Wild Fermentation

The website  http://www.wildfermentation.com/ is in support of a book called Wild Fermentation. I recently picked it up and am having a difficult time staying away from it. The way in which the story is told about fermentation for foods and beverages take's one on a holistic discovery of how cultures were and are formed. This topic alone leads to a widely diverse exploration of how and why we as a people have arrived where we find ourselves to date.
 It is on target and well written to engage the reader into wanting to study all aspects needed for a well rounded education of science, math, history, sociology .... Ad Infinitum. The balance of hunger for the good food for the body and the need to nourish the mind and spirit leads one to explore the pursuit of knowledge from a vantage point rarely achieved in contemporary learning environments/

 Here is an excerpt-


 Wild Fermentation                                                              



Microscopic organisms - our ancestors and allies - transform food and extend its usefulness. Fermentation is found throughout human cultures.Hundreds of medical and scientific studies confirm what folklore has always known: Fermented foods help people stay healthy.
Many of your favorite foods and drinks are probably fermented. For instance: Bread, Cheese, Wine, Beer, Mead, Cider, Chocolate, Coffee, Tea, Pickles, Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Miso, Tempeh, Soy Sauce, Vinegar, Yogurt, Kefir, Kombucha.
Bread. Cheese. Wine. Beer. Coffee. Chocolate. Most people consume fermented foods and drinks every day. For thousands of years, humans have enjoyed the distinctive flavors and nutrition resulting from the transformative power of microscopic bacteria and fungi. Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods is the first cookbook to widely explore the culinary magic of fermentation.

"Fermentation has been an important journey of discovery for me," writes author Sandor Ellix Katz. "I invite you to join me along this effervescent path, well trodden for thousands of years yet largely forgotten in our time and place, bypassed by the superhighway of industrial food production."
  The flavors of fermentation are compelling and complex, quite literally alive. This book takes readers on a whirlwind trip through the wide world of fermentation, providing readers with basic and delicious recipes-some familiar, others exotic-that are easy to make at home.
  The book covers vegetable ferments such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and sour pickles; bean ferments including miso, tempeh, dosas, and idli; dairy ferments including yogurt, kefir, and basic cheesemaking (as well as vegan alternatives); sourdough bread-making; other grain fermentation's from Cherokee, African, Japanese, and Russian traditions; extremely simple wine- and beer-making (as well as cider-, mead-, and champagne-making) techniques; and vinegar-making. With nearly 100 recipes, this is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging fermentation cookbook ever