speakers & demonstrations at Boston Fermentation Festival

The 2016 Boston Fermentation Festival speaker series includes an amazing roster of fermentation experts speaking on various topics throughout the fest. Join us in the Boston Public Market Kitchen!

speakers series

2016 schedule

speakers will start on the hour

10am Tepache & Friends: Mexican Fermented Beverages with Adam Elabd

11am Kick Ass Kimchi with Kate Payne

12pm The Role of Fermented Pickles & Sour Tonics in Eastern European Jewish Cuisine with Jeffrey Yoskowitz

1pm The Redemption Story of Bacteria: Scientific Panel on the Microbiome & Fermentation

2pm Chocolate: The Food of the Gods, Fermented with Carla Martin

3pm How Microbes Confer Health and Wellbeing with Maya Shetreat-Klein

The Role of Sour Pickles and Fermented Tonics in E. European Jewish Cuisine

Pickles may seem like a free side dish at the deli, but pickled vegetables like sauerkraut and sour tonics like beet kvass are in many ways a vital piece of the Eastern European Jewish culinary story. Join the chief pickler of The Gefilteria and co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods (Flatiron, 2016) to find out how the tradition of pickling, preserving and fermenting fruits and vegetables was a lynchpin to Jewish survival and nutrition. And learn how easy—and important—it is to make your own naturally fermented Jewish foods.

Jeffrey Yoskowitz fell in love with the art of lacto-fermentation while training as a pickler on an organic Jewish farm in the foothills of the Berkshires. He has since worked in the food world as an entrepreneur, consultant, cook, public speaker, and a writer for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, and Gastronomica. He was also featured in the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in food and wine. He is the co-owner of The Gefilteria, a culinary venture that reimagines Ashkenazi cuisine, and co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods (Flatiron, 2016).

Kick-Ass Kimchi

Get the scoop on kimchi and learn why your avocado toast will never be the same after you master the art of fermenting small batches of this Korean cuisine booster at home. Beyond the classic approach to kimchi—Chinese cabbage, garlic, ginger, radish, green onions and a Korean red pepper powder (gochugaru)—regional and seasonal variations can involve the addition of dried seafood, fish sauce, fruits, wild edibles and even other vegetables. Regardless of the variation, the health benefits of eating kimchi are consistent. It’s known to boost immune response with beneficial, live-cultured bacteria, help us digest other foods and make nutrients more available than if consumed raw. Attendees will learn the basics of making this fermented specialty food that goes well on just about anything, from cutting and prepping the veggies to free-styling with ingredients of your choosing.

Kate Payne is an author and freelance writer, and a frequent consultant for design, decor, cooking, and crafting publications and sites. She lives in Austin and teaches classes on food preservation, bitters and seasonal beverages, and other topics both privately and at culinary centers across the country. She recently launched Salud! Bitters, a Texas-inspired and regionally sourced small-batch bitters line found at saludbitters.com. Her books Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking (HarperCollins, 2011) and Hip Girl’s Guide to the Kitchen(HarperCollins, 2014) are available wherever books are sold. Read more about Kate on her blog and website.

How Microbes Confer Health and Wellbeing

Maya Shetreat-Klein, MD is a neurologist, herbalist, urban farmer, and author of The Dirt Cure: Growing Healthy Kids with Food Straight from Soil (Simon and Schuster, 2016), which has been translated into ten languages. She has been featured in the New York Times, The Telegraph, NPR's The People's Pharmacy, The Dr. Oz Show, and many others. Board certified in adult and child neurology as well as pediatrics, Dr. Maya completed the University of Arizona’s Fellowship in Integrative Medicine, and now serves on their faculty. In her book and her practice, she offers an integrative and spiritual approach to moving beyond chronic health and fertility problems. She also founded the Terrain Institute, where teaches Terrain Medicine™, an earth-based program for transformational healing.

Learn more at www.dirtcure.com or follow her at @DrMayaSK on social media.

Chocolate: The Food of the Gods, Fermented

Theobroma cacao, "the food of the gods," is the primary raw ingredient in chocolate. Cacao goes through a complex post-harvest process that includes fermentation. Come see and taste cacao at various stages of flavor development. Then compare with finished chocolate products that many know and love.

Carla D. Martin, PhD, is a social anthropologist with interdisciplinary interests that include history, agronomy, ethnomusicology, and linguistics. Her current research focuses on the politics of fine cacao and chocolate in global perspective, for which she has conducted fieldwork in West Africa, Latin America, North America, and Europe. Since 2011, she has maintained a scholarly blog on chocolate, culture, and the politics of food at Bittersweet Notes. Her writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in Transition Magazine, Social Dynamics, The Root,US History Scene, Sodade Magazine, Socio.hu, The Savannah Review, and edited volumes.

She lectures widely and has taught extensively in African and African American Studies, critical food studies, social anthropology, and ethnomusicology, and has received numerous awards in recognition of excellence in teaching. She also currently serves on the Editorial Board of Transition Magazine and on the Chocolate Committee for the Good Food Awards. She received her PhD in African and African American Studies in 2012, her MA in Social Anthropology in 2007, and her BA in Social Anthropology in 2003, all from Harvard University.

Tepache & Friends: Mexican Fermented Beverages

Discover some of the diverse and delicious fermented beverages of Mexico. You'll learn how to make and get to taste homemade tepache and learn about the process and tradition behind it and several other traditional ferments such as tejuino, colonche, tibicos, pulque, tequila & mezcal.

Adam Elabd is an educator in the fields of fermentation, natural healing and nutrition. Adam and his wife, Yiyi Mendoza, who is an accomplished ceramic artist, currently split their time between Egypt, Mexico and the United States. Apart from teaching public and private workshops all over the world, Adam is a published author with several ongoing projects in development. He is a practicing herbalist whose passion for fermentation, herbs, and health come together in every jar, crock and carboy. Adam’s style and technique are informed by his Egyptian descent and childhood in Saudi Arabia.

Since the recent release of a full length recipe book on fermentation, Fermenting Food Step-by-Step, Adam is conducting several research projects in the fields of traditional medicine, craft and food preparation for an upcoming series of ethnographic and instructional books. He is available for private and group workshops and consultations. All booking inquiries should be sent via thecontact page.

Adam received a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science from U.C. Riverside in 2011, Yoga Teacher Training RYT-500 Certificate from Western Yoga College in 2012 and is currently undergoing a Masters of Science in Human Nutrition at the University of Bridgeport, CT. His strong science background is complemented by a creative side which is expressed through music, organic gardening, and cooking.

The Redemption Story of Bacteria: Scientific Panel on the Microbiome & Fermentation

The more we look, the more important the wee beasties that live in us and on us appear to be. The “microbiome” is the term scientists use to describe the thriving ecosystem of microorganisms that live on our skin, in our guts, and just about everywhere else we’ve looked, and recent research has shown that they are incredibly important for human health, influencing everything from our immune system to our weight, even our mood.

This panel is moderated by Kevin Bonham, who researches how members of microbial communities share genetic information and blogs about science. In the panel, you will hear from:

- Christina Agapakis: creative director at Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism design company that is bringing biology to industrial engineering.

- Jasmina Aganovic: cosmetics and consumer goods entrepreneur at Mother Dirt who received her degree in chemical and biological engineering from MIT. Her unconventional path combined her technical background with roles at brands like LVMH, Fresh, NutraClick and Living Proof. She has extensive experience developing natural skincare products, brand-building, manufacturing partnerships, product launch strategy, digital advertising and direct sales.

- Chris DaCunha, Senior Bioprocess Engineer at Indigo Agriculture. Chris is an avid fermentation enthusiast who also happens to ferment things professionally. At Indigo he works within our Bioprocess team using fermentation technology to grow up large quantities of beneficial fungi and bacteria that are used by farmers to restore a healthy endophytic microbiome to crop plants