It’s difficult to overstate the importance of food, perhaps most obviously because our biological reliance on it. Without food, we do not live. As our population as a species has grown, we’ve developed a complex global system of food distribution which, when you consider the scope of it all, is truly amazing. But it seems like every day we hear about more ways that this global food network we’ve created is harming both our social systems as well as the environment, and it can be hard out there for us to find out how to become less nutritionally reliant on an increasingly nontransparent and flawed system.
Luckily, clever and surprisingly easy-to-implement answers can be found in our anthropological history. Some enterprising humans a few thousand years ago figured out a method for preserving foods far beyond their natural expiration date: fermentation. Before witnessing the fermentation process firsthand I wasn’t aware of it as an option, assuming that it was prohibitively difficult or resource-intensive. I was completely wrong. Simply put, it involves placing your desired food in a closed, anaerobic (such as a sealed glass jar filled with brine) and allowing the process to take place for some time, then you get to eat it. That’s about it (but here’s a link to more in-depth instructions on how to do it at home).
The fermentation process is carried out when naturally occurring Lactobacillus bacteria begin to feed on sugars in the food. The bacteria’s digestion of sugars produces a slew of beneficial enzymes, vitamins, and probiotics that make the food more nutritious and readily digestible by our bodies, while the resulting acidity prevents harmful bacteria from growing. This allows the food to be preserved for quite a long time while allowing. The list of fermentable foods is just about as long as your imagination can make it; there are traditional dishes like sauerkraut, kimchee, or nattō (for the more daring), or you can test your creativity and come up with your own concoction (we tried carrot-ginger).
Ultimately, fermenting foods is a phenomenally healthful way to supplement your diet and a decisive step toward becoming more independent with your food.
-Teddy Jones