Fermentation is the foundation of warm sourdough bread, crunchy pickles and cold micro-brewed beer. And Sandor Ellix Katz is, in our humble opinion, the rebbe of fermentation.
Two weeks ago, Naftali posted a review of Sandor’s book Wild Fermentation. Now, you can read the exclusive (and incredibly inspiring) interview with Sandor, and answer the following question for a chance to win a copy of his book: What is your all-time favorite fermented food?
Interview with Sandor Ellix Katz
Who is Sandorkraut?
Sandorkraut is an affectionate nickname I was given by friends thanks to my love of sauerkraut, my constant production of it, and more broadly my evangelical zeal about fermentation. My name is Sandor Ellix Katz. I’m a queer Jew born and raised in New York City who has been homesteading in rural Tennessee for the past 15 years.
My interest in fermentation developed out of overlapping interests in food, nutrition, and gardening. My book Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods 
has propelled me into a mission of what I call cultural revivalism, spreading fermentation skills and fermentation fervor.
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The foodie world has been abuzz about Michael Pollan’s newest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
. Teased by its delicious catch phrase, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” we’ve hungered to sit down with a mug of fair trade hot chocolate and dig in.
Well, it’s out. The Jew & The Carrot review (with a special Jewish twist, of course) is on the way. In the meantime, read an excerpt from the NY Times’ review below, and catch the whole review here.
“Goaded by “the silence of the yams,” Mr. Pollan wants to help old-fashioned edibles fight back. So he has written “In Defense of Food,” a tough, witty, cogent rebuttal to the proposition that food can be reduced to its nutritional components without the loss of something essential. “We know how to break down a kernel of corn or grain of wheat into its chemical parts, but we have no idea how to put it back together again,” he writes.”
And if you’re in the New York area, join Hazon next Tuesday, January 8th for a reception and lecture with Michael Pollan and Dan Barber at the 92nd Street Y. More info.
When it comes to “sustainable eating,” I’m starting to worry that perhaps the Brits take the (organic carrot) cake.
Maybe my sources are skewed from having a Manchester-bred boss who sends all-staff emails everytime the British foodies do something interesting. (e.g. when England’s Walmart-equivalent, Tesco, commits to making their products’ ”food miles” transparent, or long-time organic farming supporter, Prince Charles makes a cookie.)
As if the Prince of England wasn’t enough proof of England’s foodie superiority, now I find out that Jamie Oliver - the British hearthrob and “Naked Chef” -has a new book and TV show called Jamie at Home that features food grown in his backyard and cooked in his kitchen. Jamie says:
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5-Spoke Creamery - As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, 5-Spoke Creamery is the place to look if you’re looking for raw milk, artisanal, amazingly delicious, and kosher certified (Kof-K) cheese. Now, it seems event the New York Times agrees. Hazon was blessed to have Alan, Barbara, and their kids serving up samples of their delicious cheese - including their recently released, Tumbleweed variety (see left) - at the Food Conference. Click here, to find out where you can get your hands on some.
Lantern Books Essay Contest - Lantern Books - publishers of books on animal advocacy, religion, social justice, and environmentalism announced its 2007 essay competition. The aim of the competition is to allow new thinking to emerge on the key subjects of Lantern’s publishing program and to encourage new voices to step forward to shape the debate for the future.
The first prize is $1000. There is no entry fee. Essays should be no longer than 1500 words. The deadline is December 31, 2007. For complete guidelines, as well as prior years’ winning essays, click here.
Margaret Hathaway’s new book, The Year of the Goat
, tells the story of the 40,000 miles she and her partner (now husband), Karl Schatz, traveled in search of the perfect goat cheese - and a new way of life.
Before embarking on their year-long journey, Hathaway was a freelance writer who managed Magnolia Bakery in New York City, and Schatz worked as a photo editor for Time Magazine’s website. Together, they lived in Brooklyn, shopped at the Greenmarkets, and generally enjoyed city life - but they craved something more than the five boroughs could offer. So, they set off on a year-long journey to discover if farming - and particularly working with goats - held the secrets of the next chapter of their lives.
Along the way, Hathaway and Schatz met what they call, a “vivid cast of characters,” including a myriad of goat cheese and meat enthusiasts, a Texas-born Muslim living in Maine and helping the local Somali community in Lewiston acquire fitting goats for their religious festivals, and a Messianic Jew who keeps Shabbat as well as a herd of goats.
I spoke with Margaret and Karl last week about goats (naturally), their adventures in homesteading, the connection between farming and Jewish tradition, and their upcoming event in NYC, the Goatstravaganza (Nov. 8).
Interview continues below the jump…
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Melanie Dunea’s new book - My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals
- combines Americans’ ever-growing obsession with food and celebrity chefs, with our voyeuristic desire to glimpse into the lives of famous people.
The book features goregous, coffee table-quality portraits of renowned chefs, along with interviews and - of course - their own description of their ideal “last meal.” It is truly remarkable to notice the number of chefs who chose shellfish and pork products (particularly suckling pig) as their deathbed delicacy.
New York-based chef and organic foods enthusiast, Jonathan Waxman’s final meal comes slightly closer to The Jew & The Carrot’s style:
“a bountiful and varied selection: handmade tortilla chips with guacamole made from organic tree-ripened avocados, spit-roasted lamb from the Sonoma Valley, served with potatoes cooked in ashes, followed by ice cream sandwiches made from shortbread, served with wild strawberries.”
So nu, what would your (God, forbid!) last meal include?
Purchase My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals here
Michael Pollan is at it again, and that’s a good thing.
After a brief hiatus following his bestselling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma,
Pollan is nearly ready to release his next work titled,
In Defense of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating.
Pollan says that the work grew out of questions he received about The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In a recent interview with Grist’s Tom Philpott, he said: once I’ve ”looked into the heart of the food system and been into the belly of the beast” what should I eat, and what should I buy, and if I’m concerned about health, what should I be eating? The short answer? “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” To get the more nuanced response, you’ll have to pick up the book which will be out in January, 2008.
We know what’s up on Pollan’s plate - what’s next for you?
- Preorder your copy of In Defense of Food here.
- Read Philpott’s full interview (highly recommended) here.
- Read The Jew & The Carrot’s interview with Pollan here.
Cross-posted to the Kosher Blog
For many of you, having guests at a shabbat meal means often juggling various dietary restrictions preferences that guests may bring to the table. Michael Pollan makes the interesting point that the French consider it improper to impose your diet onto your host, and yet how many of you can recall meals in which you were left with virtually nothing to eat as a result of your kashrut/vege- pesce- ovo- lacto- tarianism/ or any possible allergies. Peter Berley’s The Flexitarian Table may hopefully solve at least some of the issues. Read more »
There have been some very interesting issues raised about kashrut in recent months on The Jew & The Carrot, particularly regarding the compatibility of traditional kashrut with the ethical, ecological, gastronomical, and cultural sensibilities of many of our readers and and contributors. And of course, there are the reports about the the blatant abuses of some of the kosher meat processors. However, while the kosher dietary rules (which I personally observe) are an important source and means of expression for Jewish values about food, they are not the only ones. There are also many rituals connected with the table and the seasons that have also shaped how we think about and eat our food.
Reading books at the dinner table is something most of us Jews take for granted, based on our experiences of the haggadot scripting our Passover seders, Tu bishvat haggadot for Tu Bishvat seders, benchers for birkat ha-mazon and zemirot after Shabbat and holiday meals. Read more »
A friend once told me that she thinks our generation is missing mega-heroes. “Of course, of course,” she agreed to the point that there are countless men and women doing world-changing work. Still, she insited that we are lacking that charismatic, almost mythic leader - Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Susan B. Anthony, Nelson Mandela - who can unite and energize a movement towards a common goal.
Well, chef Dan Barber (left) and environmental and food writer Dan Imhoff (right) might not yet be household names, but after a mere hour in their presence last week, I felt a renewed fire to change the world.
Barber and Imhoff were the featured speakers last Wednesday on an NYU-sponsored panel called, “Sustainable Agriculture vs. Industrial Food. ” Despite the 4:00pm weekday start time and lackluster title, the room was packed to capacity - testament both to the mushrooming interest in all things food (and the impending Farm Bill vote), and also to Barber and Imhoff’s growing star power. Here’s what these, if I may, budding heroes had to say:
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Every now and then I’m struck by the sheer awesomeness that is the Internet. What once would have taken at least twenty minutes of searching through library card indexes (not to mention driving to the library and maybe even a paper cut) now requires no more than a few seconds of our time. From the average annual rainfall of the Amazon rain forest (9 feet per year, in case you’re wondering) to how to make firecrackers (the carrot kind, not the exploding kind) - it’s all right there, at our fingertips. This is all quite impressive if you stop to think about it, but it wasn’t until last Friday that I realized just how many things the internet can make possible, because it was then that a crazy notion sprung into my head. You see, the 2007 Jewish Environmental Bike Ride is just around the corner and I wanted to fundraise for it - but how could I do so when I wouldn’t be attending the actual event?
I decided to email the folks over at Hyperion Books, Chronicle Books & Ten Speed Press with an idea. If I held a fundraising raffle on my blog, would they donate cookbooks for the prizes? To my surprise, they said yes, generously donating more than 50 books between them. And it is that glorious news that I bring to all you book lovers out there, not to mention those of you who just plain love Hazon and want to take part in a fun online event.
From now until September 3rd I will be fundraising for the Jewish Environmental Bike Ride on my site, Baking and Books, where a donation of only $5 enters you into a raffle with an inspiring collection of cookbooks as prizes. As of this moment there are 56 prizes, most of which are being sent to my tiny apartment until winners are picked on the last day of the ride. So please, donate now! Enter the raffle and ensure that, come September, my home won’t have been completely overrun by cookbooks. (Ok, so it already is overrun thanks to my personal book collection, but you don’t want things to get any worse do you? Do you??)
Click here to find out more about the raffle, and also, take a gander at the prizes so far…
Itemized list of prizes:
I’m sitting at a small local café, Kafe Kerouac, named after the Jack Kerouac renowned for his wandering around America in his book On the Road, and I’ve stumbled upon a book on macrobiotic cooking. The book, Aveline Kushi’s Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking, was published in my birth year, 1985. From a quick comparative glance with a more recent book on the subject, macrobiotics does not appear to have changed in the past two decades.
According to the Kushi Institute, macrobiotics is “the art and science of health and longevity.” It is based on eating seasonally, locally, and whole foods, and has been known is both Eastern and Western cultures for a very long time. Kushi’s book discusses the fundamentals of macrobiotics, macrobiotic foods, and ways to prepare them. Central to the diet are whole grains, soups, vegetables, beans, sea vegetables, and water. Seafood may be eaten very occasionally, but no other animal foods are part of the diet.
Ever since Jay, a homely owner of a local natural foods store, introduced me to macrobiotics, I have been struck by both it’s incredible nutritional compatibility for a cyclist and by the (seemingly) few people that actually eat macrobiotically.
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Check out these great excerpts from a photo essay entitled, What the World Eats, from the book, Hungry Planet, by photographer (and fellow tribesman?) Peter Menzel.
And if you’re ever confused about what blessing to say when encountering a new food, you can use this new handy gadget, from The Jewish Learning Group!
The next time you pair a satisfying hunk of cheddar cheese with warm, crusty bread and wash it down with a cold micro-brew, give thanks. Thanks to God, yes, but also thanks to micro-organisms. Without these single-celled critters, these foods (as well as yogurt, wine, and chocolate) couldn’t exist.
Fermenting-Connoisseur and author of The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, Sandor Katz, says: “I meet so many people who have a memory of a grandparent who had some sort of an annual fermentation ritual, whether it was making sauerkraut, making wine, making pickles. Really until 50 years ago, 75 years ago, it was really, really common at the household level for people to ferment some of their foods.”
Katz’s new book profiles fermenters, as well as other food activists (who also fall into the category of “little guys” who deserve some thanks),who are sowing the seeds of the movement against the food industry.
Read an interview with Sandor in Grist here.
Blessings, Books, Contest, Fermenting, Food Safety, Hazon, Interview, Interviews, Jewish Culture, Spirituality, Sustainability
