Stinkfest Queeeeeens AND Dillon T. Pickle! Left to right = Heidi Nestler of Wanpaku Natto, Dillon T. Pickle of the Portland Pickles, me and Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft. The Portland Fermentation Festival is our collective annual gift to Portland. Togetherness, community, culture and skill sharing year after stinky year!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2024 Redux

October 18, 2024

Last week’s 2024 Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust was so much fun! We filled the ground level Irving Street Studio space with our ferments, our curiosity, our hugs and laughter. It was so good to come together to celebrate, learn about and sample all things funky and fermented.

If you were a part in any way — thank you so much! Stinkfest has always been for the people by the people. There was a lot that made this year stand out, including the special Dillon T. Pickle (of the Portland Pickles) appearance, all of the incredibly informative demos throughout the night, dozens of wild and super flavorful special samples from the pro and amateur makers themselves, a special Japanese hakko bon odori dance and you. You made it special as an attendee.

I highly recommend checking out this radio spot that we did for OPB’s Think Out Loud with host Dave Miller pre-fest. It really gets to the heart and soul of the fest. And, if you’re feeling nostalgic, at the end of the post I’ve included links to recaps of every stinking one of our Stinkfests. Pretty fun to scroll through photos of those way-back-when ones.

This year we welcomed back the Starter Barter & Adoption Center where fest attendees bring a SCOBY, take a SCOBY, bring water kefir grains, take water kefir grains! I brought a bunch of my personal vinegar and kombucha SCOBYS, plus water kefir grains, all bagged up along with printed up recipes and info. plus Fermenter postcards. I co-authored Fermenter with Aaron Adams in fall 2023.

This year we also welcomed back the Bacterial Petting Zoo, helmed by the lovely Heather Arndt Anderson and conceived and organized by Claudia! Words simply do not do it justice. Scroll down to see the fizzy and fermenty critters.

Thank you to everyone who came out for our 2024 STINKFEST and made it so special and fun! We are incredibly grateful to everyone who makes our festival so fantastic year after year, including our host with the very most, Ecotrust. We couldn't do it without them. We love, love, love Ecotrust and their non-profit mission. Others who make our festival thrive year after year include our wonderful exhibitors, demo'rs, kick-ass volunteers and local media folks who always help us get the word out. And you! Our fest attendees are the very best. Photographic evidence below :)

In terms of social media, we have our fest Instagram + Facebook if you want to see more, and/or post or repost something. On social media please consider adding the hashtag #pdxfermentfest to any of your festival photos or vids. We’d love to see them.

And, once more, here’s a reminder of why we do what we do straight from our press release: The Portland Fermentation Festival is, and always has been, a non-commercial event. Once you purchase your ticket and enter the festival you will not be sold to. The wide array of food and drink ferments are not for sale, they are for sampling. The mission of festival has always been firmly rooted in no sales. Our one-night annual event fosters learning, connecting, communicating and celebrating fermentation with one another. We believe that transactional interactions often get in the way of that.

Ok, without further ado, some 2024 festival photos! Stay stinky! XOXOXO

P.S. I’m not giving photo credits here. Please just know that I took most of them and there are a few additional photos by Claudia Lucero and others.

**Year after stinky year, artist Tim Root makes us the most amazing Stinkfest posters. “Keep honk’n I’m ferment’n"!” Thank you, Tim!!**

We always get a really big and lovely crowd for our annual fest. This year we sold out in the AM day-of. I snapped this in the Ecotrust lobby at ticketing shortly after we opened the doors. Thank you to all who came out AND of our amazing ticketing table volunteers! Pictured here = Jonathan, Michelle and Loly. Later shifts ticketing table volunteer superstars not pictured here = Phoenix, Nancy and Ryan.

**The Starter Barter & Adoption Center getting nice and stocked up with all sorts of cultures — water kefir, vinegar, kombucha, sourdough starter and more — before the doors opened.**

**I always try to incubate and bag up a bunch of starters for the fest. They naturally reproduce, of course, but I fill jars with the primary intention to feed and grow them for fun fest folks.**

Yuri Migaki and Maki at the always incredible Jorinji Miso table. They brought soooo many different delicious samples this year including, of course, Jorinji’s tasty organic and non-GMO misos, their amazakes, and special for this year all sorts of tasty treats made with their onion koji. YUM!

Another fest tried-and-true, Nat West, REVEREND Nat West! Nat is running for City Council District #2 and he has my vote. 100%. I’m excited to see all that he does in our newly revamped City Council once elected this fall. Please vote! AND Nat sampled, as usual, a really gutsy and new-to-him, and most of us, ferment — chicken wing garum. Over the years , in addition to sampling his hard ciders (he owned Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider for many years) he’s also fermented up small batches of everything from kumis (Mongolian milk wine), chicha (a Latin American chewed and spit fermented corn beverage), makgeolli (Korean slightly effervescent rice wine), and his Angel of Death hard cider (cultured and flavored by fermented lamb leg) to share with fest-goers. We don’t give out Stinkfest awards but if we did Nat would certainly get the Longtime Fest Spirit Award. We love Nat.

Earnest Migaki of Jorinji Miso sampling Nat’s chicken wing garum right before we opened the doors. It was really nice that exhibitors got set up a little bit early this year, so that we could all visit with each other a bit, and sample each other’s ferments, before things got wild and busy. We have such a great community of exhibitors who Stinkfest it up year after year. It’s always a festive reunion feel as we all load in and set-up.

**Fest co-organizer, Heidi, snapped this photo of Nat at load-in. He had everything for the fest this year — including his table — all folded up and packed onto his bike.**

And then the crowd! We never get the best count — since kids 12 and younger get in for free and we also invite a lot of grocery buyers and media in gratis — but we’ll call our sold out 2024 fest about 500 fun ones. We have the best community! There was no talk or panel this year, which was nice for a bit more leisurely conversation. The tasting never felt rushed and everyone got to really connect and settle in to the night. I talked to people who traveled to the fest from near (Hood River, Ashland, Eugene) and as far as Boise, Idaho and Barbados.

Brian Shaw and his son, Jude, came into town from Hood River, as they always do, to sample up their Oregon Brineworks DELICIOUSNESS! Love that it was Jude’s second year in a row helping his Pops out at the tasting table. A true rainbow of incredible fermenty flavors.

Lovely Sash Sunday, of OlyKraut, also always travels to Portland for Stinkfest. She’s based in Olympia but right before the fest she was in Oaxaca, Mexico representing the US at their Oaxacan Fermentation Festival!! Also in attendance at that Oaxacan fest was David Zilber, who spoke at our 2019 Portland Fermentation Fest when he was promoting his The Noma Guide to Fermentation. Everything Sash ferments is so super-duper tasty. Another fest favorite.

Sash tabled right next to the Camellia Grove Kombucha folks and they were busy all night pouring their yummmmmy and award winning kombuchas. They said that they couldn’t pour enough of their Meadow kombucha fermented with chamomile, rose and linden flowers. Everyone was thirsty for it, including these two kiddos.

**Stinkfest Queen and co-organizer, Heidi Nestler, and her son, Ranmu, sampled out all sorts of Wanpaku Natto treats. I got to try the refried pinto bean natto, in the next photo, and LOVED it!!**

**A really sweet photo of Heidi and Ranmu that fest friend Kyoko Shinohara snapped. Thank you, Kyoko XOXO**

In the adjoining fest room — right off of the tasting hall — fest-goers got to stop by the Bacterial Petting Zoo! This station is the brilliant brainchild of fest co-organizer, Claudia Lucero. You can get up close and personal with all the microscopic critters responsible (along with us bigger human critters) for fermentation. It's a place to touch, sniff and ogle all sorts of cool food and drink fermentation cultures.

Our fest friend, Heather Arndt Anderson, overseeing the Bacterial Petting Zoo, with all sorts of fermentation wisdom. Here she’s showing a fest-goer how to stir and activate the biofilm of Japanese natto.

In the same room we had demos throughout the night including this 6:30pm one with Ryan Knowles of Vtopian Artisan Cheeses and The Realm Refillery all about how to make your own fermented cashew-base for all sorts of plant-based cheeses and sauces. Demos are a really great way to get armed with all of the info. you need to head home and DIY some ferments. They are all really empowering.

This year we welcomed back Mihoko Okamura (on the left) and her Bon Dance Picnic (they’re on Istagram) dancer friends. They did a really fun and inclusive traditional Japanese hakko bon odori dance…

**And a bunch of fest folks joined and danced with them. This dance was toward the end of the night when the crowd had significantly thinned. So fun!**

Mihoko also brought bottles of her Paradise Yeast (born in Fukushima before the earthquake, brought to Kanagawa, Japan to Paradise Alley Bread and combined with a 3+ million year-old Russian yeast) to share. I have one of the bottles of it in my garage fridge now that I am excited to use to make some hard cider with. That’s what Mihoko recommends using it for.

**AND Mihoko brought some of her home-fermented nukazuke! She also gets the Portland Fermentation Festival Fest Spirit Award 2024. So sweet.**

Fest-goers always spend a lot of time at the Jorinji Miso table because they always bring such an array of their Japanese fermented deliciousness. This year was no different. Did you try their onion koji potato soup? It was so yummy. I was starting to lose my voice a little bit from talking to so many folks, when the fest was at its most packed and loud, and Earnest and Yuri’s magical onion koji potato soup saved me. It brought my voice right back! Delicious.

Jimbo and I poured various Fizzy Lizzie Water Kefirs throughout the night. That’s just a fun name that I came up with for my DIY amateur fruited water kefirs that I make from all sorts of homemade syrups and shrubs. They are so fun and easy to make. It usually takes just a few days start to finish. I gave out recipes of my own and pointed folks to the Fermenter cookbook (and its water kefir recipe) that chef Aaron Adams and I did together that published in 2023. Jimbo and I poured my blackberry pear-ginger water kefir (blackberries from Sauvie Island and Bartletts from my frontyard tree), my raspberry orange-grapefruit water kefir (made from grapefruit and oranges from my Mom and Don’s Mesa, AZ backyard trees), my fruit punch water kefir (fermented with everything from spicy strawberry and blueberry, to pomegranate shrubs and syrups). Claudia snapped this photo of the apple of my eye — Jimbo. I wish I’d also gotten one with the two of us, but this one is great. Also, I chimed in about using leftover fruits on the Thanksgiving table for DIY fruited water kefirs for this Redfin article if you’re interested: **Creative Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes | Rent.**

Vtopian Artisan Cheeses’ Ryan Knowles and Kaylee before serving up hundreds of samples of their incredibly tasty plant-based cheeses. I had some of their butter as well as the brie and was really happy to table next to them because I got treats. Really special cheeses.

**Vtopian’s bloomy rind cashew aged Brie. Mmmmmmmmmm!**

Claudia always designs and prints a bunch of great fest signs that she puts up throughout the event space. This one lists everyone on it who tabled at the fest. Unfortunately Choi’s Kimchi and Careen Stoll didn’t make it this year, but all the others here were sampling and festing it up. And, Taelyn Lang is owner and fermenter of Tortuga Gordo fermented hot sauces. Ok, photos of more of our beautiful exbitors…

New to the fest this year were Matt Kedzie (pictured here) and Zena Walas (sadly not pictured here, she wasn’t at the table when I was in their zone snapping photos) of Starter Bread in St. Johns. I hope that they come back every year. Their slow-fermented breads are so, so good. They do weekly sourdough bread subscriptions!

**Starter Bread thing of beauty. Sourdough samples.**

**Also new this year, Chant Choi of Deulpul Kimchi vegan and GF kimchi. His kimchis (and chili oil) were so good I came back for more MORE than once. Really sweet and fun. Come back forevermore, Chant!**

On the other side of the tasting hall was sweetest Claudia Lucero, Stinkfest Queen and owner of Urban Cheesecraft. Claudia poured out samples of her lovely spiced whey horchata (check out her Cooking with Whey book!) throughout the night. I might have had more than one of this too…

My sweet friend + fest friend Loly Leblanc made a bunch of pickle pins for us this year. She and my friend Phoenix Rath have been doing this sort of pickle pin, barrette, necklace, etc., fun for many years. Fest spirit! Thank you, Loly!

Back to demos! At 7:30 Sarah Mooney, pictured here, demoed xinochondros — a Crete/Greek ferment made with soured milk (usually got or sheep milk) and coarsely ground wheat. I really wish I could have attended that one. I stopped by a few times and love all the note-taking and questions folks were asking.

Back in the tasting hall I got to catch up for a bit with longtime fest exhibitor Karel Vitek. I hope that you got to try his Stinging Kombucha fermented hot sauces because they are so complex and bright and full of life. Just like Karel!

The Obon crew putting together their koji tofu flavor bombs that they torched before serving to bring out even more umami. UMAMIIII! So goooooood! And so glad that they came out to fest it up the night before Jason and Humi’s early AM flight to Spain. It was really fun doing a KOIN AM Extra segment with Jason and Humi the week before the fest to shout out Stinkfest. Check it out if you didn’t get to see it. We talk all about their amazing ferments.

**Stinkfest is all about community and we LOVE how close Obon + Jorinji are. I snapped this early in the night before we opened the doors.**

**Aaaaaand had to get a shot of the whole Jorinji crew at their table too. The best. XOXO**

I’m not sure what year SakeOne joined the Stinkfest fun but it was a while back. They always bring a bunch of special pours for the fest. Which sake was your favorite that they poured this year? Hard to choose…

**We love Sascha Archer and her gorgeous + delicious Sauvie Island Shrubs. She always brings such a special array of the shrubs as well as other tasty bevvies made with them. Here’s Sydney pouring…**

**An array of them for lucky fest-goers. Rainbow of Sauvie Island Shrubs!**

New to the fest this year, were Brian and Kristina Wood of Bigfoot Hard Cider. I got to try a few of their yummy ciders including a very special, under the table pre-fest pour of an experimental FRUITY PEBBLES hard cider. Mind blown. So fun. Come back next year!

The last but not least demo of the night was the Fermentista Sarah Pesout and her easy to prep and ferment kraut at 8:30pm. It was packed and I bet more than a few attendees went home post-fest and tried their hand at her recipe. Sarah is really good at breaking all the steps down in a way that’s super DIY-friendly.

We love Taelyn Lang of Tortuga Gordo hot sauces! I got to try all of them, including his brand-spanking new small-batch Sunshine hot sauce. It was full of carrots and chiles and even though the sun had set an hour before or so I tried it, it was like sunrise inside. Bright, beautiful and I love it.

I’m so glad that Bert from Earth’s Robert Schmitt came to Stinkfest it up with us for the first time this year. His fermented hot sauces were pouring freely all night and they were delicious. And, HOT! Please come back next year, Bert!

And, to end where it sort of began = my car all packed up on fest-day afternoon and ready to head down to Ecotrust for yet another stinky, community-full, wild, funky and fun Portland Fermentation Festival. We love you! We hope you had as much fun as we did. We all make this Stinkfest what it is collectively, year after year. The best Stinkfest in the Pacific Northwest! We can definitely claim that ;)

Here are links to recaps of all of our past ten festivals here. All in one place. STAY STINKY!

2009 — this isn’t a recap (too busy during to snap photos!) but it gives you a feel for the very first Stinkfest.

Stinkfest Queeeeeen! Left to right = me, Heidi Nestler of Wanpaku Natto and Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft. We consider the Portland Fermentation Festival our collective gift to Portland. It’s a heck of a lot of work to put on our not-for-profit festival year after stinky year and the togetherness, community, culture and skill sharing that it fosters is 100% worth it. Year after stinky year!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2023 Redux

October 25, 2023 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Portland Chefs, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Weird, Kirsten Shockey, The Fermentation School

Our long-awaited 2023 Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust last week was absolutely fantastic. We filled our new ground level Irving Street Studio space and third floor rooftop with our wild and free stinky fun vibes. We hadn’t been able to gather for our fest since 2019, so after a three-year festival hiatus we were all so very happy to come together to celebrate, learn about and sample all things funky and fermented.

If you were a part in any way — thank you! Stinkfest has always been for the people by the people. There was a lot that made this year stand out, including the fact that we had our extra-special guest of honor Kirsten Shockey travel up to Portland from her southern Oregon farm home to kick-off the fest with an inspiring and empowering talk. We rolled out the sparkly green carpet for her and had so much fun. Thank you, Kirsten! We are so grateful.

I recorded Kirsten’s talk, demo and Q&A, and although it isn’t super great audio quality (I recorded it with my little journalist dig. recorder and there’s a good deal of background noise) and it starts a few minutes into our fest welcome plus introduction, it’s still a good ear-in for those fest attendees who want to re-listen and for those who couldn’t make it this year. Just click on the player below.

I also highly recommend checking out this fun short video that Mike Truong of All the Homies Network and Faint Media made of our last 2019 Stinkfest because he and his crew came to this year’s fest to shoot it and we’ll share the video from that on our socials once it’s completed. We’re excited about it. And, if you’re feeling nostalgic, at the end of the post I’ve included links to recaps of every stinking one of our Stinkfests. Pretty fun to scroll through photos of those way-back-when ones.

I love that we had yet another sun-shined-upon festival day and night. Strangely enough, even though our Portland festival is always held in the rainy fall, we always have beautiful weather for it. As I like to say, the sun always shines on Stinkfest! That makes the third floor rooftop of Ecotrust all the more magical on festival night.

On the rooftop for this year’s festival we had cider from Swift Cider, food from DesiPDX and music from DJ Jimbo (check out his festival playlist here — so good! And his Electric Avenue show on XRAY.FM). Dreamy.

Another festival standout this year was the return of the Fermentation Station, conceived by and organized by festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft. That station is always especially a hit with fest kids and, as always, kids 12 and younger get in for free. At the Fermentation Station this year, festival attendees got try their hand at making their very own dilly beans to jar up and take home to ferment. So sweet. I love that Stinkfest gets to be the annual event where so many Portlanders, of all ages, first try their hand at fermenting. All of the beans, salt and spices were so very kindly donated yet again by People's Food Co-op. Thank you, People's!

We also welcomed back the Starter Barter & Adoption Center where fest attendees bring a SCOBY, take a SCOBY, bring water kefir grains, take water kefir grains! I brought dozens of my personal vinegar and kombucha SCOBYS bagged up along with printed up recipes from my new cookbook Fermenter (!!). I co-authored Fermenter with Aaron Adams, who you’ll soon see in some of the tasting photos below.

This year we had a brand-spanking-new festival station helmed by the lovely Heather Arndt Anderson and conceived and organized by Claudia — the Bacterial Petting Zoo! Words simply do not do it justice. Scroll down to see the fizzy and fermenty critters.

Thank you to everyone who came out for our long awaited 2023 STINKFEST and made it so special and fun! We are incredibly grateful to everyone who makes our festival so fantastic year after year, including our host with the very most, Ecotrust. We couldn't do it without them. We love, love, love Ecotrust and their non-profit mission. Others who make our festival thrive year after year include our wonderful exhibitors, demo'rs, rooftop vendors, kick-ass volunteers and local media folks who always help us get the word out. And you! Our fest attendees are incomparable. Photographic evidence below :)

If you didn't check out any of the festival coverage this year, I highly recommend tuning into the pre-fest Stinkfest Queens radio spot on KBOO with Ken Jones. We brought Ken different ferments that we got to enjoy after the segment — co-organizer Heidi Nestler’s Wanpaku Natto, my homemade dandelion wine and some garlicky Fermenter cookbook Sour Dills. Oh and we really loved this Portland Mercury article too.

In terms of social media, we have our fest Instagram + Facebook and Twitter if you want to see more, and/or post or repost something. On social media please consider adding the hashtag #pdxfermentfest to any of your festival photos or vids. We’d love to see them.

And, once more, here’s a reminder of why we do what we do straight from our press release: The Portland Fermentation Festival is, and always has been, a non-commercial event. Once you purchase your ticket and enter the festival you will not be sold to. The wide array of food and drink ferments are not for sale, they are for sampling. We will have hard cider and food to purchase as respite on the rooftop, but the mission of festival has always been firmly rooted in no sales. Our one-night annual event fosters learning, connecting, communicating and celebrating fermentation with one another. We believe that transactional interactions often get in the way of that.

Ok, without further ado, some 2023 festival photos! Stay stinky! XOXOXO

P.S. I’m not giving photo credits here. Please just know that I took most of them and there are additional photos by Claudia Lucero and others.

Year after stinky year, artist Tim Root makes us the most amazing fest posters. This year’s is so good. I love that Kirsten is holding a crock filled with her books and all the weird and wacky colorful details throughout — Fermentation Station dilly beans jar, natto sample, all the eager and fun folks. Thank you, Tim!!

Everyone seated and ready for our Stinkfest Queens festival welcome to all and then Kirsten Shockey’s talk plus Q&A!

Kirsten talked attendees through all sorts of fermentation adventures and experiments, including a lot about international techniques for dehydrating and then fermenting veggies from Indonesia to Nepal to Japan. Super inspiring. And she brought some of her delicious mustardy fermented achar to share.

After the talk we all stacked chairs and made room for the big and wild festival tasting. AND Kirsten signed books for the long line of folks eager to meet her and get various copies of her books signed. And when they did so they got to try some of that yummy achar that she made and brought.

The Fermentation Station was a huge hit yet again this year! Folks got to make their very own small jar of dilly beans to then take home and ferment thanks to a generous donation from People’s Food Co-op. For many, this is their very first time fermenting something. So fun! Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who made this station happen.

Beloved fest volunteer Gwynie, and dear friend of Claudia’s, working the Fermentation Station, with its jarred dilly beans, ohhhhh with a couple green beans hanging from her shirt tassels. Stinkfest humor :)

Let the tasting begin! So happy to have Eleni Woldeyes from Eleni’s Kitchen sampling her Ethiopian injera this year. Super tasty as are all of her sauces and spices. Next to Eleni, in the background, are the good folks from Obon. Obon chef-owners Humi and Jason — longtime fest friends and rooftop vendors — were in Japan during the fest this year but they sent these two lovelies to sample some of their misos. AND this is the only good photo I got of them — in the background! Not for lack of love for Obon that’s for sure…

I snapped this photo of my dear friends Earnest and Yuri Migaki, plus the whole Jorinji Miso fest crew, before Kirsten’s talk and the tasting. They brought soooo many tasty treats to sample at this year’s Stinkfest including my very VERY favorite locally made misos and…

All of these incredible amazakes that they make! I loved them all so much especially the black sesame.

Fast forward an hour to and hour or so later and their table was mobbed! Everyone loves Jorinji Miso!!!

Right after Kirsten’s talk we welcomed Mihoko Okamura and her dancers for a participatory — open to all — traditional Japanese Hakko Bon Odori dance. This song and dance was so sweet and celebratory and I’m really glad that I got to join in. I’d never heard of this Japanese fermentation dance before and now I will seek it out with Mihoko. Her Bon Odori group is often at the PSU Portland Farmers Market by the way, when weather permits — so more in the spring and summer. You can follow them on Instagram at Bon Dance Picnic PDX.

On the beautiful Ecotrust rooftop later in the evening with Mihoko and her Hakko Bon Odori friends and family! The best.

Back in the tasting hall on the ground level folks enjoyed all sorts of spicy and not so spicy fermented treats from Ashley Tenud’s The Good Pickle — pickles, hot sauces and more. It was Ahsley’s first time tabling at the fest and we hope he comes back every year. Such a big heart and we really love all that he’s doing with The Good Pickle by fostering fermentation in the community with his fermentation mentorships for kids. Thank you, Ashley!

And this year’s Stinkfest Spirit Award goes to these sweet folks (we don’t really have awards, but if we did…) who really embraced the fest no-sales + DIY + skill share ethic. They brought a couple bottles of their home fermented guava-mango juice to the fest to share. It was so yummy! They set up next to the Bacterial Petting Zoo and poured out samples for anyone wanting to try it. Love this so very much.

Speaking of the Bacterial Petting Zoo! The lovely Heather Arndt Anderson helmed this new station for us this year that Claudia dreamed up and devised. Folks got to ohh and ahh, and sniff and touch, and get up close and personal with all sorts of food and drink cultures. I think we should have this every year now. So informative and fun. Thank you, Heather!!

More fest family here — the good folks from Choi’s Kimchi. We really missed having Matt at the fest this year, but were so happy to have the Choi’s Kimchi family in-house sampling up their awesome kimchis. I worked closely with Chong and Matt Choi for Chong’s Pork & Kimchi Mandu recipe that’s in my cookbook, Dumplings Equal Love, that came out in 2020 during the pandemic. Their kimchis are my very favorite and I love the Choi family. Please look into the Matthew Choi Farmers Market Vendor Grant and consider applying or donating XOXO

Brian Shaw and his family and kiddos set up next to Choi’s with their rainbow of super tasty veggie ferments. I’m always so happy sample all the deliciousness that is Oregon Brineworks and to see them in more and more Portland markets. I’m so grateful that they travel from Hood River to Portland year after year for Stinkfest. It’s a family affair.

We were very happy to host first-time fester Ona Yogurt this year! Clare McLeod’s dairy-free Greek yogurt is super tasty and she brought a bunch of flavors to sample including mixed berry, lemon curd, chai spice and plain.

Another first timer at this year’s fest was Ryan Knowles of The Realm Refillery and Vtopian Artisan Cheeses. Their plant-based cheeses are so, so good. AND there are some very exciting things are on the horizon for Vtopian in SE Portland, so keep your ears and eyes open for the exciting news from them.

Very cute photo of Ryan and Kirsten that Claudia snapped at the end of the night. Kirsten’s holding a lovely little wedge of Vtopian Cheese that she took home to southern Oregon to enjoy. Mmmmmm.

Another fest fave! Soma Kombucha always brings it with a wide array of their sparkly lovely bevvies — komucha, jun and more. Check out their SE Belmont and Vancouver WA taprooms!

We had two super popular fermentation demos at the fest this year. I snapped this one of Sarah Pesout aka The Fermentista right before her fun and empowering DIY kraut demo. Dozens bee-lined for it to learn from the one and only Fermentistaaaaaaa.

James Vergara also hosted a very special demo later in the evening. James demo’d two Filipino ferments in celebration of Filipino American History Month — bagoong alamang (fermented shrimp/krill paste) and atchara (fermented green papaya). I love how many people I saw throughout the night taking notes at the festival. Exciting to think of all the home ferments that will fizz and come to be from knowledge gained at Stinkfest.

I really loved stopping by the Fermenter table throughout the night. It’s so great to have our *Fermenter* cookbook out in the world now (it came out a month ago! That’s the blown-up cover of it on the table) so that folks can make all the yummy ferments in it, including the super tasty and sparkly water kefirs that chef Aaron Adams and Josh Curtiss sampled at Stinkfest.

My sweet friend Elise sampling the sparklyyyyyy lovely Fermenter apple-fennel water kefir.

In addition to Aaron and Josh sampling Fermenter’s water kefir, I bagged up dozens of vinegar mothers and kombucha SCOBYs along with printouts of Fermenter cookbook vinegar and kombucha recipes for fest attendees to take home and DIY with. I loved growing a whole bunch of them for the fest and plan to do this again next year. They went fast!

Tabling next to Fermenter helloooooo Taelyn Lang of Tortuga Gordo Hot Sauces! I loved sampling Taelyn’s award winning sauces. I call myself a Stinkfest Queen AND a Condiment Queen, and I especially love tart and fiery fermented hot sauce like his.

As always, the third floor Ecotrust rooftop was magical. Cider by Swift Cider, Indian food from DesiPDX and music by DJ Jimboooo. Beautiful moon by beautiful moon ;)

Swift Cider founder himself, Aidan Currie, was serving up his delicious ciders on the roof. So many that he sold out! It was a beautiful night and getting to enjoy a delicious local hard cider on the rooftop, under the moon while cozy by the outdoor fire, was a real treat and fest highlight for many folks. Maybe you?

And DesiPDX delivered some super tasty rooftop comfort food love with their awesome Indian curries, dal and chai. So tasty.

Three of our volunteer superstars catching a much deserved Desi-PDX fueling break! Left to right = Gwynie, Anna Marie and Chris. These dear friends of Claudia’s kicked ASS for hours at the Fermentation Station — helping folks put together their jars of dilly beans — before they got to sit down for a minute of peace and enjoy some tasty chickpea snacks and dal. Thank you so much Gwynie, Anna Maria and Chris!

My friend Thia bounding up to me toting a bottle of her homemade fig vinegar for me to try. It was delicious! This is a really fun aspect of Stinkfest — the sharing, trading and sampling of home ferments that folks bring with them. You don’t have to have a table or demo at the fest to share your creations.

Back down at the ground level, I want to give a quick full-of-love shout out to some of our rad ticketing table volunteers! We coudn’t do the fest without these fine folks or...

Our late shift ticketing table superstars XOXOXO THANK YOU!

Back in the tasting hall we were stoked to have Matisse from Britt’s Pickles tonging up barrel-fermented deliciousness throughout the tasting. Years ago I first tried Britt’s Pickles at Pike Place Market in Seattle (they’re made out on Whidbey Island) and was so happy I did. They’re SO GOOD! I gave the person working the Britt’s stand that day my card and said, “If you’re ever in Portland, come to Stinkfest!” Aaaaand fast forward to now and they’re distributed in Portland! This was their first year stinking it up with us.

Karel Vitek has been tabling at the festival for years and years and it’s always such a treat to see him and sample his delicious fermented Stinging Kombucha Hot Sauces. I even got to see his wife Monica and their daughter for a second as they dropped off a couple things for Karel. Thank you for all that you do, Karel!

Who loves Wanpaku Natto? I dooooooo! I’m so glad to be a Stinkfest Queen with co-organizer Heidi Nestler — Wanpaku Natto founder-owner. I may have had more than one of her natto samples. I mean…

And Stinkfest Queen and co-organizer Claudia Lucero, like me, had to be a bunch of places at once throughout the fest (Queen BEES were buzzing all around) so her sweet friend Erica (who volunteered and helped us out all night in so many ways) spent some time tabling for her and serving up Claudia’s yum yum yummy Wheymonade. Claudia has a few books published including her most recent one *Cooking with Whey* that I highly recommend.

Right next to Urban Cheesecraft’s table was Dan Dees tonging up his homemade rendition of the long lost and much loved Portland-proud Neusihin sour dills. I sadly never got a photo of Dan and he left early, so I’m using this placeholder of Sarah Neusihin, whose Depression-era pickles Dan Dees so sweetly brought back to life and sampled at Stinkfest. Thank you, Dan! I’m so sorry that I didn’t snap a photo of you and your delicious pickles! If anyone *did* snap a photo of him at Stinkfest please email it/them to us at pdxfermentfest@gmail.com and we can use that here pretty please!

I snapped this one of Jon Westdahl just one table over early in the night. His Squirrel & Crow split pea tempeh chips were super tasty and so unique. YUM!

My friends Rachel and Pia enjoying them :)

So sweet that our super special honorary guest speaker Kirsten Shockey got to meet so many of the fine folks exhibiting and demoing at Stinkfest this year. Love this joyous photo of her and Sash Sunday of OlyKraut chatting it up. Sasha has been a part of the fest just about every year, if not every year, and it’s always so great to see her. Everything she ferments is incredible and we love her and OlyKraut.

Snapped this one right after the last photo! Low light and lots of movement = blurrrrrrr. Anyway, if you are looking for a gorgeous and durable crock and weights then Careen Stoll has got you covered. She’s been showcasing her gorgeous wares — Luscious Porcelain — at the fest for years.

Ohhhh look who I ran into!! David Barber. Od Briney himself! David, George Winborn and I started this ferment festival waaaay back when in 2009. So glad that David was able to make it this year and bring the whole family along for the fun this year. Somehow our get-ups always go so perfectly together — like we planned it. Years ago, a writer for some publication called our trio — David, George and me — “dapper foodists” and that made us laugh has stuck with us. Just a couple of dapper foodist dear old friends at Stinkfest I guess.

Did you try this?? I loved it and all the other shrubs and shrub concoctions from Sascha Arhcer of Sauvie Island Shrubs. Perfect cozy fall sipper.

Sascha chatting it up with Stinkfesters who loved it as much as I did.

Fest friend for life = SakeOne! So many good sake pours for Stinkfesters this year. We’re so happy that you came out for Stinkfest.

Aaaaand, that’s a wrap! This photo was snapped at the very end of the night of us Stinkfest Queens (left to right me Liz Crain, Heidi Nestler & Claudia Lucero) with extra special honorary guest speaker Kirsten Shockey. We were all so tired and happy and a good deal slap-happy. This was after we hauled out all the trash, compost and recycling, putting away all the tables and chairs and loaded up everything. TIRED! And so happy. Cheers to yet another incredible Portland Fermentation Festival! We did it! We love you!

My morning-after-Stinkfest very handsome cup of SUPER STRONG joe! It was a little hard to wake up after such a long and exhausting day and night of the fest, but I felt so happy and grateful for life and for Stinkfest when I did.

After that, we Queens and Kirsten got ourselves a very special lunch at Fermenter, thanks to Aaron and Josh! We celebrated Stinkfest and Kirsten, ate our way through much of the kick-ass menu and relaxed and caught up for a couple lovely hours. After that, Aaron gave Kirsten and us Queens a tour of the belly of the beast — Fermenter’s and Workshop’s fermentation chambers. And after that, MARC MARON walked into the restaurant! For real! We swooned over Maron for a bit, gave him a signed copy of the Fermenter cookbook, and then returned to swooning over Kirsten before she set off on her several hour journey back home. Thank you for everything, Kirsten! We miss you already. We are forever grateful that you helped us revive our beloved Stinkfest! After our too long three-year pandemic hiatus. We love you.

Here are links to recaps of all of our past ten festivals here. All in one place. STAY STINKY!

2009 — this isn’t a recap (too busy during to snap photos!) but it gives you a feel for the very first Stinkfest.

Me + Deb Perelman with her newest cookbook — Smitten Kitchen Keepers — at Powell’s right before I pinched myself. I am the luckiest duck. *Photo courtesy of Kevin Sampsell — thank you Kevin!

Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen Keepers Powell’s Books Event

January 31, 2023 in Cookbooks, Homemade Food, Powell's Books, Powell's

Getting to be “in conversation” with Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen at Powell’s Books last week was a dream come true. I've been a fan of Deb's since waaaay back when. I was even lucky enough to get to interview her about her blog and food writing in 2007, just a year after she started Smitten Kitchen. At the Powell’s event I asked her about that interview from way back when, and she actually remembered it, which made me so happy. I also got to read one of her answers from that interview (so sweet and thoughtful) to everyone and then ask her the very same question now 15 years later. Her new book, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, is a KEEPER! I love it so much. You’ll see just how much below.

Over the years, I’ve moderated a lot of these sort of one-on-one book events at Powell’s, for Portland Book Festival, for the Portland Fermentation Festival, for the Tokyo Fermentation Future Forum. And I genuinely love doing it. Yes, it always makes me a bit nervous, it’s public speaking after all, but getting to be in conversation with my food heroes, and to help get the word out about their latest and greatest books and projects, is a huge honor and my great pleasure. For Powell’s, I’ve been lucky enough “in conversation” with Mark Bittman, Dana Cowin, Sandor Ellix Katz many times in-person and virtual, Marisa McClellan, Cecily Wong, Steven Raichlen and others. And now Deb Perelman!

This event is one of my very favorites and they’ve all been excellent. Oh my goodness, the DEBHEADS came out in masses! 30 minutes before the event Powell’s was at capacity. Hundreds were turned away, and many of those who were went downstairs to the red room where they broadcasted the event. I’ve never attended a more packed Powell’s book event. Never ever. A lot of folks who wanted to be in the room, or be at the event at all, asked me with their fingers crossed if the event was recorded. Well, yes, it was! I always audio record the Powell’s events and then I usually post them here after if the author wants me to. Thankfully they’ve always wanted me to. It’s nice for me to have keepsakes of these super special events on the blog here. I used to post here about all sorts of food and drink culture things regularly. Now I only do so for special events like this.

So, here you go. For your listening pleasure…

I’ve cooked so many delicious things from Smitten Kitchen Keepers already. If you want to see some of the yummiest things, they’re all on my Instagram as well below in this post when you scroll down. Oh and I also got to do this fun AM Northwest segment a couple weeks ago to help promote the Smitten Powell’s event. Not that it needed ANY promoting.

I love that the morning after the Powell’s event I got to give Deb various breakfast recommendations at her request. I recommended several really yummy and fun spots and she ended up at Broder Nord, which I love. She really dug it too. Ok, onto the photos…

So many DEBHEADS at Deb’s Smitten Kitchen Keepers + Powell’s event! *Photo courtesy of Katie Mehan — thank you Katie!

Deb made us all laugh a lot throughout the night with her candor and stories. So funny and so generous. It was a really intimate event and I’m certain that everyone who attended left feeling energized by it. I really loved Deb’s last meal answer at the end of the event during audience Q&A by the way. I want that meal! *Photo courtesy of Katie Mehan — thank you Katie!

Deb signed hundreds of her books before I arrived and she personalized them after the event as people lined up in groups, as if boarding a plane. *Photo courtesy of Katie Mehan — thank you Katie!

I arrived about 20 minutes before the event and this is where I found Deb — upstairs in the stockroom smiling and signing books with the Powell’s lovelies including Kevin Sampsell to Deb’s left.

I made this *Smitten Kitchen Keepers* Farro Salad with Roasted Tomatoes with my slow-roasted olive oily summer garden tomatoes (from the freezer) and it was delicious. I love it on its own or with salad or frittata or something else that’s yummy for a meal.

These Thick Molasses Spice Cookies in the book are also incredible! You might think you’ve under baked them but trust Deb’s steps 100 percent. She is always looking out for her readers.

Oh my goodness this Clam Chowder with Bacon Croutons from the book is sooooo good. I ate it over the course of a few days when I was out at the coast recently. I love that you add the bacon when serving it so that it doesn’t get overcooked and flabby. YUM!

My boyfriend Jimbo and I both love the book’s Creamy Tomato Chickpea Masala. Don’t skimp on the heavy cream! You’re worth it.

It was such a lovely day when this book arrived on my doorstep mid-December. Lucky me! Smitten Kitchen Keepers is a KEEPER!

Thank you so very much Deb & Powell’s for this super special event! And thanks to everyone who came out for it.

Purchase Deb’s Smitten Kitchen Keepers XOXO

David Zilber and Stinkfest co-organizer Heidi Nestler right before our festival toast with Reverend Nat’s New Moon Mandarin hard cider. You can see my boot (and check out David’s boots!!) and the cider toast tray for our kick-off toast on the left ;… — David Zilber and Stinkfest co-organizer Heidi Nestler right before our festival toast with Reverend Nat’s New Moon Mandarin hard cider. You can see my boot (and check out David’s boots!!) and the cider toast tray for our kick-off toast on the left ;) Such a sweet photo.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2019 Redux

October 31, 2019

Our 10th annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust was a dream come true and if you were a part in any way — thank you! Stinkfest has always been for the people by the people. There was a lot that made this year stand out, including the fact that we had our extra-special guest of honor David Zilber from Noma Copenhagen travel all the way to Portland to kick-off and speak at the festival! Thank you David! We are so grateful. I recorded the talk and although it isn’t great audio quality (I just recorded it with my little journalist dig. recorder) and starts a minute or so in, it’s still really nice to hear for those who were in the audience and also those who couldn’t attend. Just click on the audio player below. I also highly recommend checking out this fun short video that Mike Truong of Faint Media made of this year’s Stinkfest! And, if you’re feeling nostalgic, at the end of the post I’ve included links to recaps of every stinking one of our Stinkfests. Pretty fun to scroll through photos of those way-back-when ones.

We are super duper grateful for John and Renee Gorham for bringing David Zilber to Portland for their La Ruta PDX chefs-in-residence series. We are a by-the-bootstraps, not for profit festival so we only had an honorarium for David. John and Renee flew David out and put him up so that he could be a part of a very special Plaza del Toro dinner the night before the festival. Chefs, cooks and other folks from all of John and Renee’s restaurants worked for months on an incredibly inspired dinner that featured Noma ferments from the cookbook with their creative input and Pacific Northwest and international twists. It was incredible and we are so grateful.

I love that we had yet another sun-shined-upon festival day and night. Strangely enough, even though our Portland festival is always set in the rainy fall, we always have beautiful weather for it. That makes the rooftop of Ecotrust all the more magical on festival night. On the rooftop during this year’s festival, just as last year, we had music from DJ Jimbo (check out his festival playlist here), cider from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and food from Obon. What a dream.

Thank you so very much to all of the inspiring and generous folks who traveled all the way from Japan this year to be a part of our festival including the good folks from Kombucha Ship, Kitchen Nippon (check out Machiko’s new book!) and Koji Akademia!

Another festival standout this year was the return of the Fermentation Station, organized by festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft. At the Fermenation Station, festival attendees got try their hand at making their very own veggie ferment that they could take home to ferment. So sweet. All of the veggies and salt were so very kindly donated again by People's Food Co-op. Thank you People's!

Thank you to everyone who came out for our tenth annual STINKFEST and made it so special and fun! We still haven’t fully reconciled but I’m guessing that there were nearly 700 of you! We are incredibly grateful to everyone who makes our festival so fantastic year after year, including our host with the very most, Ecotrust. We couldn't do it without them. We love, love, love Ecotrust and their non-profit mission. Others who make our festival thrive year after year include our exhibitors, demo'rs, attendees, rooftop vendors, kick-ass volunteers and local media folks who always help us get the word out. Thank you to Broadway Books for coming to the fest this year and selling David’s books — The Noma Guide to Fermentation and You and I Eat the Same.

My friends Phoenix Rath and Loly Leblanc made us super cute Shrinky Dink pickle pins this year, photographed below, in celebration of our 10th fest. Loly and Phoenix have made us cute fest pins for the past several years’ festivals. You can see the one that they made that I sent to Athens, Georgia, to our incredible festival poster artist Tim Root below ;)

If you didn't check out any of the festival coverage this year, I highly recommend this Stinkfest Queens radio spot on KBOO with Ken Jones. We brought Ken different ferments that we all enjoyed after the segment — including co-organizer Heidi Nestler’s Wanpaku Natto, all sorts of yummy cheeses +++ from Claudia Lucero’s Urban Cheesecraft and my homemade shoyu, miso, plum wine and Noma’s fermented chanterelles. Oh and all three of these Portland Monthly articles are great too — pre-fest, highlights, Noma recipe. Also, thank you Meg Cotner of Bridgetown Bites for this excellent photo-full post from the festival!

In terms of social media, we have our festival Facebook and Twitter if you want to see more, and/or repost something. On social media please consider adding the hashtag #pdxfermentfest to your festival photos. We’d love to see them.

And, once more, here’s a reminder of why we do what we do from our 2019 press release: The Portland Fermentation Festival is, and always has been, a non-commercial event. Once you purchase your ticket and enter the festival you will not be sold to. The wide array of food and drink ferments are not for sale, they are there to sample. We will have hard cider and food to purchase as respite on the rooftop but the mission of festival has always been firmly rooted in no sales. Our one-night, annual event fosters learning, connecting, communicating and celebrating fermentation with one another. We believe that transactional interactions often get in the way of that.

Ok, without further ado, some 2019 festival photos! Stay stinky! XOXOXO

P.S. I’m not giving photo credits here because there are too many that I’m unsure of. Please just know that I took a lot of them and there are additional photos by Claudia Lucero, Heidi Nestler, Earnest Migaki, Kantaro Oizumi, Machiko Tateno, Justin Potts and I think that’s it.

Tim Root’s amazing festival poster for our 2019 10th annual festival! This is one of my all-time favorite posters he’s made for us. Hot dog dog! Hard cider stool! Music to Pickle By! Ferment Lament!

All three of us Stinkfest Queens thanking everyone for coming out for the 10th annual festival right before our fest toast and David’s talk. Thank you to Meg Cotner of Bridgetown Bites for the photo!

David’s talk was so generous and full of inspiring and detailed stories about Noma, fermentation around the world, new flavor frontiers and why the ancient art of fermentation is crucial to our survival.

Happily captive audience ;) taken right before the talk.

Stinkfest Queens Claudia, Heidi and I with David Z the night before at the Plaza del Toro fermentation dinner. So special.

Trent Finlay of Toro Bravo Inc. took this one after the Plaza dinner and Q&A. So many amazing ferments!! Thank you John and Renee Gorham for bringing David Zilber to Portland!

One more of David during his talk. So good.

And then the first tasting began! Soooo many people, so many ferments, so many flavors, so much fun!

Sash Sunday and her super tasty array of krauts, sauces and brines. We love Sasha.

Koji Akademia brought all sorts of koji all the way from Japan to sample!

Koji Akademia’s super fun and informative Justin Potts and Nakaji Tomoyuki.

Broadway Books broads Kim and Megan so kindly sold David’s books to festival goers. So grateful.

My friends Earnest and Yuri Migaki of Jorinji Miso managed to get one and get it signed by David while they were setting up for the festival. Earnest and Yuri are an integral part of Stinkfest. We love them and Jorinji Miso!

Throughout the night we had demos on the mezzanine. Here’s Dave Selden off 33 Books Co. giving his hard cider demo. So much good info. and really yummmmmmy cider!

The Fermentation Station also was hopping all night on the Ecotrust mezzanine. Here’s awesome volunteer chef Jami Flatt of The Nines and sake sommelier and shochu advisor Miyuki Yoshida putting together a DIY jar of kraut.

So many people got to try their hand at making kraut this year thanks to People’s Food Co-op, our wonderful, seemingly tireless volunteers and Stinkfest Queen Claudia Lucero who organized it.

Festival friends and superstar volunteers Kyoko Shinohara and her daughter Shiori also making kraut :)

Stinkfest Queen aka co-organizer Claudia Lucero at her Urban Cheesecraft table. So many tasty treats! Her cow’s milk cheese cultured with fig sap was a really cool fest treat. I think it was a first for most who tried it. Everything Claudia makes is… — Stinkfest Queen aka co-organizer Claudia Lucero at her Urban Cheesecraft table. So many tasty treats! Her cow’s milk cheese cultured with fig sap was a really cool fest treat. I think it was a first for most who tried it. Everything Claudia makes is delicious.

Camellia Grove sampled their delicious kombuchas — a couple of which we hadn’t tried. YUM!

Our good friends from Kombucha Ship returned from Tokyo for Stinkfest this year with suitcases full of kombucha! Really! They brought their original and yuzu. I am hooked on the yuzu. I hope we can get their kombucha stocked in Portland soon.

Kaz slinging Kombucha Ship to thirsty fest folks!

And travelling to Stinkfest, but not quite as long of a journey, yet again — Brian Shaw of Oregon Brineworks in Hood River. A rainbow of a spread of ferments as always. So tasty.

The Ecotrust rooftop was beautiful all night with the strung lights, fireplace and food and drink from Obon and Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider and music by my fine fellow DJ Jimbo. It’s always a great spot to get away from the intensity and crowd down at… — The Ecotrust rooftop was beautiful all night with the strung lights, fireplace and food and drink from Obon and Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider and music by my fine fellow DJ Jimbo. It’s always a great spot to get away from the intensity and crowd down at the main 2nd floor tastings.

Another view of the beautiful Ecotrust rooftop later in the evening…

Our good friends from Obon — Fumiko and Jason — served up delicious Japanese comfort food on the roof all night.

Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider — my favorite!! — is also always perched on the roof with all sorts of yummy ciders. A lot of people drank them by the fire.

Aaaaand Reverend Nat himself and his wife Sarah were sampling in the main tasting hall all night as well. Nat is considered a festival king since he always tries his hand at an interesting new ferment for the festival. Something he’s never made befo… — Aaaaand Reverend Nat himself and his wife Sarah were sampling in the main tasting hall all night as well. Nat is considered a festival king since he **always** tries his hand at an interesting new ferment for the festival. Something he’s never made before. This year he made amazake with koji sourced from Earnest and Yuri of Jorinji Miso. Slightly sweet and delicious. They added a pinch of grated ginger to the top when serving it.

Here’s Machiko Tateno (who traveled to Portland all the way from Tokyo for Stinkfest!) trying it. She loved it!

Machiko with Kaoru Shibata at their Kitchen Nippon table with all sorts of Japanese ferments. While Machiko was in town for the launch of her first cookbook in English, pictured here, she also did a Powell’s event with Stinkfest co-organizer Heidi N… — Machiko with Kaoru Shibata at their Kitchen Nippon table with all sorts of Japanese ferments. While Machiko was in town for the launch of her first cookbook in English, pictured here, she also did a Powell’s event with Stinkfest co-organizer Heidi Nestler. We’re so grateful that Machiko and Kaoru came back to our festival for the second year in a row!

Fun and inspiring demo’s continued throughout the night on the mezzanine. Here’s Sarah Mooney demo’ing her xinochondros — a sour Greek fermented goat milk and bulgur wheat paste. — Fun and inspiring demo’s continued throughout the night on the mezzanine. Here’s Sarah Mooney demo’ing her *xinochondros* — a sour Greek fermented goat milk and bulgur wheat paste.

We love Tabor Bread! Long fermented, artisanal, local, house-milled grains deliciousness.

A close-up of some of their beautiful breads. Whenever I’m near Mt. Tabor I like to stop by and grab a loaf or two.

Chef Aaron Adams of Farm Spirit and Fermenter with his hazlenut cheese and ruby kraut on knaekbrod with caraway leaves. As beautiful as it was delicious.

The Eggurt crew was in attendence with their dairy-free, egg white yogurt drink that is really unusual and tasty. You can find it at New Seasons Markets, Uwajimaya, Food Front and other local markets.

Here are some of the super fun and colorful Shrinky Dink pickle pins that Loly and Phoenix made for festival friends at this year’s festival. I got a jar of pickled beets pin. Love, love, love that they make these every year. So sweet. I mean, so sa… — Here are some of the super fun and colorful Shrinky Dink pickle pins that Loly and Phoenix made for festival friends at this year’s festival. I got a jar of pickled beets pin. Love, love, love that they make these every year. So sweet. I mean, so salty ;)

So glad that I got to try Tobias Hogan’s ginger beer! It is fizzy and spicy and full of fermenty zing. I’d been looking forward to trying it for awhile.

I made these fermented chanterelles based on The Noma Guide to Fermentation recipe for boletes/porcini. I didn’t sample them at the fest but I wanted to include them in this post (that’s their brine on the right) because they are so yummy! You can f… — I made these fermented chanterelles based on *The Noma Guide to Fermentation* recipe for boletes/porcini. I didn’t sample them at the fest but I wanted to include them in this post (that’s their brine on the right) because they are so yummy! You can find the recipe in the Portland Monthly story linked above in the intro. I highly recommend making them. Now I’m steeping some of them in maple syrup and I’m going to dehydrate them into sweet and sour little woodsy treats, also in the book!

Stinkfest Queen Heidi Nestler at her Wanpaku Natto table! She served up natto beans on toast (prepared like baked beans!) and natto mixed with rice and kimchi. Heidi’s natto is the best I’ve ever had. Love it.

Soma Kombucha’s Jean-Pierre Parent always brings a wide array of fizzy flavorful kombuchas. Such a treat.

And this year Soma tabled with Ferm Fatale’s Julie Cielo sampling her Shrub-buchas in all sorts of classic cocktail flavors.

I took this as the second tasting was winding down and then I snapped most of the rest of the photos. A lot of the night I was running around checking on the ticketing table, checking on David Zilber, visiting the rooftop etc. so that I didn’t get a… — I took this as the second tasting was winding down and then I snapped most of the rest of the photos. A lot of the night I was running around checking on the ticketing table, checking on David Zilber, visiting the rooftop etc. so that I didn’t get a lot of portraits of fermenters until the end. At least I got to everyone. Such a special festival.

Karel Vitek of Stinging Hot Kombucha. I always have a bottle of this in my kitchen. Love it!! You can buy it at New Seasons Markets, People’s Food Co-op and other spots around town.

So many tasty shrubs! This was the first year that Sauvie Shrubs was at Stinkfest. They have a SHRUB CSA!

Same with David Platt of Bloom Kombucha! We got to have a couple crazy good cocktails made from his kombucha at the David Zilber Plaza del Toro dinner the night before Stinkfest. You can find his extra special kombuchas at a lot of great spots aroun… — Same with David Platt of Bloom Kombucha! We got to have a couple crazy good cocktails made from his kombucha at the David Zilber Plaza del Toro dinner the night before Stinkfest. You can find his extra special kombuchas at a lot of great spots around town. Check his website.

Careen Stoll always bring her gorgeous functional porcelain ceramics — for restaurants and homes — to Stinkfest. We love Careen!

Cutest ones. Fizz Kid herself in the middle (Kylie was our youngest presenter last year with her fermented Fizz Kid soda) with her sister Layla and mom Michelle — Kylie and M are two of my best friends. Kylie LOVES Heidi’s Wanpaku Natto so much. It’… — Cutest ones. Fizz Kid herself in the middle (Kylie was our youngest presenter last year with her fermented Fizz Kid soda) with her sister Layla and mom Michelle — Kylie and M are two of my best friends. Kylie LOVES Heidi’s Wanpaku Natto so much. It’s one of her favorite ferments. She really likes stirring it to prepare it too.

I wish I’d gotten a photo during Marne Bishop’s Joule Crafted demo of beet kvass but I didn’t arrive tuntil the end. I hear that people came away inspired. Beet kvass is such a gorgeous and flavorful ferment.

Ditto the NW Ferments dairy kefir demo with several different types of kefir cheese including a hot pepper one and a potato cheese one. Yum! Every festival I wish I could clone myself and be at several places all at once. Then I could have a meeting… — Ditto the NW Ferments dairy kefir demo with several different types of kefir cheese including a hot pepper one and a potato cheese one. Yum! Every festival I wish I could clone myself and be at several places all at once. Then I could have a meeting with all the clones the following day. With ferments!

Another festival favorite year after year — Jon Westdahl of Squirrel and Crow Tempeh. This year he brought chickpea quinoa tempeh that he cooked and then mixed with jalapeno honey. So tasty!

We’re so glad that Colin of Blue Bus Cultured Foods makes the trek to Portland from Bingen year after year. His lobster mushroom kimchi in the jar was one of my favorite ferments of the night. So yummy! He’s such an inspiring fermenter AND forager. … — We’re so glad that Colin of Blue Bus Cultured Foods makes the trek to Portland from Bingen year after year. His lobster mushroom kimchi in the jar was one of my favorite ferments of the night. So yummy! He’s such an inspiring fermenter AND forager. Follow him on Instagram at @foragefarmferment.

Thank you Sake One for sampling your super tasty Oregon-made sakes at Stinkfest!! We’re so lucky to have a local sake brewer so close to the city.

Amelie Rousseau of Amelie’s Table poured samples of her lovely homemade wines all night. I always enjoy trying her wines. Check out ameliestable.com for a schedule of her various fermentation classes.

Gabe Rosen of Noraneko and Giraffe posing with a plant! Ha! And his always fiery, fizzy and delicious kimchiiiiiii. Gabe and I are going to talk soon about working on a very special project together. Will let you know.

Gabe and Yuri sharing some really yummy miso-marinated dish that Yuri cooked up at the Jorninji Miso table toward the end of the night. I really love the friendships that have come about from all the years of our wild and free Stinkfest. Festival mo… — Gabe and Yuri sharing some really yummy miso-marinated dish that Yuri cooked up at the Jorninji Miso table toward the end of the night. I really love the friendships that have come about from all the years of our wild and free Stinkfest. Festival moments like these — a couple fermenters sharing yummy homemade goodness and talking shop — make me really happy.

And, last but not least, the day after the festival I bedded this little fuzzy pickle (thank you Phoenix and Loly!) in his fuzzy pickle bed and sent him on his cross-country trip to Stinfest festival poster maestro artist Tim Root. Goodnight pickle.… — And, last but not least, the day after the festival I bedded this little fuzzy pickle (thank you Phoenix and Loly!) in his fuzzy pickle bed and sent him on his cross-country trip to Stinfest festival poster maestro artist Tim Root. Goodnight pickle. Goodnight to all the stinkers. Goodnight 10th annual Stinkfest. Until we meet again — next year! STAY STINKY!!!

Since it was our 10th annual I think it’s nice to include links to recaps of all of our past nine festivals here. All in one place. STAY STINKY!

2009 — this isn’t a recap (too busy during to snap photos!) but it gives you a feel for the very first Stinkfest.

Tenth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival -- Three Weeks Away!

September 17, 2019

It’s only three weeks until the Portland Fermentation Festival aka Stinkfest! Tenth annual! I’m pasting the final press release that I just sent out below. Tickets are still available and going fast! You can purchase them online at our fest website linked below for $15/$25 and there will be a limited amount available the day-of at the door — cash-only $20/$30. Get those pickle suits out and pressed because it’s about to get FUNKY!

Yet another brilliant Tim Root festival poster! Tim has designed each and every one of our festival posters since our inaugural fest in 2009. http://timroot.tumblr.com/ or Insta https://www.instagram.com/dink_rinkle/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

Heidi Nestler heidi dot nestler at gmail dot com

Claudia Lucero claudia lucero at urbancheesecraft dot com

Tenth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival

Honorary guest speaker David Zilber, head of Noma's fermentation lab in Copenhagen!

David's talk and Q&A will run from 6-7pm

Thursday, October 10th 6-9:30pm

Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center

721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR

Rooftop cider from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, food by Obon + music by DJ Jimbo

All ages, open to the public, $15-$25 advance, $20-$30 cash at door

Children 12 and younger attend for free

Festival hashtag #pdxfermentfest

Purchase tickets!!

Limited cash-only tickets will be available at door.

The 10th annual Portland Fermentation Festival, aka Stinkfest, is less than a month away and we are so happy that our tenth annual fest gets an auspicious 10/10 date (Oct. 10th!) this year. For this very special 10th anniversary festival we welcome David Zilber, head of fermentation at 2-Michelin-star Noma in Copenhagen, and co-author of The Noma Guide to Fermentation! We are thrilled that David will be traveling all the way from Denmark to kick off this year's fest with an inspiring talk and Q&A. Copies of David's books will be available for purchase at the festival thanks to Broadway Books and you can read more about David's appearance here.

As a teaser of what's to come, here is a handful of the 30-plus exhibitors and demo'rs who will be participating with their wild, funky and creative ferments this year: Aaron Adams of Farm Spirit and Fermenter, Squirrel & Crow tempehs, natto from Heidi Nestler and Wanpaku Natto, amazake and hard ciders from Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Koji Akademia's Justin Potts will be traveling here all the way from Tokyo, along with Machiko Tateno and Kaoru Shibata of Kitchen Nippon and Kantaro Oizumi of Kombucha Ship all returning from Tokyo, dairy-free and traditional cheeses from Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft, homemade wines from Amelie Rousseau of Amelie's Table, misos from Jorinji Miso and much, much more.

Please join us for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting event of the year. This year, we welcome back the super fun Fermentation Station where festival goers can make and take home a yummy vegetable ferment, along with the Starter Culture Sharing & Adoption Center. Bring a vinegar, kombucha, sourdough etc. starter, take a starter!

Come celebrate pickling season at the 10th annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual fest that was one of our nation's first fermentation festivals. Portland Fermentation Festival inspired Tokyo to start its own annual Fermentation Future Forum in 2017, and Beaverton to start its own fermentation festival last year.

Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food fermentation enthusiasts, attend fermentation demos and sample everything from sour pickles, miso and natto, to cheeses, long-fermented breads, hard cider and kombucha.

The Portland Fermentation Festival is, and always has been, a non-commercial event. Once you purchase your ticket and enter the festival you will not be sold to. The wide array of food and drink ferments are not for sale, they are there to sample. We will have hard cider and food to purchase as respite on the rooftop but the mission of festival has always been firmly rooted in no sales. Our one-night, annual event fosters learning, connecting, communicating and celebrating fermentation with one another. We believe that transactional interactions often get in the way of that.

Please let me know if I can get you any more information about this year's festival and/or put you on our festival media list. We would love any coverage that you can provide.

Of special note: On the night before the festival, Wednesday, October 9th, David Zilber will be in attendance at a special Plaza del Toro dinner featuring ferments from and dishes inspired by David's book, co-authored with René Redzepi, The Noma Guide to Fermentation, prepared by Plaza del Toro chef, Michael Kessler, and Tasty n Alder chef, Perry Austin. Plaza del Toro dinner tickets can be purchased here!

Festival Coverage:

Portland Monthly

KGW Tonight with Cassidy

KGW Tonight with Cassidy extended

Portland Culinary Podcast

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland

Cooking Up a Story

About the Portland Fermentation Festival Team:

The Portland Fermentation Festival is organized and run by a team of fermentation enthusiasts also known as the Stinkfest Queens.

Liz Crain is an accomplished author and one of the fest's founders. She regularly makes plum wine, miso and kimchi and this year, with Sandor Katz's support, is trying her hand at the Sichuan ferment doubanjiang.

Heidi Nestler, CEO of Wanpaku Foods and nutrition instructor at Quest Center for Integrative Health, is one of the nation's handful of artisanal natto-makers. She also enjoys making umeboshi and other traditional Japanese ferments.

Claudia Lucero, cheesemaking book author and CEO of Urban Cheesecraft, is the group's cheese guru. Her goal is to empower people to make their own cheese at home, both dairy and dairy-free.

Facebook & Twitter @pdxfermentfest #pdxfermentfest

Videos of the 2018 Portland Fermentation Festival

November 30, 2018

Our ninth annual 2018 Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust was a dream come true with special guests travelling all the way from Tokyo for it! This year's festival Panel of Experts theme was Japanese ferments and included Kaoru Shibata and Machiko Tateno of Kitchen Nippon, Yuji Shimada from Kombucha Ship and festival co-organizer Heidi Nestler of Portland's Wanpaku Natto. Thank you so much to Travel Portland's Jeff Hammerly and Yoko Furukawa for translating the panel! I really enjoyed moderating it.

My dear friend and festival friend, Earnest Migaki of Jorinji Miso, took four wonderful short videos of this year’s festival and recently posted them to YouTube. I decided to put them all in one place here so that they’re easy to find. If you weren’t able to attend, or if you simply want to revisit the magic, you can do so below with part 1 and 2 of the Panel of Experts or part 1 and 2 of the festival tastings.

Thank you to everyone who came out and made the night so special!

For a full list of everyone who participated this year head here.

For 2018 festival photos head here.

Part 1 of the Panel of Experts:

Part 2 of the Panel of Experts:

Part 1 of the festival and set-up:

Part 2 of the festival, toward the end of the final tasting:

Portland Fermentation Festival 2018 Exhibitors, Vendors and Demo Leaders

October 24, 2018

Festival co-organizers Claudia Lucero and Heidi Nestler put together this rad thank you that went out to 2018 Portland Fermentation Festival attendees along with a list of all exhibitors, vendors and demo leaders. I’m sharing it here so that you can find all this good info in one place. Hooray for STINKFEST!!!

From the email:

Thank you SO much for coming out to taste, share and enjoy our annual "Stinkfest!" We would not have such a great festival without you.

Are you wondering where to find that delicious bread, kombucha or kimchi you loved? Do you have a burning question about natto or vinegar that you didn't get to ask the demo leaders? We're here to help!

Below is the complete list of this year's exhibitors, demo leaders and food vendors. Reach out to them, take their classes, support their businesses and keep the fermented food goodness flowing all year long. If you have any feedback or suggestions for next year, reply and let us know what's on your mind. Have a lovely day PFF peeps!

P.S. Scroll to the bottom to link to Liz Crain's (our fest's founding organizer) traditional post-fest blog post. Can spot yourself in a photo? ;)

9th Annual Portland Fermentation Festival - 2018

Demo Leaders

Natto - Heidi Nestler
https://www.wanpakunatto.com/

Cheese and Molds - Claudia Lucero
www.urbancheesecraft.com

Sourdough - Charlene Murdock & Richard White
http://foodwaysatnanacardoon.org/charlene-richard/

Kimchi and Vinegar - Heather Arndt Anderson
Classes in Portland via AirBnB Experiences

Tasting Room Exhibitors

Careen Stoll Ceramics
www.luscious porcelain.com

Choi's Kimchi
www.choiskimchi.com

Eggurt
https://www.facebook.com/EggurtDrink/

Fizz Kid Soda (not a business)
https://fhsteinbart.com/

Jorinji Miso
http://www.jorinjisoybeam.com

Kombucha Ship (from Tokyo)
www.oks-j.com

Machiko Tateno & Kaoru Shibata (Kitchen Nippon from Tokyo)
www.kitchennippon.com

Olykraut
www.olykraut.com

Oregon Brineworks
www.oregonbrineworks.com

Reverend Nat's Hard Cider
www.reverendnatshardcider.com

Soma Kombucha
www.somakombucha.com

Stinging Kombucha Hot Sauce
www.kombuchahotsauce.com

Tabor Bread
www.taborbread.com

Thubten Comerford
https://www.facebook.com/BuckmanBrines/

Urban Cheesecraft
www.urbancheesecraft.com

Vivian Lee Kimchi
www.crunchtimefoods.com

Wanpaku Natto
www.wanpakunatto.com

Wild Food Adventures
www.wildfoodadventures.com

Rooftop Food Vendors

Reverend Nat's Hard Cider
www.reverendnatshardcider.com

Obon
www.obonpdx.com

____________________________

Jimbo's Playlist (enjoy that rooftop vibe anytime!)

Liz's Post Fest Post (spoiler, adorable toddler making sauerkraut!)

XOXO, from the entire festival team

P.S. Here is some of the coverage of the event: KGW short news spot, KGW longer news spot, Portland Tribune

Our youngest Fermentation Station participant at this year’s ninth annual Portland Fermentation Festival!!!! So stinking cute!

Portland Fermentation Festival 2018 Redux

October 23, 2018

We've had so many excellent Portland Fermentation Festivals in our nine-year run but this year's, just last week at Ecotrust, was one of my all-time favorites. There was a lot that made this year stand out, including the fact that we had our extra-special guests of honor from Kombucha Ship and Kitchen Nippon travel all the way from Tokyo to Portland this year for our festival!

This year's festival Panel of Experts theme was Japanese ferments and included Kaoru Shibata and Machiko Tateno of Kitchen Nippon, Yuji Shimada from Kombucha Ship and festival co-organizer Heidi Nestler of Portland's Wanpaku Natto. Thank you so much to Travel Portland's Jeff Hammerly and Yoko Furukawa for translating the panel! I really enjoyed moderating it.

My friend Phoenix Rath made us super cute Japan flag lapel pins, photographed below, in celebration of our Japanese guests of honor, and she also made us Shrinky Dinks pickle pins. She and other friends have made us these cute ferment fest pins for the past few years’ festivals. I was lucky enough to get to bring some of them with me to Tokyo's Fermentation Future Forum in the spring that they made.

Another festival standout this year includes our first ever (and definitely annual now!) Fermentation Station, organized by festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft. At the Fermenation Station, festival attendees got try their hand at making their very own veggie ferment that they then got to take home with them to ferment. So sweet. All of the veggies and salt were so very kindly donated by People's Food Co-op. Thank you People's!

And, we had our youngest exhibitor to date this year -- 11-year-old Kylie! Kylie and her mom are two of my very best friends. Kylie was our boss this year and we helped her make and sample her very own home-fermented root beer. She even worked on a collaboration grapefruit soda for Nat West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider. Photos below.

I love that we had yet another sun-shined-upon festival day and night. Strangely enough, even though our Portland festival is always set in the rainy fall, we have always had beautiful weather for it. That makes the rooftop of Ecotrust all the more magical on festival night. On the rooftop, during this year’s festival, we had music from DJ Jimbo (check out his festival playlist here), cider from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and food from Obon. What a dream.

Thank you to everyone who came out for our ninth annual STINKFEST and made it so special and fun! There were nearly 500 of you! Stinkfest is our loving nickname for the festival since all of those open, ferment-filled crocks and ferment samples can get pretty stinky on festival night. In a good way!

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who makes our festival so fantastic year after year, including our host with the very most, Ecotrust. We couldn't do it without them. I love, love, love Ecotrust and their non-profit mission. Others who make our festival thrive year after year include our exhibitors, demo'rs, attendees, rooftop vendors, volunteers and local media folks who always help us to get the word out.

If you didn't check out any of the festival coverage this year, I highly recommend this longer clip as well as this shorter clip from KGW with Cassidy Quinn featuring our 2018 Stinkfest. This Portland Tribune article is great too. We also had good coverage from Portland Monthly, Willamette Week, Portland Mercury and others. We are so grateful for all of this solid support year after year.

In terms of social media, we have our festival Facebook and Twitter accounts if you want to see more, and/or post something. On social media please consider adding the hashtag #portlandfermentationfestival to your festival photos. We’d love to see them.

And, once more, here’s a reminder of why we do what we do from our 2018 press release: At a time in Portland when it feels like just about everything is undergoing or has recently undergone great change, it's nice to have some things that remain the same year after year. Thank you, Portland Fermentation Festival. No big changes, same old STINKFEST! // The Portland Fermentation Festival is, and always has been, a non-commercial event. Once you purchase your ticket and enter the festival you will not be sold to. The wide array of food and drink ferments are not for sale, they are there to sample. We always have food and drink to purchase for a meal on the rooftop but the mission of festival has always been firmly rooted in no sales. Our one-night, annual event fosters learning, connecting, communicating and celebrating fermentation with one another. We believe that transactional interactions often get in the way of that.

Ok, without further ado, 2018 festival photos! Stay stinky! XOXOXO

Festival special guests — the Kombucha Ship team all the way from Tokyo! Left to right: Kantaro Oizumi, Yuji Shimada and Hiroshi.

Our other very special festival guests from Tokyo — Kitchen Nippon! Left to right: Takako Matsumoto, Machiko Tateno, Kaoru Shibata and Miho Inada. Photo by Earnest Migaki.

We kicked off the festival this year with a Panel of Experts on Japanese ferments. In the above photos I introduced you to Kaoru, Machiko and Yuji but just to the right of me (I’m moderating and in the red dress ;) is festival co-organizer Heidi Nes… — We kicked off the festival this year with a Panel of Experts on Japanese ferments. In the above photos I introduced you to Kaoru, Machiko and Yuji but just to the right of me (I’m moderating and in the red dress ;) is festival co-organizer Heidi Nestler of Wanpaku Natto and at the far right are our very generous translators — Yoko Furukawa and Jeff Hammerly of Travel Portland. We had some audio difficulties and the beginning of the panel so we had to really project our voices without microphones as I’m doing here. I almost lost my voice! Photo by Claudia Lucero.

Festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft dreamed up this super fun festival version of My Favorite Things and put it up on stall doors in the Ecotrust men’s and women’s bathrooms! So funny and sweet. Photo by Theresa Minor.

Every year before we open the festival doors I like to try to get as many exhibitor photos as possible. I didn’t manage to get as many as I usually do this year — running around — but I got this cute one of Choi’s Kimchi!

And this sweet one of Stinging Kombucha Hot Sauce! Hot stuff ;)

I asked festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero, on the left, for this cute photo of her and Kantaro Oizumi from Kombucha Ship at her SCOBY Adoption Center! Kantaro is taking one of Claudia’s SCOBYs home to Japan! I love that she put this SCOBY Adoptio… — I asked festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero, on the left, for this cute photo of her and Kantaro Oizumi from Kombucha Ship at her SCOBY Adoption Center! Kantaro is taking one of Claudia’s SCOBYs home to Japan! I love that she put this SCOBY Adoption Center together this year. They went fast. Such a great idea. Next year we’ll bring even more of them. Excited for attendees to use them and share in the fermentation fervor!

Once we got our mics the panel was even better. We were heard all sorts of great fermentation in Japan stories and insights from Kaoru (speaking here) and Machiko (to her left) from Kitchen Nippon as well as Yuji of Kombucha Ship to Machiko’s left a… — Once we got our mics the panel was even better. We were heard all sorts of great fermentation in Japan stories and insights from Kaoru (speaking here) and Machiko (to her left) from Kitchen Nippon as well as Yuji of Kombucha Ship to Machiko’s left and Heidi to my left. My friend Earnest Migaki of Jorinji Miso filmed the panel and I’ll post the video of it at some point soon too. We’ll probably put it up on YouTube. Photo by Earnest Migaki.

And because Sake One couldn’t be at the festival this year (they were in Japan during it) they gifted us some of their delicious sake as well as complimentary sake tasting cards to their Forest Grove sake brewery. With their yummy sake, we had a fes… — And because Sake One couldn’t be at the festival this year (they were in Japan during it) they gifted us some of their delicious sake as well as complimentary sake tasting cards to their Forest Grove sake brewery. With their yummy sake, we had a festival toast to kick off the panel! Everyone in the room 21-and-over got a sample cup of sake to raise in a toast. We toasted with “kanpai” of course!

Kaoru Shibata (left) and Machiko Tateno (right) of Kitchen Nippon Tokyo during the panel. Photo by Earnest Migaki.

Once the panel concluded the first tasting commenced and this is the first photo that I took of the initial crowd. So fun!!

It filled up verrrrry fast with folks eager to try all of the different globetrotting food and drink ferments made by amateurs and professionals. So many tasty samples!! Photo by Earnest Migaki.

Including festival royalty Reverend Nat West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider’s unfiltered Korean rice wine — makgeolli. Here’s my friend Josh Scofield, Pollo Bravo chef-owner, sampling it. Nat borrowed a couple of my crocks to make it. Every year Nat m… — Including festival royalty Reverend Nat West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider’s unfiltered Korean rice wine — makgeolli. Here’s my friend Josh Scofield, Pollo Bravo chef-owner, sampling it. Nat borrowed a couple of my crocks to make it. Every year Nat makes something new and experimental for the festival and we always look forward to what he brings. Over the years, he’s fermented everything from chicha, Mongolian rice wine and ciderkin to lamb-steeped cider (I kid you not) for the festival. We’re so grateful for his creative and fun-loving festival spirit!

A little closer. I really liked Nat’s makgeolli. It was my first time trying it.

This year Nat and our youngest exhibitor to date, and my dear friend, Kylie, paired up for a festival collaboration. Nat asked Kylie to ferment him a couple quarts of grapefruit soda to blend with some of his makgeolli. The soda was too acidic with … — This year Nat and our youngest exhibitor to date, and my dear friend, Kylie, paired up for a festival collaboration. Nat asked Kylie to ferment him a couple quarts of grapefruit soda to blend with some of his makgeolli. The soda was too acidic with all of the fresh juice and zest and didn’t carbonate but it was still really yummy. You win some you lose some — that’s the beauty of experimentation. What did carbonate was Kylie’s…

Home-fermented root beer! She sampled it at her Fizz Kid Soda table and framed her root beer recipe so attendees could snap a photo of it and make it at home themselves. She pointed folks to Southeast Portland’s brew supply shop (my favorite!!) F.H.… — Home-fermented root beer! She sampled it at her Fizz Kid Soda table and framed her root beer recipe so attendees could snap a photo of it and make it at home themselves. She pointed folks to Southeast Portland’s brew supply shop (my favorite!!) F.H. Steinbart for supplies. So stinking cute. Kylie and her mom, Michelle, are two of my very best friends.

Kylie, Michelle and me in my kitchen after making Kylie’s Fizz Kid soda pre-festival ;)

Festival co-organizer Heidi Nestler’s crew, including her son Joi and his friends, putting together festival mini temakis (aka hand rolls) with her natto, rice and Choi’s Kimchi. So yummy!!!

Had to get a “family photo” of the cute Wanpaku Natto crew.

Aaaand a closeup of the crazy tasty Wanpaku Natto mini temaki ;)

Out on the mezzanine, we had all sorts of fermentation demo’s throughout the night. Heather Arndt Anderson’s fun and tasty whole cabbage kimchi and scrap vinegars demo was really informative and inspiring.

On the other side of the mezzanine was Charlene Murdock’s demo on sourdough levain and how to make a grape sourdough starter for it. Also fascinating and well attended.

In the tasting room, Soma Kombucha brought their rad kombucha kegerator and poured delicious blueberry ginger jun and peach + ghost pepper kombucha.

So fun having Wild Food Adventures at this year’s festival. John Kallas and Rebecca Humility sampled their locally foraged wild edibles kraut which included everything from wild blackberries and wood sorrel, to wild carrot flower heads, dandelion fl… — So fun having Wild Food Adventures at this year’s festival. John Kallas and Rebecca Humility sampled their locally foraged wild edibles kraut which included everything from wild blackberries and wood sorrel, to wild carrot flower heads, dandelion flower petals, common mallow and much, much more. So cool!

And next to them was one of our festival favorites — Sash Sunday’s OlyKraut with April sampling the goods. So delicious as always!!!

Throughout the night, just outside of the main tasting room, the Fermentation Station was hopping! All sorts of festival attendees got to try their hand at making their own veggie ferment and taking it home to ferment! Thank you festival co-organize… — Throughout the night, just outside of the main tasting room, the Fermentation Station was hopping! All sorts of festival attendees got to try their hand at making their own veggie ferment and taking it home to ferment! Thank you festival co-organizer, Claudia Lucero, for dreaming this up and making it happen, thanks so much to the kick-ass volunteers who helped out at it and big, big thanks to People’s Food Co-op for donating all of the delicious veggies for it. So great!

Here’s cutest Claudia inside the tasting room at her booth.

And Claudia’s friend Gwynnie Vernon sampling all different Claudia/Urban Cheesecraft dairy and dairy-free deliciousness. Claudia’s dairy-free cheese book comes out this February!! You can pre-order it from your favorite (hopefully indie) bookstore.

Another super tasty Claudia sample — really yummy Greek yogurt with black sesame seeds, honey and smoked salt.

It was so nice to have Tabor Bread back again. I love their breads so much and I only wish that their bakery was closer to me because if it was I’d go there weekly. Their breads are outstanding and Daniel (photographed here) did a really good job ex… — It was so nice to have Tabor Bread back again. I love their breads so much and I only wish that their bakery was closer to me because if it was I’d go there weekly. Their breads are outstanding and Daniel (photographed here) did a really good job explaining their grain program and how their loaves ferment.

Even though our festival is strictly a no-sales event (we want folks to have non-transactional conversations — to learn, skill share, get recipes, be inspired), Careen Stoll comes with her beautiful handmade porcelain crocks and pottery year after y… — Even though our festival is strictly a no-sales event (we want folks to have non-transactional conversations — to learn, skill share, get recipes, be inspired), Careen Stoll comes with her beautiful handmade porcelain crocks and pottery year after year from www.lusciousporcelain.com. We love her and we highly recommend all of her beautiful work.

She tabled next too (and gave bunny ears too ;) another festival favorite — Oregon Brineworks’ Brian Shaw from Hood River. OB always puts out the tastiest rainbow-of-colors spread of ferments. We’re so glad that their business is thriving and that w… — She tabled next too (and gave bunny ears too ;) another festival favorite — Oregon Brineworks’ Brian Shaw from Hood River. OB always puts out the tastiest rainbow-of-colors spread of ferments. We’re so glad that their business is thriving and that we can get their ferments all over town now.

Check out these super fun festival pins that my friend Phoenix Rath made us this year! Phoenix and other friends, including Loly LeBlanc and Kelli Brandt, have been making us festival pins for the past several years and we are so grateful for the cu… — Check out these super fun festival pins that my friend Phoenix Rath made us this year! Phoenix and other friends, including Loly LeBlanc and Kelli Brandt, have been making us festival pins for the past several years and we are so grateful for the cuteness. The pickles are Shrinky Dinks! It’s kind of a big DILL!!

My dear friends Earnest and Yuri Migaki of Jorinji Miso were absolutely slammed throughout the night. Of course they were. So yummy! They brought all sorts of treats to sample featuring their incredible miso including a…

Make your own miso soup bar with a few of their different misos!! So tasty and generous. Earnest and Yuri are friends with Kaoru and Machiko and that is in large part why they/Kitchen Nippon came all the way from Tokyo to our festival this year. Tha… — Make your own miso soup bar with a few of their different misos!! So tasty and generous. Earnest and Yuri are friends with Kaoru and Machiko and that is in large part why they/Kitchen Nippon came all the way from Tokyo to our festival this year. Thank you Earnest and Yuri! You can find Jorinji Misos in markets all over town including New Seasons Markets and Uwajimaya.

The Kombucha Ship crew having an excelent time serving up their delicious yuzu and original kombucha that they brought with them on the plane all the way from Tokyo! Only one bottle broke! They stored their kombucha at Reverend Nat’s Hard Cidery, wh… — The Kombucha Ship crew having an excelent time serving up their delicious yuzu and original kombucha that they brought with them on the plane all the way from Tokyo! Only one bottle broke! They stored their kombucha at Reverend Nat’s Hard Cidery, which they love, and Nat brought it to the festival for them.

Kitchen Nippon’s Kauru handing out their yummy, naturally sweet amazake samples to my friend Theresa and her daughter Judy.

Other delicious Kitchen Nippon samples — tsukemono, amazake “mayo” ++++

And big thanks to festival volunteer coordinator Joy Church! Our festival has always been volunteer-driven and we are so grateful to all the big-hearts who help out with it from ticketing to set-up and clean-up year after stinky year. Thank you Joy!

Look who came!!!! Festival friend Cassidy Quinn of KGW’s Tonight With Cassidy. Check out her awesome festival coverage this year in the links above at the top of the post. Cassidy LOVES all things pickles so she came to the festival after her live s… — Look who came!!!! Festival friend Cassidy Quinn of KGW’s Tonight With Cassidy. Check out her awesome festival coverage this year in the links above at the top of the post. Cassidy LOVES all things pickles so she came to the festival after her live show. So sweet.

I wish I had a better photo of Vivian Lee and her yummmmy kimchi and teas. If you do please send it along because I can swap it out.

We love Thubten Comerford. He has exhibited at our past few festivals and his Buckman Brines ferments are so tasty! This year he brought fermented corn and chile and people couldn’t get enough of it. Including me!

I never got to try Shun Ishida’s Eggurt yogurt drink that he brought to the festival but I’m looking forward to trying it soon! It went fast. I love that when you come to our festival you get to talk to so many of the makers themselves. A rare treat.

Longtime festival friends left-to-right Loly LeBlanc (and her baby pickle ;), my finest fellow Jimbo Sandberg and Jess Bull. Loly and Jess always work the ticketing table, although this year Loly helped out at our sweet Fizz Kid Kylie’s table. And J… — Longtime festival friends left-to-right Loly LeBlanc (and her baby pickle ;), my finest fellow Jimbo Sandberg and Jess Bull. Loly and Jess always work the ticketing table, although this year Loly helped out at our sweet Fizz Kid Kylie’s table. And Jimbo makes us our annual festival playlist that plays throughout the night on the beautiful Ecotrust rooftop. What cuties.

Speaking of the rooftop — look how beautiful it was! I didn’t get up there until the later side of the night but I’m so glad that I did. Gorgeous night. Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, Obon and Ecotrust were on the roof and DJ Jimbo’s music made everyone… — Speaking of the rooftop — look how beautiful it was! I didn’t get up there until the later side of the night but I’m so glad that I did. Gorgeous night. Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, Obon and Ecotrust were on the roof and DJ Jimbo’s music made everyone feel so good.

It was hard to get a good photo up there because it was so dark but I did manage this one of Obon’s Fumiko and Jason hard at blurrrrrry work ;). — It was hard to get a good photo up there because it was so dark but I did manage this one of Obon’s Humiko and Jason hard at blurrrrrry work ;).

And all of these lovelies taking a much deserved break and enjoying some yummy Obon food.

And this is the perfect closing shot from Kitchen Nippon’s Kaoru and Machiko. Big hugs and thank you, thank you to everyone who came out for our ninth annual Portland Fermentation Festival. See you next year! XOXOXOXOXO (Photo by Earnest Migaki)

Ninth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2018 -- One Month Away!

September 18, 2018

The Portland Fermentation Festival aka Stinkfest is only one month away! I'm pasting the final press release that I just sent out below. Tickets are available and going fast! You can purchase them online at our fest website linked below for $10/$20 and there will be a limited number available the day of at the door -- cash-only $15/$25! Want to participate as an exhibitor or do a demo this year?! It’s not too late. Info. on how to do so is over at our website portlandfermentationfestival.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

Heidi Nestler heidi dot nestler at gmail dot com

Claudia Lucero claudia at urbancheesecraft dot com

Joy Church jcplayswithfood at gmail dot com

Ninth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival

Thursday, October 18th 6-9:30pm

Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center

Rooftop food & drink sales + music

Special guests in attendance this year from Japan

Panel of Experts on Japanese Ferments

721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR

All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 advance, $15-$25 cash at door

Children 12 and younger attend for free

TICKETS ON SALE!

A limited number of cash-only tickets will be available at the door the night of the festival for $15/$25

At a time in Portland when it feels like just about everything is undergoing or has recently undergone great change, it's nice to have some things remain the same year after year. Thank you, Portland Fermentation Festival. No big changes, same old STINKFEST! Our ninth annual Portland Fermentation Festival is exactly one month away, and we are very proud that our festival was one of our nation's first. In fact, our festival inspired Tokyo's annual Fermentation Future Forum to kick off in 2017 and return in 2018, and it also led to Beaverton City Library planning its own inaugural fermentation festival taking place this Sunday!

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 18th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermentation. Taste and share all sorts of international fermented foods and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 400 attendees in 2017. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermentation skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting event of the year.

This year, we will have special guests traveling to Portland from Japan including festival friends Kombucha Ship and Kitchen Nippon! These folks and others will be a part of our 2018 Panel of Experts, which kicks off the festival from 6-7pm. The topic: Japanese Ferments. Panelists from Japan and Portland will dig deep into the wide world of Japanese food and drink ferments and answer attendees’ fermentation questions. We also will have the youngest exhibitor in festival history sampling this year! She is a longtime festival attendee and is very excited to sample her own fizzy, delicious and sweet ferment. And last but not least, festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero is getting everything in place for our first-time Ferment Bar on the mezzanine, where attendees will get to try their hand at making their own fun and tasty vegetable ferment to take home. Veggies for the Ferment Bar will be generously donated by People’s Food Co-op this year.

Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food/drink fermentation enthusiasts and experts, attend fermentation demo's and sample everything from sour pickles, fermented hot sauces, miso and natto, to cheeses, hard cider and kombucha.

Admission for the 7:30pm or 8:30pm Thursday tastings and fermentation demos is $10 advance/$15 cash at the door. Admission for the Panel of Experts plus the first tasting is $20 advance/$25 cash at the door. On the roof enjoy fresh air (it can get stinky on the festival main floor!), rooftop music by DJ Jimbo, hard cider from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, food from Obon and an informational booth from our hosts with the very most, Ecotrust.

Please note that the Portland Fermentation Festival is, and always has been, a non-commercial event. Once you purchase your ticket and enter the festival you will not be sold to. The wide array of food and drink ferments are not for sale, they are there to sample. There is hard cider and food to purchase as respite on the rooftop but the mission of festival has always been firmly rooted in no sales. Our one-night, annual event fosters learning, connecting, communicating and celebrating fermentation with one another. We believe that transactional interactions often get in the way of that.

Please let me know if I can get you any more information about this year's festival and/or put you on our festival media list. We would love any coverage that you can provide.

Festival coverage:

Portland Culinary Podcast

KGW 2017

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland

Cooking Up a Story

Portland Monthly

OPB

Facebook Portland Fermentation Festival

Twitter @PDXFermentFest

portlandfermentationfestival.com

Ninth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2018 -- Two Months Away!

August 21, 2018

The Portland Fermentation Festival aka Stinkfest is only two months away! I'm pasting the press release that I just sent out below. Tickets available! You can purchase them online at our fest website linked below for $10/$20 and there will be a limited number available the day of at the door -- cash-only $15/$25! Want to participate as an exhibitor or do a demo this year?! Info. on how to do so is over at our website portlandfermentationfestival.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

Heidi Nestler heidi dot nestler at gmail dot com

Claudia Lucero claudia at urbancheesecraft dot com

Joy Church jcplayswithfood at gmail dot com

Ninth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival

Thursday, October 18th 6-9:30pm

Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center

Rooftop food & drink sales + music

Special guests in attendance this year from Japan

Panel of Experts on Japanese Ferments

721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR

All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 advance, $15-$25 cash at door

Children 12 and younger attend for free

TICKETS ON SALE!

A limited number of cash-only tickets will be available at the door the night of the festival for $15/$25

At a time in Portland when it feels like just about everything is undergoing or has recently undergone great change, it's nice to have some things remain the same year after year. Thank you, Portland Fermentation Festival. No big changes, same old STINKFEST! Our ninth annual Portland Fermentation Festival is only two months away and we are very proud that our festival was one of our nation's first. In fact, our festival inspired Tokyo's annual Fermentation Future Forum to kick off in 2017, and it also led to Beaverton City Library planning its own inaugural fermentation festival launching next month.

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 18th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Taste and share all sorts of international fermented foods and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 400 attendees in 2017. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting event of the year.

This year, we will have special guests traveling to Portland from Japan including festival friends Kombucha Ship! These folks and others will be a part of our 2018 Panel of Experts, which kicks off the festival from 6-7pm. The topic: Japanese Ferments. Panelists from Japan and Portland will dig deep into the wide world of Japanese food and drink fermentation and answer attendees questions. We also will have the youngest exhibitor in festival history this year, sampling something fizzy and delicious! More details about that in the final press release that will go out next month. And last but not least, festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero is getting everything in place for our first-time Ferment Bar on the mezzanine where attendees will get to try their hand at making their own fun and tasty vegetable ferments to take home.

Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food/drink fermentation enthusiasts, attend fermentation demo's and sample everything from sour pickles, fermented hot sauces, miso and natto, to cheeses, hard cider and kombucha.

Festival coverage:

Portland Culinary Podcast

KGW 2017

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland

Cooking Up a Story

Portland Monthly

OPB

Facebook Portland Fermentation Festival

Twitter @PDXFermentFest

portlandfermentationfestival.com