Winter is the time to ferment! The cooler temperatures are perfect for slowly-seasoned fermented vegetables. My roommate has a Harsch Crock - an amazing lactic fermentation vessel that is no longer being made! The key to this crock is a a water seal around the top that allows fermentation gases to escape but no mold/bacteria to get in (see pictures above and below). Luckily other companies are following suit and making similar vessesl, but the Harsch will always have a place in my heart. 

My friend and cofermentor Angela Davis of Nourishing Works recently did a fermentation workshop at Thirdroot. She has years of experience working in holistic health and fermentation. Her workshop - Sour Power! (great name right?) was held at Thirdroot last weekend. Angela gave me a jar of her lactofermented Tumeric Kimchi and I was inspired to make some sauerkraut with her recipe. I quadrupled the recipe for a 5 liter fermentation vessel, but you can use mason jars or whatever else to ferment the mixture. The fun part is adapting the ingredients to whatever your tastes are. I find that I sometimes use too much salt so I definitely measure that, but everything else I just kinda throw together: 

Ingredients:
1 large head (approx 2lbs) green or red cabbage, cored and finely shredded (I used 4 heads for a 5 liter crock and could have put in more)
1 large organic apple shredded
1 tablespoon caraway seeds (I always add more, love it!) 
1 teaspoon juniper berries (Hate them, but they make it taste better) 
4 teaspoons sea salt (per head of cabbage)

* Chop, shred or grate cabbage. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage in a bowl as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage and makes the brine. Be patient, it takes 15-30 minutes of time/prodding (see below)
* Knead and squeeze the cabbage and salt for 5-10 min - the cabbage should be limp, translucent and release its juices easily. The brine should be a-flowing!
* Put the cabbage in your fermentation vessel - a crock, a mason jar, etc - a little bit at at a time, and pack it down with your hand or wooden spoon. This pushes out air bubbles and pushes the brine to the top of the jar. 
* Continue putting the cabbage in the vessel and you should see the level of brine increase. If you don't get enough brine, add salt water to bring the brine above the cabbage. I almost never have to do this. But if you do, add one tablespoon of salt to one cup non-chlorinated water (dissolved) and mix it in. 
*Leave at least 1-2 inches at the top of the vessel for the cabbage to expand
* Place a couple large outer leaves at the top to force the chopped cabbage below the brine
*Wipe away any loose cabbage and loosely close the top of the mason jar (so gases can still escape) or put the lid on your cool Harsch crock :) 
* Leave in a cool, dark place. Best temp is 65-68 degrees. Keep an eye on your baby, checking to make sure the brine is still above the cabbage (if mold forms, scrape it off, don't worry! it can't grow below the brine, it's too acidic) 
* You KNOW when something has gone bad with the fermentation process. It smells nasty and way different than good krawt. This has only happened to me once but I will remember it forever. Usually, everything goes fine! in 5-7 days you will have the beginnings of a sour krawt, but you can leave it more for more sourer-sourer stuff. 
*If brine evaporates - add salt water.
*When your krawt is a good sourness, take off the top big cabbage leaves and put it in the fridge - this slows the process.
*Enjoy! It will last about 6 months-1year in the fridge. 

You can see what my krawt looked like below: the brine is still a little low but the more I filled it the higher it got.

My favorite health benefits of lacto fermented foods:

* Increased digestibility, vitamin and enzyme content

* Supports a healthy immune system

* Adds lactic acid and beneficial bacteria


To your health! Email me if you have any questions about the fermentation process, and thanks to Angela at Norishingworks.com

I'm helping to facilitate a class - Level II herbal studies - with Jacoby of Third Root Community Health Center (where I spend a lot of my time). We took a field trip to the rare book room of the New York Academy of Medicine yesterday to look at herbals from the 15th Century to now. The librarian had set out crumbling texts that were held together with ribbon, that we carefully turned the pages of looking up our favorite plants. I spent a lot of time looking at early-American texts by Samuel Thompson, an early 19th century self-taught herbalist in the Northeast. His favorite plants were by far, lobelia and cayenne. They came first in his materia medica and had pages upon pages of uses. 

Datura also kept coming up in my browsing. You can find this plant growing in tree-pits around brooklyn this time of year - wild (or scattered by a moder-day Johnny-Datura?) and growing furiously in late summer. Many a night I've been out late and observed a few datura growing on my walk home through Clinton Hill. The seedpods are spikey and noticable -> and quite beautiful in this drawing. 

Datura, or Thorn Apple, is a notorious hallucinogen & dangerous. It's beautiful and the flowers open at night (why you see it in the late evening walking home) and has been co-evolving with humans for hundreds of years. Would I recomend you taking some? No - not unless you go to the rare book room at NYAM and read all the texts about this beautiful plant. The early American herbalists and botanists have a lot to say. I'm excited to say hello to this plant on the street - but will still stay my distance from ingesting it even after reading the herbals from 100 years ago. 

I'm reading David Winston's "Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina and Stress Relief" an excellent overview of the class of herbs that everyone should be taking. Why? They decrease the effects of stress on your body (and stress is broad here - anything that stresses your body - like life!) leading to a longer, more dis-ease free life. 

I often use traditional chinese medicine (TCM) pattern diagnosis in working with clients. I was excited to see the following chart on 5 classes of the "Superior" herbs in TCM. Superior herbs support the three treasures of our lives - jing (essence, life force), shen (spirit), and qi (movement, vitality). Everyone should be taking them!

QI TONICS 
Increase energy and treat depletion: Asian ginseng, dang shen, eleuthero, ginseng, licorice, and prince seng.

BLOOD TONICS
Blood builders: he sou wu, lycium (goji berry), rehmannia, dang gui

JING TONICS
Conserve or strengthen your vital force: asian ginseng, cordyceps, reishi, scisandra

YIN TONICS
Nourish your fluids, relieve dryness, strengthen lungs, skin and bowels:
American ginseng, prince seng, lycium, and shatavari

YANG TONICS
Use for deficient kidney conditions affecting reproduction & adrenal function:
ashwagandha, cordyceps, epimedium, morinda root

You don't need an appointment with me to start taking one of these herbs. Go to your local apothecary and pick up whichever herb you find yourself drawn to and experiment on yourself. Not all herbs are right for all people, but by being intentional and noticing how your body responds, you will find the herb that's right for you. 

I wish you vitality, ease and freedom in your path!

Which dried herb pile do you think was recently harvested from the lawn up in Tivoli? That's right - the green one.  The pile on the right is chickweed from Mountain Rose herbs in Oregon. No bad blood, but herbs are ALWAYS better if you can harvest or grow them in your local area.

Chickweed is a powerful and common lawn & bike-path side herb. It is best used fresh (sorry dried herbs!) for blood toxicity, fevers, inflammation, and other HOT diseases. An oil or salve can be made to treat skin rashes, eczema and psoriasis.  Eaten fresh or in a tea, it is a fabulous spring blood cleanser and weight eliminator (both physically and psychosocially). 

Go out and find chickweed growing in your lawns and the park - it tastes like spinach and is delicious raw or lightly steamed. Right now it is flowering and you can see the tiny star-shaped flowers below. 

Enjoy other spring herbs like dandelion, cleavers & violet in a refreshing spring salad - now is the perfect time to munch on these spring cleansers.