I just love blogging. I really do. part of the reason why is because I get to review and give away such wonderful products and books!

Today I get to give you the opportunity to win Alex Lewin’s new book, Real Food Fermentation: Preserving Whole Fresh Food with Live Cultures in Your Home Kitchen. In fact TWO of you will be chosen to receive this great book by entering the Rafflecopter widget at the end of the post.

As you can see in this pdf sample of Real Food Fermentation, this is a really well-laid out book with lots of color photos. Alex does a wonderful job of really pulling you into his kitchen and making you feel confident about delving into fermenting new things. The book is so easy to read, and Alex’s personality and pleasant sense of humor make it hard to put down.

Here is a quote from the introduction:

Sauerkraut, for instance, need contain nothing more than cabbage and salt - no mysterious chemicals, no additives, not even any vinegar. So simple, yet so complex: Fermentation occurs because we seduce microscopic beings into doing out biochemical bidding, and they create sour acids that can preserve cabbage for many seasons.

“So simple, yet so complex…” - isn’t that the truth!

Now, on to the interview…

Q&A with Alex Lewin

Alex offered to let me interview him about his book, Real Food Fermentation, and I am so glad he did! Listen in as Alex shares what his favorite ferment is, what ferments stress him out, how sourdough and pets are alike, what fermenting fallacies there are out there that he’d like to set straight, if he keeps his ferments in the dark, and much more…

Lea: What was the first thing you ever fermented? What made you want to try it?

Alex: Kimchi! I first had it at a Korean restaurant. I ate it because, well, it was there and I was hungry, waiting for the meat to arrive. And I like things that are spicy and garlicky and smell funny! It was love at first taste-combined with, “What the heck did I just eat?” It is so different from most of the food that we eat in the West. So unapologetic about its sharpness.

Then I found a recipe for it, and made it at home.

Lea: What is your favorite ferment? Least favorite?

Alex: Favorite to eat: yogurt. And kombucha. Oh, I like cheese too. These are things I have most days.

Favorite to make: Sauerkraut, or turnipkraut. These are the ones I keep coming back to.

Least favorite to eat: Oh, I like most things. Even natto!

Least favorite to make: I don’t like making yogurt! Or cucumber pickles! They’re both a little stressful. Not as carefree as some of the other things.

Lea: It’s nice to know just because you publish a book that it doesn’t mean you don’t get a little frazzled over some ferments. What is something you haven’t fermented but want to try?

Alex: I really haven’t done much with sourdough. I want to. I love sourdough bread. And there’s motivation to make this: Supermarket bread is awful, way too many ingredients, too much soy, etc. And artisanal bread is so expensive!

I’m not sure my life right now is conducive to sourdough though. I’m traveling a lot, and I have to have someone to help feed my cat…and having a sourdough is a bit like having a pet (although you can’t put a cat in the fridge and come back for him 3 days later!).

Lea: Well if you ever want a quick sourdough, you should check out my Sourdough Starter in 12 hours recipe. I was able to make sourdough in the morning and serve biscuits by dinner by using water kefir instead of water. What about misconceptions - are there some fermenting fallacies out there you’d like to set straight?

Alex: Yes!

I shall set them straight:

- Fermenting is not difficult (at least some fermenting, like making sauerkraut).

- Fermenting is not dangerous. Fresh food is more likely to spoil, and canned food is more likely to be invisibly toxic. And if you compare this to some of the stuff they call food in the supermarket, which is guaranteed to be toxic…

- Fermented food is not weird. We all eat it every day!

Lea: How often do you personally consume ferments?

Alex: I have yogurt for breakfast almost every day, usually with raw local honey and some almonds. I find it’s easy to digest, it keeps my energy nice and even, and it sees me through to lunch perfectly. And I can get yogurt even when I’m on the road. Plain, full-fat yogurt made from decent milk is possible to find even in big supermarkets (Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt for instance).

We have a fridge full of kombucha at work (!), so I often have one in the afternoon.

I try to eat fermented vegetables regularly too. I usually have a bunch of different ones. Right now I have some fermented cauliflower that I have been chopping up and throwing in/on something else I’m eating-soups, sandwiches, etc.

Lea: I am really glad to hear you encouraging anaerobic fermentation for sauerkraut. What are your favorite jars that you like to use to ensure anaerobic fermentation?

Alex: Ya know, I generally do fine with plain old mason jars. If you can ensure that the ferment stays under liquid, then you are providing them an anaerobic environment.

For trickier things, though, I like the Pickl-It the best. I have a Harsch, but I find it to be awkward. I posted a comparison a while ago on my blog here.

If you have a well-stocked machine shop, it should be easy enough to make something like the Pickl-It…but for the modest price they’re asking, it seems pretty worth it not to have to figure out how to drill through glass!

Lea: Actually, there have been a couple of women on the Fido Fermentation group on Facebook who’s husbands were able to drill through lids on a Fido jar with basic tools and no breakage (check this post). Although I have personally found no need to alter the Fido jars at all and they work very well (see Can Fido jars defy science?).

On a similar note, have you ever tried fermenting anaerobically with an oil on the top of the brine?

Alex: Nope. I get the idea, and it sounds interesting, but I’ve never felt the need, so it seems unnecessary to me. If the veg start popping up through the oil layer, do things get messy?

Lea: During Sauerkraut Survivor, I used the oil method for one of the jars and I didn’t find the kraut to pop through at all. It was one of the few jars which passed the test and ended up in the final line-up.

Some people have sewn covers for their ferments to keep the light off them. Do you keep your ferments in a dark spot?

Alex: Nope. Kitchen counter, so that I don’t forget about them! Kombucha away from fruit so that the fruit molds and yeasts don’t interfere with it.

Lea: What do you see as the largest health benefit of consuming fermented foods?

Alex: The way I look at it, it’s a question of what problems people are trying to solve. And the US is currently having an epidemic of bad digestion. Everyone seems to have acid reflux, heartburn, and many more serious things. Doctors prescribe and recommend really bad drugs that treat symptoms rather than underlying problems. They breed dependency, and further unbalance the body.

So I think the largest health benefit, for the most people, is improving digestion. Drink kombucha! Or, if that’s not enough, take a probiotic supplement. Taking pharmaceuticals for digestion is almost always going to lead to disaster.

Lea: I agree - it’s always best to get our healing from foods. How important is really fresh produce? Should we avoid using produce marked down in the discount bin?

Alex: Ideally, we would all grow all of our own food, and eat it right after picking it. Unfortunately, this is not possible. There are only so many hours in the day. There are also economic realities that prevent everyone from eating local, organic food all the time. And if you are at someone else’s house, or at a restaurant, you may not have much insight into what you’re eating.

I pay the most attention to the animal products I eat. I make sure the beef, pork, and poultry are from good sources. I don’t worry as much about other meats, since they are not factory-raised in quite the same ways. And I don’t pay as much attention as I could to fish sources…although I do avoid farmed and/or Atlantic salmon as much as I can.

As far as vegetables go, I try to get organic for the vegetables that matter most, as far as pesticides go. I like this guide: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/

We all have to choose our battles. Most of us have only a finite amount of time to spend sourcing food. For myself, I pay the most attention to animal products, and the next most to pesticides. The rest I choose not to worry about too much.

Lea: Would you say consuming fermented foods and drinks could replace the need for supplemental probiotics? If so, how much would you recommend one consume?

Alex: Gee, that’s a tough question. People are so individual, and we all have different goals/issues/problems/bodies, it’s really hard to say in general. I would say that for regular maintenance, a supplement may not be necessary. But for addressing specific digestive problems, or as a countermeasure to antibiotics, I think supplemental probiotics are often a good idea. I don’t think it can ever hurt to take supplemental probiotics.

As to how much live fermented food to consume? Again, totally individual. I tend to eat a cup of yogurt, a bottle of kombucha, and a tablespoon of fermented vegetables 5 days a week. (And of course I’m not counting the other, non-live fermented foods that don’t count, like bread, wine, and beer!)

Lea: One item I wish you added to your book in more detail was water kefir. Would you consider adding more about it to a future edition?

Alex: Heh! I agree. The lactofermented beverages didn’t get as much love in my book as I would like to have given them. There was not space to go into as much depth with everything as I wanted to. So yes, I would consider it!

Lea: I loved all the color photos in your book. Just for fun, how long did it take to shoot all those great photos?

Alex: I think it was either 5 or 7 full (7-ish hour) days at a studio with a professional photographer, his assistant, the publisher’s designer, and sometimes another editor. It was a great process. I was really lucky to have the team I had-they had such good judgment. And I really needed to be organized each day about what we were shooting, whether we would need to shoot it again some time down the road, etc. And do all of this while going back and forth between two coasts! But we pulled it off.

Lea: You sure did!

Final words: if there was one thing you would want people to know about fermented foods, what would it be?

Alex: We co-evolved with these microbes. We are meant to eat them, and they are meant to be eaten by us. It’s the most natural thing in the world!

Thanks Lea!

Buy Real Food Fermentation and Save $10!

Right now amazon has Real Food Fermentation for just $14.73 - more than $10 off the cover price. Don’t delay too long, though, because the price could change any time.

Real Food Fermentation Blog Tour Continues

As part of the Real Food Fermentation Blog Tour, please check out Real Food Suomi tomorrow for her review.

Enter to Win one of TWO copies of Real Food Fermentation

That’s right - not just one, but TWO of you will win a copy of Alex Lewin’s book, Real Food Fermentation. Just enter the Rafflecopter widget below…

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Lea Harris founded Nourishing Treasures in 2006. A mom passionate about her family's health and well-being, Lea believes education is power. Encouraging others to take baby steps in the right direction of health for their families, Lea's goal is to raise awareness of what goes into our mouths and on our bodies, providing natural alternative information that promotes health and prevents disease by using traditional foods and nature's medicine. Lea is a Certified Health Coach graduate from Beyond Organic University, and a Certified Aromatherapist graduate from Aromahead Institute. "Like" Nourishing Treasures on Facebook, join the Nourishing Treasures Group on Facebook, follow @NourishTreasure on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter. You can also find me on Learning About Essential Oils forum, and Fido Fermentation Facebook group. Disclaimer: I use affiliate links wherever possible. So if you click on a link, and make a purchase, I might make a small commission, but it doesn't cost you any more.