The December 2022 edit
Hello everyone, can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner?
Here at Get Pickled HQ we are winding down for the winter after a silly busy month of markets, Christmas pop-ups and workshops.
It has been a flurry of production to be able to stock up for the festive season. We had fantastic markets at the Frome Independent and the Somerset Collective. We were at the Ginger Piggery in Warminster for the first time and also did a couple of days in London for a private sale. For the first time, we also ran a couple of pop-ups at the venue ‘Home’ in Frome with some of the best local small business around…
There were also a number of workshops, in particular one of my favourite Festive Ferments, in which I explored a couple of different recipes to inspire people to make their own ferments as Christmas presents. We did Christmas Kraut and a fermented live syrup!
It has been a hectic and exciting month, during which I have had the chance to plan my new roster of workshops for early 2023. We have new dates for the Introduction to Fermentation and Fermented Condiments too… and a brand new Fermentation Masterclass, consisting of a half- day fermentation deep dive on kraut and kimchi, fermented condiments AND fermented drinks like wild sodas and water kefirs. We still have spaces available and we now have electronic gift vouchers too – they would make great Christmas gifts for yourself or a loved one.
I think the gift of learning fermentation is one of the best there is; I never cease to experience and research new areas. Even with this flurry of activity, I had the chance to host at GPHQ (Get Pickled Head Quarters) my dear friend and fellow Fermenters’ Guild member, Eleni Michel. She is a globetrotter fermentation researcher and food anthropologist who has specialised in koji – the magical stuff that lies in the centre of Japanese foods such as miso, mirin, soy sauce and rice wine.
Pic above: Paula is inoculating steamed pearl barley with koji sauce.
As Eleni is a koji researcher and quite an old hand at the whole thing, I took the opportunity to learn from her expertise. We did one batch – which almost got there. I had problems with the final temperature control. Even with this failure I was not disheartened, far from it. I saw it as an opportunity to learn from my mistakes. I have done it a second time, with mixed results. I now understand that I have to get a proper incubation chamber to be able control my result with precision – alas, watch this space! Let’s just say I am getting something really special from “Santa Kraut” this Christmas (he is the lesser known brother of Father Christmas, who all fermenters send their list to).
Expect a lot of miso and koji content from us in the next few months! Not just because I am getting a proper koji growing set-up, but also because it will now be the time I will get to harvest all the miso and mirins that I have just got going.
Go to Paula’s Nonna Bean Soup Recipe
This month I visited….
1. Festival of Light in Longleat, the Roald Dahl-inspired structures are out of this world
2. The Lantern Parade in Frome from the venue ‘Home in Frome’ while we hosted our Christmas pop-up
3. Bishops Palace Gardens in Wells, where I held a workshop
4. Bedford Gardens in London for our pop up sale
5. Mr Falafel in Shepherd’s Bush Market my favourite falafel place!
6. Botanic Shed’s barn in Bampton, Oxfordshire for Tallulah Rendall’s concert.
It has been a few years since I have been able to enjoy the festive season with family here in the UK. Last year we went to Brazil and the year before – well the world stopped as we all know!
