Santa Rosa, California, and Beyond: My 2015 Fall Events

Here's what I have so far for this late summer/fall:

• Saturday August 22 2015 (soon!), 11AM-5PM: I will doing a beet kvass demo at the Farm to Fermentation Festival in Santa Rosa, California. (See recipe here.)
• Sunday October 4 2015, 10AM-4PM: I've helped organize the Boston Fermentation Festival at the fabulous new Boston Public Market.
• Sunday October 25 2015: My talk is called "Fermentation 101 + Understanding Science in the Media". Huge topics--I'll have to talk fast! At the Austin Fermentation Festival in Austin, Texas.

Come find me at any of these events!

Autumn Real Food Fermentation Events

Lots of Real Food Fermentation events this fall! Including:

• September 20-22, 2013, at the Mother Earn News Fair in Seven Springs, PA
• October 8, 2013, at the San Francisco Public Library
• October 18, 2013, at Stonewall Kitchen in York, ME
• October 22, 2013, at the Dewey Square Farmers' Market in Boston, MA

Click here for full event details.

Please come say hi!

Book Event: October 13 At Gourmandise In Los Angeles

I'll be doing a book event on October 13 in collaboration with the Gourmandise School in Santa Monica, California. It is FREE, and space is limited—there are only 12 spots open as of right now!

It will also be an opportunity for folks to buy copies of Real Food Fermentation, and/or have their books signed.

The event is entitled "Follow That Chef with Fermenting Expert Alex Lewin". We will meet at the farmers' market at 9AM, shop for ingredients, then go do some fermenting.

I'm excited about the event—the Santa Monica market is awesome, and it will be really fun!

To register CLICK HERE.

See you at the market!

Boston Food In Winter, ADDENDA

Someone let me know about a Natick Winter Market, Saturdays 9:30-1. So please add that to your list!

Just to make things simpler, here's a link to all of the winter markets near Boston. (Or most of them.)

I also forgot to point out another upcoming event, for New Hampshirers and other folks able to drive and spend money on a conference (student discount applies):

• 1-29, 1-30, 1-31 Fourfold Path to Healing Conference
  Sally Fallon, Tom Cowan, Jaimen McMillan, and others bring us a weekend conference built around their research and the research of Weston A. Price and Rudolf Steiner. I went last year, and it was inspiring. Check my blog from last year. In Nashua, NH.

Boston Food In Winter (UPDATED 1/11)

Winter does not have to be a time of deprivation in northern climes.

Here are some winter farmers' markets:

• Saturdays 9:30AM-1PM: Natick Winter Market
• Saturdays 10AM-1PM: Wayland/Winter Farmers' Market
  
• Saturdays 11AM-2PM: Pawtucket/Wintertime Farmers' Market
  
• Sundays 12PM-4PM: North Attleborough Winter Farm's and Artisan Producers Market

And here are just a very few upcoming food-related events in and around Boston:

• 1-11: Somerville Farm Share Fair + screening of The Power of Community
  Want to find a CSA for next year? Now is the time to start thinking about it. Many of them sell out by March. While you're at it, see an awesome movie about how Cuba fed itself after its industrial ag system failed, as a result of the fall of the Soviet Union. Hint: They did not use GMOs. It's an inspiring story, and it brings with it an important lesson for post-oil ag.
  
  
• 1-24: Hands-On Kimchi Workshop
  Learn to make kimchi! I'm leading a hands-on workshop at the Theodore Parker UU Church in West Roxbury.
  

• 1-29, 1-30, 1-31 Fourfold Path to Healing Conference
  Sally Fallon, Tom Cowan, Jaimen McMillan, and others bring us a weekend conference built around their research and the research of Weston A. Price and Rudolf Steiner. I went last year, and it was inspiring. Check my blog from last year. In Nashua, NH.
  
  
• 1-31: Souper Bowl II
  Who wants to watch football when you can have delicious, homemade soup? At Haley House.
  
  
• 2-09: Preserving and Pickling Class I
  2-16: Preserving and Pickling Class II
  A two-part, hands-on, in-depth class going deep into food preserving, with an emphasis on fermentation. Also covers how to prepare dishes using your preserved foods. Click the link for more details. At the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts.
  
  
• 3-21: Greater Boston Kimchi Festival
  So you think your kimchi is pretty good, huh? Enter it in a competition, and find out! Or maybe you just want to come check out some kimchi. A kimchi festival complete with celebrity judges, live musical entertainment, and kimchi-making demos. At the Theodore Parker Church.
  

Here are a few Boston food-related sites to keep an eye on for more events:

• http://bostonlocalvores.org/
• http://www.cakeandcommerce.com/
• http://www.cuisineenlocale.com/
• http://thewinebottega.com/events/

Save The Dates: Kimchi Workshop, 1/24/2010; Kimchi Festival, 3/21/2010

SAVE THE DATES for kimchi-related events at the Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church in West Roxbury, MA.

January 24, 2010, 1PM-3PM: Kimchi Workshop: I will be leading a hands-on workshop covering vegetable fermentation and kimchi. You will leave the workshop with a jar of kimchi that you have made, and you'll be ready to compete in the kimchi festival in March. 15 seats available. $15 fee.

March 21, 2010, 3PM-7PM: Greater Boston Kimchi Festival: I will be judging and helping organize the Greater Boston Kimchi Festival. Start experimenting with your kimchi now, so that you will be ready to enter it in our kimchi contest! There will be prizes in different categories, including "traditional", "innovative", and "audience picks". We will have a kimchi demo, live entertainment, door prizes, and much more. Proceeds to benefit the Theodore Parker Church. Details TBA.

For more information, email kimchi-info@lactoferment.com.

I Am Teaching A Food Preserving Class, Feb 9 & Feb 16 2010

Coming up:

• I am teaching a two-part food preserving and pickling class at Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in Cambridge, MA: February 9 & 16, 2010, 6:30PM-9:30PM.

Click here to register

Here's the course description:

Since the start of recorded history, humans have been preserving food. Refrigeration and freezing have become popular recently, but many interesting alternatives exist.

During class 1, we will explore some or all of the following topics: fermentation of vegetables and fruits (including sauerkraut, pickled root vegetables, kimchi, preserved lemons, etc.); cucumber pickles, relishes, and chutneys; brined meat (corned beef); preserved dairy (yogurt, ricotta cheese); kombucha; salting and drying (dried fruit, dried vegetables, dried meats, potato chips); etc.. Along the way, we will discuss food history; food safety; knife skills; and seasoning.

During class 2, one week later, we will prepare dishes, using some of the preserved foods from class one as ingredients. Menu items may include corned beef reuben sandwiches (with sauerkraut and/or kimchi); traditional Alsatian choucroute; a variety of canapés using chutneys and kimchi; lactofermented cole slaw; broiled chicken with preserved lemons and herbs; baked ricotta; kombucha-poached scallops; etc.

Click here to register

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If you would like to hire me to do a sauerkraut or fermentation event for you, please email or call me (four one five, five nine six, seven six one three). I can tailor-make an event to fit your group or occasion.

These are some of my past public events:

• November 19, 2009: Sauerkraut and fermentation workshop with Pueblo at Project Hope
  
  
• November 17, 2009: Sauerkraut workshop at Slow Food BU
  
  
• October 3, 2009: Sauerkraut demo on Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston as part of an outdoor festival
  
  
• September 17 & 24, 2009: Two-part pickling and preserving class at Cambridge School of Culinary Arts (two three-hour classes, with a week in between them)
  
  
• August 30, 2009: Sauerkraut workshop as part of Cans Across America in Somerville
  

Downtown Crossing Holiday Market

If you are in Boston this season, you can visit the Downtown Crossing Holiday Market, located (in a big tent!) on Summer Street at Downtown Crossing from now through December 24th. Hours are Monday through Saturday 11AM-7PM and Sunday 12PM-6PM.

Why visit?

There are farmers and food producers offering a variety of excellent food and horticultural goods, including great local vegetables and fruits from Keown Orchards, delicious breads from When Pigs Fly, fabulous lillies from Stow Greenhouses, and one-of-a-kind Dessert Hummus from Crazy Camel. There are also booths selling the other sorts of things you might expect at a holiday market, including jewelry, pottery, candles, and the like.

The vendor I was most excited to see was Stillman's, a leading Massachusetts purveyor of Meat Of Known Origin (MOKO). Stillman's will be at the market five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday, until December 24th.

So it will be easier than ever to get Meat Of Known Origin in Boston this holiday season!

Note: The Downtown Crossing Holiday Market is being run by the Boston Public Market Association, in coordination with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. I am on the board of the BPMA. I don't benefit personally from any money you might spend at the Holiday Market.

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Imagine if there were an indoor, year-round, seven-days-a-week local food market serving the Boston area, so that farmers and food producers like Stillman's, Keown, and Stow could easily sell their products directly to their customers.

I think this would be great, for many reasons. Here are a few: Greater availability of real food could increase the health and happiness of folks in the Boston area; it could also attract more good restaurants to the Boston area. A year-round market would make it easier for buyers to find what they needed, and easier for sellers to predict demand.  Cutting out the intermediaries would allow food producers to build relationships with their customers, sell at a better price, and take home more money for themselves. And so on.

The Boston Public Market Association's goal is to create such a market. If this vision appeals to you, please support us.