Kenji Morimoto , author of Ferment and Instagram content creator extraordinaire behind KenjCooks, to discuss fermentation's connection to cultural preservation and spirituality. Kenji, a fourth-generation Japanese American, explains how his book focuses on demystifying fermentation basics and how to utilise ferments in everyday cooking. The conversation dives into how the act of fermentation became a lens for Kenji to reconnect with his Buddhist spirituality. He finds the process of being present, intentional, and eventually "believing in the process" when making ferments like miso to be incredibly grounding and meditative. Kenji also shares his family history, detailing how food can act as a form of cultural maintenance for immigrant populations, often preserving traditions in time. He recounts the trauma of Japanese American internment during WWII and how his grandfather creatively transmuted familiar Japanese flavours post-war by using Quaker oats to make nukazuke. Kenji's book, Ferment, is out now and available at all good bookshops. You can follow Kenji on Instagram and find out more on his website. Hosted by Robin Sherriff.  Original music & editing by David Craigie. 

In this episode, Robin spoke to Sean Roy Parker from Fermental Health, who describes himself as a visual artist, writer and landworker, who uses fermentation as a tool and medium. Roy told us about a recent exhibition, Man of Kent, where he fermented out-of-date beer into vinegar in an old pub cellar to explore how expired ideas around toxic masculinity and alcoholism can be transformed into something new. Roy explains his creative philosophy as a "living practice" and an embrace of "radical amateurism". This involves resisting the pressure to become a "hyper-professional" and instead allowing himself to be a learner and a questioner. He delved into how fermentation works on non-human timescales, and functions as a tool for anti-capitalism and "chaotic degrowth," using abundances and "waste" to create delicious food that rejects the uniformity of commercial products and supermarket. He also discussed his upcoming project in Lithuania, 'Citizen Sandwich', where he will use foraging and bin diving to create food for a festival, channelling fermentation as a communal, decolonising act. You can follow Roy on his Substack and Instagram, and buy a uniquely-bound copy of his debut collection of poetry, Stewarding. Hosted by Robin Sherriff.  Original music & editing by David Craigie. 

This week, Robin spoke to Rebecca Ghim, co-founder of The Ferm, a vegan, zero-waste Korean fermentary in East London. Her business upcycles overlooked ingredients like cauliflower leaves and broccoli stems from restaurants and farmers into kimchi and other pickles. Rebecca explained the logistical challenges of sourcing "waste" materials, highlighting the difficulty in convincing suppliers and farmers to work with her. She shared her love of recipe development, and the particular challenges of transforming bitter waste materials into palatable products, and how this often required making adjustments to traditional fermentation techniques (thinly slicing cauliflower leaves to ensure even fermentation and reduce bitterness, for example). She discussed the many challenges she's faced, from building new waste-processing supply chains to the difficulties of working with patented vegetables, like tenderstem broccoli, and convincing the British public that fermented vegetables should be in pouches rather than jars. You can follow The Ferm on Instagram and find Rebecca's ferments in many independent shops, as well at at Stroud Green Farmers Market in North London every Sunday. Hosted by Robin Sherriff.  Original music & editing by David Craigie.   

This week, Robin spoke to Kirsten Shockey, author of Fermented Vegetables (now out for 10 years!) and co-founder of The Fermentation School. We covered everything from germ theory to making a living in publishing, and Himalayan gundruk to tempeh as a secret food. Reaching all the way back to our fermenting ancestors, and the knowledge they've passed down, but which now terrifies us, because we've become disconnected from food systems. Speaking of the food system, Kirsten also discusses the role of factory bread in bringing women into the workforce, and whether fermentation can fix the inherent wastefulness of the food-industrial complex. We explored the origins of Kirsten's Fermentation School and its woman-run courses, as well as how Kirsten herself started out as a school teacher and then got into fermentation because she wanted her children to be connected to food (and how her son became a goat midwife and cheesemaker).  Kirsten's books, Fermented Vegetables, Fiery Ferments, Homebrewed Vinegar, and Miso, Tempeh, Natto & Other Tasty Ferments are available in all good bookshops, and you can also read her more recent thoughts on fermentation and other things on her Substack, and find her courses on The Fermentation School. Hosted by Robin Sherriff.  Original music & editing by David Craigie. 

Robin is joined this week by James Read, author of Of Cabbages & Kimchi and founder of Kim Kong Kimchi, to discuss the process of writing a book about fermentation, the challenges of research and how to find an audience. Together, we dive into culinary evolution, the koji process, and crap bats, as well as trying to research in other languages, divining ferment origin stories and the truth about kefir. There's a brief foray into spontaneous vs starter-based ferments and the ginger bug liminal space, before we move onto the challenge of finding the right audience between enthusiasts and lay-people and justifying the jacket price.   Finally, we finish with a brief chat about how the food system is fundamentally set against unpasteurised ferments and how we can fix that. Unfortunately there was no time to expose the kahm hoax, so that will have to wait for another episode. James Read's book Of Cabbages & Kimchi is available in all good bookshops now, his paper 'Living Fermented Foods and Drinks' is available online, and you can find him on Instagram and BlueSky. Hosted by Robin Sherriff.  Original music & editing by David Craigie.