Fermentation

aprimer

Presented by Betty Pearson

betty@ourldsfamily.com - 801-477-7373
Utah County Chapter Leader - Weston A. Price Foundation

Important Notes
1. Kefir grains, both water and milk, are available from me for free. Just text or call me. Bring a canning
jar (pint or quart or jellie sized) and a lid. I live in Lehi. Also available for purchase from KSL.com or
Real Foods Market, Amazon, and Culturesforhealth.com
2. Cultured foods are condiments, not meals. Introduce slowly until your body adapts. Try a tablespoon of
sauerkraut or a small 3oz cup of kefir. Eating a variety of fermented foods gives you a variety of healthy
bacteria.
3. Healthy bacteria are present in fruits and vegetables, especially those that grow close to the ground, like
cabbage, beets, carrots, etc.
4. Raw milk naturally sours and separates into curds and whey. Clabbered milk. Pasteurized milk will
spoil. Whey can be made from yogurt, kefir, clabbered milk.
5. Never use chlorinated water! Chlorine kills bacteria. Use filtered water, buy spring water, or let tap
water sit out for a few hours to allow chlorine to evaporate.
6. Use lead-free glass containers: Ball canning jars, Fido jars, Pikl-It jars.
7. Use organic sugar that contains minerals, like sucanat (evaporated cane juice powder). Available from
health foods stores, Real Foods Market, and Amazon.
8. Fats are important. They help bacteria proliferate and help heal and protect the gut. They increase the
assimilation of nutrients. Use full-fat milk for yogurts, kefir, etc. Raw is best.
9. Use organic vegetables whenever possible! Don't scrub them, you need the beneficial bacteria that are
present on them. Rinse with filtered water, or wipe them off. If not organic, use vinegar water to clean
them. Sometimes organic isn't available, so just use good quality produce.
10. Use only iodine-free salt. Best salt is Real Salt, or Celtic or Sea salt that is unrefined.
11. Some ferments are done without a starter culture (whey, etc.) and only salt and filtered water is used.
These ferments take much longer. I prefer using a starter culture because they ferment quicker, and have
added beneficial organisms.
12. If you haven't used full-fat milk products in your diet for awhile, it takes time for your body to get used
to digesting fats. Go slow, and drink just a little bit everyday until your body adapts.
Examples of fermented foods:
Salsa, ketchup, relish
Vegetables: pickled cucumbers, cabbage into kraut, kimchi, Gingered carrots
Fruit: chutney, juices
Mustard seeds: mustard
Meats: corned beef, sausage, salami
Olives are traditionally lacto-fermented
Milk: yogurt, kefir, creme fraiche (French, and less soured than U.S. Sour Cream)

Benefits of Fermentation
1. They help you detoxify. Toxins bind to components and excrete them.

2. Contain enzymes that help digest our food, especially proteins and fats, making more nutrients available.
3. Reduce the need for making digestive enzymes
4. Conserve our capacity to make the metabolic enzymes needed for health, detoxification, and healing.
Older people especially need them!
5. Helps the gut to assimilate nutrients. The micro-flora they contain encourage your gut to proliferate.
These organisms within your gut help you assimilate nutrients in your food.
6. Lowers the carbohydrate content of foods. Especially good for those watching their weight and
diabetics.
7. Annihilates pathogens, like food poisoning. Kimchi is excellent remedy for food poisoning.
8. Beneficial microbes are destroyed by pharmaceuticals, stress, toxins in the environment, antibiotics,
vaccines, and psychotic drugs.
9. They have tremendous flavors!
10. PRO-BIOTICS! The biggest reason we should all ferment foods! You can't find all of them in a pill.

Fermentation Notes
1. Your fermented vegetables need to be under the brine. Use a cabbage leaf to cover them. Or, weigh
down fermented veggies with a sandwich baggie filled with water. Make extra brine: 1 TBSP salt
dissolved in 1 qt. water.
2. Mix brine/whey mixture thoroughly in the vegetables, and let sit for about 10-15 minutes. The salt
breaks down the cell walls and draws out the juices and makes a brine. Double brine recipe for a large
head of cabbage. Knead the veggies to produce more juice.
3. If you want to reduce the salt, you can juice celery and add to the brine. Celery juice is naturally high in
sodium. Salt keeps the veggies crisp.
4. Remove air bubbles. Solids need to be under the brine by at least an inch.
5. Do not fill up the jar to the top! You need at least 2-3 for ferments to expand, or they overflow.
6. Sometimes a white mold forms on the top. Some people just skim it off and say it is OK. If you are
sensitive to molds, just throw it out. You can make that decision for your family. Scraping off the mold
still leaves the roots behind. See blogs section for more information.
7. Do not ferment fruits, fruit juices, or water kefir very long. It can turn alcoholic. I do not ferment my
water kefir WITH the grains more than 24 hours. 3 days = alcoholic. Sugars in fruits ferment quickly.
8. I ferment my water and milk kefirs a 2nd time. Remove the grains, add fruit juice or pureed fruit, and
ferment again. 2Nd water kefir ferment 24 hours. 2Nd milk kefir 12-24 hours, depending upon how tart
you like it. I prefer 12 hour 2nd ferment with milk kefir. If it is too tart, just ferment for 24 hours and put
in the fridge. I always sweeten my kefirs with stevia. I don't like them unsweetened. You can make a
great smoothie with milk kefir and fresh or frozen fruit.
9. Vegetables can go through a 2nd ferment, if desired. 3-5 days on a counter, a few more days in a cool
room, and then into the refrigerator. Veggies will soften in texture the longer you ferment them.
10. Keep ferments in a casserole dish or another container to catch any liquids that overflow. Ferments do
best in a dark place. I put mine in a corner on my kitchen counter and cover them with a towel to keep
block the light.
11. You can ferment home canned items by just adding whey. I do this with my canned tomato juice.
Ferment over night.
12. If your milk ferments separate into solids and a yellow-ish liquid, it may have fermented too long, or
you have used too many grains. The liquid is whey, and the solid is curds. I just stir mine and put in the
fridge.
13. Never heat your water or kefir grains, or put them in a hot jar. Heat and lack of food will kill grains.
14. If going on vacation, you can put your milk and water grains in the fridge for a week or so. Give them
plenty of water and sugar, or milk, to keep them alive.
15. Grains can be frozen. Put milk kefir grains in a pint jar with milk, and freeze. Leave plenty of head room
for expansion. Same with water kefirsugar water and freeze.

16. You can ferment coconut water using water kefir grains to make a very healthy drink.
17. Measurements: 1 TBSP grains per 1 cup of water or milk. I have used less with my milk kefir. Water
kefir, 1 TBSP sugar per cup of water.

Times To Ferment
The time it takes to ferment depends upon the temperature of your room. In summer, they ferment quicker than
in winter. Kraut: 3-5 days (taste to see if it is tart enoughnot sour like store bought vinegar sauerkraut
tartness, just a gentle kick of tartness). The longer your ferment, the more tart it becomes. Salsa and chutney: 2
days. Kimchi: 3 days. Ketchup: 24 hours. Vegetable drinks: 12-15 hours.

Healthy Traditional Diets

1.
2.
3.
4.

Included many raw foods rich in enzymes

Included raw animal products like meat, milk, & eggs
Often included fermented foods, rich in beneficial microbes and enzymes
Often soaked or sprouted grains to activate enzymes and increase digestibility, and removed phytic acid

Blogs & Websites

Weston A Price Utah County Chapter Facebook group (You don't have to live in Utah County). We post many
interesting articles and have great discussions: www.facebook.com/groups/337490273004397/?ref=ts&fref=ts
LDS Be Healthy Email discussion group, covering a variety of health-related topics: ldsbehealthy.com/
www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/ She has a great video section
www.culturesforhealth.com/ Click on learn tab to see how-to videos. They also sell starter cultures and grains
The Science behind fermentation. An excellent blog by Leah Harris:
www.nourishingtreasures.com/index.php/2012/05/15/the-science-behind-sauerkraut-fermentation/#!
If you want to spend more money and invest in air lock systems, I recommend the Fido jars (Italian, so
pronounced Fee-doh although some pronounce it like F-eye-doh like a dog's name, which drives my Italianspeaking son crazy. :-) Fido jars can be ordered through Crate & Barrel or Amazon. Crate & Barrel sometimes
has great sales. I purchased mine for $1 off each jar, and only $4.50 to ship unlimited amounts. :-) Fido jars
have metal clamps and rubber gaskets that simulate air-lock systems of much higher priced jars.
Nourishing Treasures did a test using Fido jars without a weight or cabbage leaf to cover ferments. You can see
how her her ferments turned out by visiting this site: www.nourishingtreasures.com/index.php/2012/08/20/canfido-jars-defy-science-can-they-provide-a-fail-safe-spoilage-free-ferment-with-no-brine-cover-find-out/
Nourishing Treasures also did a very interesting and informative test on which bottles, air-locks, and covers did
well in fermenting. I highly recommend you read the results (a lot of great photos):
www.nourishingtreasures.com/index.php/2012/07/03/sauerkraut-survivor-final-report/
How to make your own air-lock system for fermenting:
traditionalandnatural.com/2013/01/01/diy-all-glass-airlock-fermentation-jars/

Sandor Katz has published several books on fermenting, and he has a great website:
www.wildfermentation.com/
The Weston A. Price Foundation is dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the diet through education,
research and activism, and supports accurate nutrition instruction, organic and biodynamic farming, pasture
feeding of livestock, community-supported farms, honest and informative labeling and prepared parenting.
Specific goals include establishing universal access to clean raw milk from pasture-fed cows and a ban on the
use of soy formula for infants through its Soy Alert! Project.
www.westonaprice.org
Where to find real milk in your area (certified clean, raw farm milk):
www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/

DVDs
Fat Head, starring Tom Naughton and Chareva Naughton.
Available through Netflix, Amazon and instant streaming. Highly recommended.
Description:
Have you seen the news stories about the obesity epidemic? Did you see Super Size Me ? Then guess what ...
You've been fed a load of bologna. Comedian and former health writer Tom Naughton replies to the Super Size
Me crowd by losing weight on a fat-laden fast-food diet including plenty of double quarter-pounders and fried
chicken while demonstrating that nearly everything we've been told about obesity and healthy eating is wrong.
Fat Head features humorous animations as well as informative interviews with doctors, nutritionists, and
political scientists.
Come back to Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me The obesity epidemic has been wildly exaggerated by
the CDC. People the government classifies as overweight have longer lifespans than people classified as normal
weight. Having low cholesterol is unhealthy and is linked to cancer, stroke and suicide. Lowfat diets can lead to
depression and type II diabetes. The food police, who are now suing restaurants for frying food in hydrogenated
oils, harassed the restaurants into switching to those oils 20 years ago. Saturated fat doesn't cause heart disease
the research was manipulated from the very beginning but sugars, starches and processed vegetable oils do.
King Corn, Bob Bledsoe & Earl Butz
available through Amazon and Netflix.
Description:
Engrossing and eye-opening, KING CORN is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast
food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food
pyramid from top to bottom - corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naivet, college buddies Ian Cheney and
Curt Ellis return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America.
With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aid, and some genetically modified
seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and
scary but hidden truths about America's modern food system.
Cooking With GAPS by Dr. Campbell-McBride, available through Amazon or at gapsdiet.com

Youtube
You can do a search on youtube and find many videos on how to ferment a variety of foods & drinks. Here is a
listing of just a few:
realfood.realife, a youtube station
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0C1cJ1yk4c

Dr. Mercola interviews Caroline Barringer about fermenting foods:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy87TnyNCPk
Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride, WISE Traditions London 2010 GAPS diet & Healing the Gut. Essential
information for those with digestive and other health issues:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_0NvcJZwa8
How the GAPS diet has helped and healed those with Autism with Fermented Foods, Donna Gates & Dr.
Campbell-Mcbride
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLP0Ijo2CK4
How to Make Cultured Vegetables with Donna Gates
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTy__5elYp4
The Oiling of America: How the Vegetable Oil Industry Demonized Nutritious Fats and Destroyed the
American Food Supply, by Sally Fallon Morrell:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKdYUCUca8

Books
If you don't have the budget for purchasing books, and your library doesn't have them, request in inter-library
loan and for a minimal fee, your library can get these books:
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Cultured Foods by Sandor Katz and Sally Fallon
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
By Sally Fallon and Mary Enig
Cultured Food Life by Donna Schwenk
The Complete Idiots Guide to Fermenting Foods by Wardeh Harmon
Real Food Fermentation by Alex Lewin
Truly Cultured: Rejuvenating Taste, Health and Community with Naturally Fermented Foods by Nancy Lee
Bentley
The Yogurt Diet by Ana Luque
Includes wonderful recipes for yogurt and kefir, and the benefits of including them in your diet.

Recipes
Kimchi (or Kimchee) Karl's favorite recipe.
1 head Napa Cabbage
1/2 head Bok Choy
1 jalapeo
1 cup shredded carrots
3-4 green onions
Optional: match sticks of Daikon Radish, rounds of red radish, turnips, etc.
Roughly chop vegetables and toss with 2 tsp. salt. Put into a glass quart jar.

Juice:
Blenderize a handful of above veggies
1/2 to 1 cup filtered water (we use spring water)
1 Tbsp to 1/4 cup honey
1/2 to 1" ginger (slice up first)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar OR juice from last batch of kimchi (or both!)
Blend into juice, then pour over veggies in the quart jar. Push veggies down to make sure they are
covered with the sauce. If not, add a little bit of water. Put a lid on, and let sit on the kitchen counter (I cover
mine with a towel so it is in the dark) for 3 days. Then put in the fridge.
Beet Kvass
From Nourishing Traditions
1 medium or 2 large beets, peeled and chopped coarsely
cup whey
1 TBSP salt
filtered water
Add filtered water to fill the container. Stir well and cover securely. Keep at room temperature for 2 days
before transferring to the refrigerator.
When most of the liquid has been drunk, you may fill up the container again and keep at room
temperature for another 2 days. It will be slightly less strong than the first. After the second ferment, discard the
beets and start again. Do not shred or grate the beets. When grated, beets exude too much juice resulting in a too
rapid fermentation that favors the production of alcohol rather than lactic acid.
Drink 4 oz. every morning and night.
Ginger Carrots
4 cups grated carrots, tightly packed
1 TBSP fresh grated ginger
1 TBSP sea salt, or Real Salt
4 TBSP whey
Mix all of the ingredients and pound with a wooden pounder or a meat tenderizer to release juices. Place
in a quart-sized, wide-mouthed glass jar and press down firmly with a pounder or meat tenderizer until juices
cover the carrots. The top of the carrots should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and leave
at room temperature about 3 days before transferring to cold storage.
Kefir Smoothies
1 cup fresh or frozen fruit
1 cup plain kefir
Sweetener of choice (stevia, honey, or sucanat)
cup ice (optional)
a frozen banana will thicken it.
Serve immediately
Second Ferment Kefir ideas
Orange/Lemon flavor. Using a vegetable peeler, peel several strips of rind from an organic lemon or orange. If
you don't have an organic lemon or orange, place your orange/lemon in boiling water for 30 seconds, then rinse
in cold water. This helps remove the chemicals.
Place the strips of rind in your jar with the kefir and clamp down the lid. Leave it on the counter for 12 to 24
hours to ferment again.
Cinnamon stick and Orange Peel

Pureed fruit or juice

Creme Fraiche
This is yummy, is less sour than American sour cream, and can be made the following ways:
Skim raw cream off of raw milk. Put in a jar and cover with a lid. It will naturally thicken. Store in fridge.
With pasteurized cream, add a starter culture of yogurt, kefir, or cultured buttermilk. I used 4 TBSPs kefir. Pour
into a jar, put the lid on, and let sit on the counter for 12-24 hours. I will gently turn the jar a few times to help
keep the starter mixed in. Delicious with fruit or added to kefir smoothies. Do NOT use ultra-pasteurized cream.
I buy mine at Real Foods Market and it has no extra additives and is from grass-fed cows.
Veggie Tomato Juice
Home-made is is even better! This is our most favorite juice, especially with our home-grown garden tomatoes.
8 medium Roma tomatoes (we used a mixture of roma and sliced), quartered
1 medium carrot
1 medium celery stalk, ends trimmed
bell pepper, seeds removed. We used a variety of colors: yellow, red, orange
1/8 medium onion (any type) ends trimmed and skin removed.
1 clove garlic
1 small cucumber, peeled and ends removed (we didn't want the bitter taste of the skins)
1 medium lemon, peeled and quartered
1 TBSP raw honey (available at health food store or Real Foods Market)
TBSP sea salt
cup whey
1. Using a juicer, juice tomatoes, carrot, celery, pepper, onion, garlic cucumber and lemon. You can run the
pulp through the juicer again to extract more juice, if desired. We usually do. Discard pulp (or feed to
your chickens like we do).
2. Transfer to a half-gallon jar. Add honey, salt, and whey and whisk all together. Leave at least 1 of room
at the top of the jar, cover with a lid or airlock. Leave at room temperature overnight, or 12 hours.
3. Chill for 2 to 3 hours, or until cold. Shake before serving. Keeps a week or two, but best drunk within a
few days.
Fermented Salsa: Take your favorite salsa recipe, add cup whey per quart jar. Ferment 2-3 days. Transfer to
fridge. Fermenting softens the veggies, so my husband prefers his own recipe unfermented, but I love it
fermented.
Ferment canned tomato juice, soups, fruit juices. Just add cup whey per quart jar and ferment 12 hours. Be
careful not to over ferment fruit juices. They will turn to alcohol quickly.
Fermented applesauce:
Make applesauce from your favorite recipe, add whey and a little bit of salt. You need the natural salt and whey.
Whey gives it a kick-start. Ferment 12 hours.

AvailableClasses
PresentedbyBettyPearson
UtahCountyChapterLeaderWestonA.PriceFoundation
8014777373(leaveavoicemailorsendatextmessage)
770EMain#325,Lehi,UT84043betty@ourldsfamily.com

My family has a lot of health concerns. Okay, they are a wreck, starting with my husband, and me. Being me, I
felt compelled to find answers. Traditional dietary advice and medical help, all of which were based on popular
research, seemed to make things worse, not better. I love to research, so have applied what I learned while
researching family pedigrees to nutritional research. I also love to teach what I've learned about nutrition. If you
are interested in having me teach a class, please let me know. Classes are free of charge so would be perfect for
a church group. I do not represent any companies or sell any products. Everything I teach is about food you can
find in the grocery store, or better, grow in your garden. FYI, the Weston A. Price Foundation is a volunteerbased, service organization.
1. Using fermented foods to help fight illnesses, colds and flu. Make your own pro-biotics at home! A little bit of science
about why pro-biotics are so beneficial.

Lacto-fermented veggies

Milk and Water Kefir

Beet Kvass, etc.
2. How to avoid the big ones: diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. What nourishing foods are best. How to nourish your
brain and body to avoid dementia and Alzheimer's. Importance of exercise and the brain.
3. Nourishing our Children, Part 1 plan for an hour to 90 minutes, depending on class participation and questions

Introduction

Dr. Weston A Prices Research

Malnourished

Nutritional Principles

Vitamins A and D
Traditional Fats an Oils
4. Nourishing our Children, Part 2 plan for an hour or slightly more, again depending...

Milk

Soy

Water

Excitotoxins and Extrusion

Healthy Meals

Its Worth It! First Steps

Community Resources
5. The Research of Dr. Weston A. Price, and Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Diets of healthy disease-free
civilizations.
6.

The Oiling of America (how unhealthy oils became part of our daily diet). Oils that cause cancer, heart disease, and
neurological disorders. Healthy oils and their benefits.

7. Word of Wisdom, Modern Diseases, and a Healthy Food Storage. How you can create healthy pro-biotics from your
canned foods.
8. The Health Benefits of drinking Whole Raw Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows: Nature's Healing Food. The health
differences between Pasteurized milk and clean, raw milk from grass-fed cows.