Photos from Kraut Fest 2009

About 160 heads came to Kraut Fest 2009, held at Machine Project in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 6.

Of those 160 heads, 40 were human and 120 were cabbage. The humans were there to learn how to change the cabbage into sauerkraut (based on my Russian grandmother's recipe), kimchi, and choucroute garni (a "meat fiesta" from the Alsace region in France).

I recognized the nice couple in the photo above from Picklefest 2008, which was held last year at Machine Project. The couple that ferments together stays together!

Many thanks to Machine Project founder Mark Allen for hosting the event, Slow Food LA for sponsoring it, Urban Homestead authors Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen for organizing it, Granny Choe for the kimchi lessons, and Jean-Pail Monsché for the mouth watering choucroute garni!

Photos of Krautfest 2009

• [anothershamus]

  This brings back the memories of the Fermentation Festival in Portland Oregon, Aug 26, 2009. I immediately went home and put up 25lbs of cukes and just ate the first ones today. They are only 1/4 sour so they have a few weeks to go to get really sour (read Dill).

  There was standing room only @ the Portland festival and luckily I got the last book “Wild Fermentation” (http://www.wildfermentation.com/)
  (which I have had my eye on for several months) and got to talk to the author: Sandor Katz and his favorite dish is, of course, sauerkraut!

  WW Link here:
  http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2009/08/28/portland-fermented/

  “Ferment or Die!”

• [Anonymous]

  Once again, it’s “choucroutte garniE”, not “garni”.

• [Stefan Jones]

  I missed the kraut recipe post the first time around. That’s really neat!

  I see plastic buckets in the fest pictures. Are those an OK substitute?

• [jaytkay]

  Flickr says to me, “This set falls outside your current SafeSearch filter.
  You can click through to see the contents if you want.”

  Hey BB, are you sure you linked to the correct “meat fiesta”?

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  I had to switch the content rating of my Flickr stream because I took some photos of topless models at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles during Craig Yoe’s presentation of his Secret Identity book.

• [noen]

  Kind of a small room. Sure hope it has good ventilation.

  “If you vant to grow up stout
  You must eat your sauerkraut.”

• [Anonymous]

  How different from sauerkraut is british red pickled cabbage?

• [arkizzle / Moderator]

  Mark.. link? :p

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  Here’s the link to the photos for the NSFW-ish Secret Identity show.

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  Gee, thousands of people have viewed my photos of the Suicide Girls but I’m only getting single digit views for my photos of the sauerkraut class. What gives?

• [arkizzle / Moderator]

  No, it was just me on both, but I looked at those SG pictures a lot.

• [gollux]

  Aw man, you guys have all the fun. Hmm, sounds good for dinner tonight, thanks!

• [cosanostradamus]

  .
  HEY, HEY, HEY!!!

  Was ist los hier????

  The Germany people has feelings too, ja?

  Watch who you calling names, you.

  Oh, the foodstuffs? Ok, den, never mindt.

  But don’t start with the Muslims’ either, OK?
  .

• [Anonymous]

  Is that woman in the background actually eating directly from her bowl?

• [Roy Trumbull]

  Favorite lunch: cooked red cabbage and bratwurst.

• [Manooshi]

  “The couple that ferments together stays together!” That made me laugh! Thanks, Mark!

  Yay for BoingBoing and Machine Project!!!

  “Picklefest 2.0″ ruled, for sure. :)

• [Dave Faris]

  That’s an excellent photo, Mark. The look on the cute girl’s face is great.