Newsletter
Random Q&A
Question:
I stay away from salt, but love sauerkraut! Can I use yogurt cultures or kefir in your recipes instead of salt? All the natural health experts say live culture is healthy, but then they say stay away from salt.
Answer:
Traditionally sauerkraut used a lot salt as long-term food preservation was the goal. Now-a-days health benefits are more important, and the amount of salt used is much reduced. Sauerkraut does not need to be extremely salty. it can be made with moderate salt, or even with no salt at all. Using kefir grains or live-culture whey are two ways to do that; a couple of others are in my book. I generally just use only a very small amount of salt. The sauerkraut tastes much better with at least a small amount of salt, and my personal belief is that although excess salt consumption is a problem, we do need to eat some salt, and for most people a little salt isn't a problem.
Other Food Links
These links are not specific to fermentation, but represent a range of interesting perspectives on food.
Afroculinaria
Michael Twitty's blog on "African American foodways and its parent traditions in Africa and her Diaspora and its legacy in the food culture of the American South."
Belcher Gastronomique
"A cheerily unalphabetical dictionary of food terms"
Chews Wise
Culinate
Cultured Food Life
Donna Schwenk's cultured food blog, recipes, and classes.
Ethicurean
Ferm Friends
A blog about fermentation adventures.
Food Vice
My fellow cultural revivalist Maria Tarantino's food blog.
Food-a-File
Food blog by fermentation enthusiast, chef, and food activist Tiffanie Short.
Gastronicity
"Gastronicity is the art of eating the right food at the right time in the right place." A blog on food, nutrition and sustainability by Nishanga Bliss, L.Ac.
Girl, Fermented
Hi there! I’m just a girl, fermented that is… I make kombucha, water kefir, sourdough and lacto-fermented veggies in my spare time when I’m not doing web/application design and content management for my employer. I like to experiment with fermenting – wh
GoodEater.Org
GoodEater.org bridges conversations of food quality and enjoyment with food sourcing and sustainability.
Homeplace Earth
Master Gardener Cindy Conner's blog.
Island views
Blog of Macalla Eco farm and Clare Island retreat centre
Kiplog's Foodblogs
An amazingly comprehensive listing of food blogs
Lannae's Food and Travel
I eat locally wherever local happens to be. I like finding good food where ever I go, from down home cookin' to celeb chef's food. I really like food, so that is why I blog about food.
little house on the urban prairie
Fermentation-friendly urban agriculture in Detroit
Salt and Fat
Notes on Cooking and Enjoying Food
Sourdough Monkey Wrangler
Musings and reflections from a Berkeley, CA-based baker, brewer, and local food activist.
Sourtooth
Minnesota gardener and cook Amy Thielen's blog.
Stir the Pots
Jeremy Shapiro's
The 3 Foragers
foraging, wild food, wild edibles, wild food recipes, eat weeds, wild edible plants photography, forage wild food
The Pickle Project
An ongoing effort to document and share traditional foodways in communities large and small throughout Ukraine.
Veggie Cooking Around the World
Veggie Cooking Around the World teaches whole foods, plant-based cooking in the Chicago area.
What's Cooking Richmond
Do you want to learn how to prepare food in ways that heal and sustain? Join Elli Sparks for cooking classes. We'll cover yogurt, kefir, raw milk, grass-fed beef, soaking and sprouting nuts and grains, etc. Class hosted in her Woodland Heights home.
All About Genetically Modified Food
Lots of links!
Food For Life
An annual summer food activism conference held at the Sequatchie Valley Institite near Dunlap, TN.
Food Not Bombs
A network of activists tapping into local food surpluses to feed hungry people.
Food Not Lawns
Local food-growing activism, one yard at a time.
Frugalist Massive - Urban Wwoofing Concept
Urban Wwoofing seeks to connect useful travelers with supportive and needy hosts in urban areas. It is an existing practice which happens in patches but this initiative is to give it a name then network and promote the concept openly.
Genetically Engineered Food Alert
Good Farm Movement: The Culture of Agriculture
celebrating the agrarian avant-garde: the art activist antagonist, the forward farmer preserver, the urban eater educator.
Greenpeace "True Food Now" Project
Hazon
America's largest Jewish environmental group, with annual conferences focusing on food.
Hudson Valley Seed Library
Hand-Crafted Seed in the Hudson Valley Region
Iraqi Seed Project
Films, advocacy, and interactive website.
Mothers for Natural Law
Information and action against genetically-engineered food.
Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust
"A think tank and brain trust that promotes specific alternatives to the unhealthy foods characteristic of eating patterns in industrialized countries."
Organic Consumers Association
Permablitz
"Permablitz is a social enterprise committed to improving the sustainability of our cities and suburbs. We use a sustainable design system called permaculture to help communities move away from denial and dependency to engagement & responsible production
Pesticide Action Network
News, health information, action resources, and links for reducing the use of hazardous chemical pesticides.
Slow Food
An international movement to reclaim local food traditions and rescue them from fast food extinction.
Tennesseans for Raw Milk
Raw milk advocacy in my home state. Includes links to other raw milk information sites. Can you believe the real thing is contraband????
Culinary History Timeline
Lots of links to information resources.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ FOOD SYSTEMS (FAO Report 2009)
"the many dimensions of culture, diversity and environment for nutrition and health"
International Commission on the Anthropology of Food
Worldwide networking, resources, and links.
Food and Agriculture Organization
The United Nations international food agency.
Healing Crow
An archive of the Healing Crow website.
Nutrition Data
Comprehensive nutritional data for many foods and food products.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Weston A. Price Foundation
Nutrition information and advocacy under the direction of nutritionist and cookbook author Sally Fallon.
ATTRA
Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas. Resources for sustainable agriculture and other aspects of rural living.
Biodynamics
Biodynamics is a system of sustainable agriculture developed by holistic thinker Rudolph Steiner.
Botanical.com
Herbal website including the full text of Maud Grieve's 1931 classic A Modern Herbal.
Herbal Encyclopedia
A to Z from herbalist Dr. Lisa Waltz.
Kitchen Gardeners
Resources for people who like to grow the food they cook. "Kitchen Gardeners love food, both product and process..."
Michael Moore
The website of a great herbalist, who directs the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine.
Organic Volunteers
"Educational exchanges in sustainability"; listings of volunteer food-growing opportunities.
Permaculture Activist
North America's Journal of Design and Sustainable Culture.
Purdue University New Crop Resource Online Program
CropIndex, CropReference, and other great online resources.
Soil and Health Library
A free public library offering full-text books about holistic agriculture, holistic health, self-sufficient homestead living, and personal development. Most of the titles in this library are out of print.
Susun Weed
The author of Healing Wise and other excellent herbals has an encyclopedic website with endless links.
Todd Caldecott
Vancouver Ayurvedic practitioner Todd Caldecott's site with food and other information for body, mind, and spirit.
United Plant Savers
Nurturing native species and heirloom varieties.
Urban Permaculture Guild
"What do I do if I live in a city?" Resources for urban permaculture.
Wildman Steve Brill
Plant foraging information and resources.
Willing Workers On Organic Farms
An organization devoted to matching folks interested in learning about organic growing with farmers interested in teaching.
BETUMI
The African Culinary Network
Chowhound
Articles, recipes, message boards, and more.
Chowhound
Articles, recipes, message boards, and more.
Egullet
"Read, chew, discuss." Recipes, discussion forums, and articles.
Food Maven
The site of cookbook author and host of WOR radio's "Food Talk" Arthur Schwartz, with an impressive index of recipes and articles.
Recipeland
Another searchable recipe archive.
Recipezaar
A searchable recipe archive.
Sauerkraut recipes
Dozens of sauerkraut recipes, including sauerkraut jello!
SOAR
Searchable Online Archive of Recipes.
Wise Foodways
Recipe site (and more) of Jessica Prentice, publisher of an every New Moon electronic newsletter Stirring the Cauldron about food and cooking of the same name.
Eatwell Farms
Nigel Walker and the farm crew welcome you to our farm in Dixon California. We deliver boxes of fresh, organic produce to Davis, San Francisco, El Cerrito, Vallejo, Alameda, Emeryville, Oakland, Berkeley, San Rafael, Mill Valley, Sacramento, Vacaville, L
Local Harvest
This site maintains a state-by-state listing of farmer's markets and food coops.
Northeast Organic Farming Association
Seven state chapters have food maps online and/or printed with sources for organically produced foods in the northeast.
Organic Consumers Association
Directory of organic sources, along with information and advocacy.
Raw Milk Sources
A state-by-state listing compiled by the Campaign for Raw Milk, a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Robin Van En Center for CSA Resources
"Community-supported agriculture" is a model in which consumers support local organic growers by buying shares or subscriptions to a small farm's harvest over the course of a season. This site includes a searchable national database of CSA farms.
USDA Agricultural Marketing Service
The U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains this searchable list of farmer's markets.
International Vegetarians Union
Meat.org
"The site the meat industry wish vegetarians didn't own."
Raw Food News
Vegan Outreach
Vegan.org
Vegetarian Resource Group
Vegweb.com
Wild Mushrooms: A Taste of Enchantment
Alan Muskat's introduction to identifying, gathering and preserving mushrooms.