This class examines fermentation in the context of cultural and social changes within shifting food systems. The class combines readings, lectures, discussions and a hands-on workshop in which participants will engage in the art of active fermentation. Participates will take home jars of fermented vegetables that will later be used in a meal.
Workshop will be a performance of Leila Nadir + Cary Peppermint’s OS Fermentation. OS FERMENTATION is a slow-cooking class, a healing ritual, and a spiritual revival of interspecies collaborations and new networks of open-source micro-practices. It is part of EcoArtTech’s new series of social sculptures, titled EdibleEcologies, working collaboratively with local communities (human, bacterial, and ecological) to resuscitate historic food practices and facilitate recovery from a cultural memory disorder that we call “industrial amnesia.” In winter 2015, at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, we performed a four-part OS Fermentation Salon Series, including (1) a reading group about microbiology, public health, and the industrial food system, (2) a hands-on fermentation workshop for making veggie krauts, hard cider, and wine, (3) a fermentation tasting party, where participants enjoyed their creations in a communal setting, and (4) a gallery installation of microbial “selfies” and chalkboard notes made by participants.