Milk Fermentation as a Path of Sensory Rehabilitation.

Over two days, students will learn how to ferment milk into two probiotic forms that can easily be made in a home kitchen and require only milk, mason jars, and the knowledge that will be transmitted. 

1. Drinkable kefir is a mesophillic or room-temperature fermentation that can be flavored and bottled, sometimes getting a light kombucha-like fizz and alcohol content.  

2. Yogurt is thicker, involves a higher temperature thermophillic fermentation, and can be drained through cheesecloth into labneh, which is more like a spreadable cheese. 

These workshops require no previous experience and are designed to appeal to a wide audience of chefs, cooks, foodies, and the gut-health crowd as well as cheese makers, mongers, and fans.  Those already involved in fermentation (bakers, picklers, brewers, winemakers, and other fermentistas) will discover common ground and strengthen their own crafts through an expanded microbial awareness.  

By comparing yogurt and kefir to other fermentations such as kombucha, sourdough, beer, wine, and lacto-fermented veggies, the conversational, classroom-style sessions demystify these sour milks that can also serve as starter cultures for cheesemaking.  Over the course of two days we will explore the S.C.O.B.Ys (Symbiotic Community Of Bacteria and Yeast) that serve as the cultures for these fermented foods. The practical means of cultivating and maintaining these heirloom starters will be taught. Students are encouraged to take yogurt and kefir grains home with them, which can be used indefinitely and shared freely.  

The workshops are mainly discussion focused, as the demonstration and hands-on work of making the ferments is quick and simple.  Where we will get to engage our bodies is in the emphasis on using our senses to guide us in these fermentations, as we taste, smell and watch milk transform from a sweet liquid to a thicker sour state. I refer to this as sensorial rehab because too often our senses have become overstimulated, numbed, atrophied, and neglected through modern living conditions and general disconnection.  My teachings and these fermented foods serve to help people learn to reclaim and exercise their senses in order to remember how to let our bodies guide us in how we cook, eat, and live.