Entries associated with the tag "Wild Yeast":

I went to Nance Klehm's pickling workshop last Sunday and came home with a briny mason jar stuffed to the brim with kimchi. It burbled away in a cupboard, next to the coffee cups, for five days, and when it was done it was tart and tangy and very garlicky, just like I like it--though a little more ginger wouldn't  have hurt. Best of all, it was easy as pie. Easier than pie, actually. Here's how to make your own.

• Roughly chop up a bunch of veggies, your choice. We used Napa cabbage, bok choy, daikon, carrots, green onions, whole garlic cloves, and a sprinkling of burdock and dandelion root (mmm, fiber).
• Crush a bunch of dried red chiles; do the same to more garlic cloves--a handful, or as many as you think you can handle.
• Peel and finely shred a knob of ginger.
• Mix everything together in a bowl, adjusting the recipe to taste. If you don't like daikon, or dandelion, don't use it.
• Pulverize a cup or so of sea salt with a mortar and pestle. Then dilute the salt in purified water until the water is saturated or, in Nance's words, "the salt falls out."
• Stuff jars with veggies, leaving an inch or so at the top.
• Pour brine over veg.

That's it. The important thing to remember is to make sure the vegetables are always submerged in the brine while they ferment. Otherwise, they'll get funky and mold. You can do this by just pushing the stuff down by hand every day, or by creating a "water bladder" out of a baggie and a rubber band. Fill the baggie with a bit of water (you'll have to eyeball it), tie it up into a balloon with the rubber band, and plop it in the top of the jar. Leave the concoction open to the air--don't put the lid on--for at least three days, then taste. If it's not done yet, give it a couple more days, then close it up and refrigerate. Voila--kimchi.

I've lived in the same West Town three-flat for more than ten years and, like anyone who stands still that long in the city, I've seen the neighborhood change radically around me. Some of it's been for the better, some of it for the worse, but few upheavals bummed me out more than when the crumbling cottage next door was sold to a developer and my neighbor Nance Klehm had to move. An urban gardener, artist, and landscape designer, Nance and her lush backyard were a generous source of fresh herbs and monster zucchini, and one of my favorite summertime memories is still of the day in the mid-90s when a friend who worked for the Heifer Project showed up to leave a half-dozen fuzzy ducklings in Nance's foster care -- the friend's boyfriend having had it up to here, apparently, with his bathtub doubling as a duck nursery.

In the intervening years Nance's had her hand in various projects, all investigations of the wilder side of urban ecology. She's led foraging tours, created a seed bank, and started a "neighborhood orchard" in Little Village. In 2004 she planted a shopping cart with corn and enlisted people to push it across Chicago for the summer. For the "Urban, Rural, Wild" exhibit at I Space last year she set up a rack of garments, their pockets full of seeds, and urged gallery drifters to put them on, go outside, and scatter seeds around the neighborhood. 

Lately she's gotten into fermentation: she says her piece Host: Colony, part of "Negotiated Localities," a group show opening Friday at the SAIC's Betty Rymer Gallery, is "all about wild yeast, literally and metaphorically." In conjunction with the exhibit she's offering three free workshops this month on making bread (11/16), pickles (11/19), and mead (11/29). All three classes are from 6 to 9 PM in the second-floor kitchen of the J. Ira and Nikki Harris International Hostel, 24 E. Congress Parkway. Enrollment's limited to 20 people per class; register by calling 773-443-3703.