It’s hip to be sour

When it comes to educating our garden center customers, we spend a lot of time talking about the benefits of a healthy bioactive soil. A plethora of microbes are what help tend a healthy soil and thus a healthy garden. But what about the beneficial microbes we actually consume? With food preparation and preserving being such important components of growing your own these days, garden centers shouldn’t ignore the increasing interest in brewing up some of these “good bugs” in the kitchen. If your garden center hasn’t explored the fermentation movement, now is a good time to get up to speed.

While many home gardeners have started growing their own grapes and hops to brew homemade wine and beer, that’s not where the fermentation frenzy stops. The health and wellness movement is a big driver behind the growing fascination for fermentation. Customers are looking for a way to blend their healthy homegrown produce with healthy kitchen habits. Kimchi, sauerkraut, herbal bitters, brined pickles, fermented relishes and chutneys are just a few of the fermented treats students are learning to make from author and instructor Kate Payne.
 

Preserving the bounty

I follow “Hip Girl” Kate Payne on Instagram and Twitter. Her two books, “Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking” and “Hip Girl's Guide to the Kitchen,” have a strong appeal to the younger crowd who are interested in acquiring some modern domestic skills. She lives in Austin, Texas, but teaches classes on food preservation and other topics both privately and at culinary centers across the country. I’ve been intrigued by the evolution of her more recent fermentation workshops.

I asked Payne how she got into fermentation. “Initially it was being a part of a CSA (community supported agriculture) group in Brooklyn, where we truly had excess produce each week. Then, my preserving interests shifted to preserving the bounty we grew in our own garden here in Austin,” Payne says. “I liked the health benefits of fermented foods — probiotics, digestion support, their detoxing nature — and the gift and sharing potential with canning my own preserves and vinegar pickles.”
 

What do I do with it?

As I always tell my students in the vegetable gardening and urban farming classes I’ve taught, once you get the hang of successfully growing produce, you’re going to have to figure out what to do with it. Interest in canning, preserving and pickling did see an uptick with the boom in backyard gardening, and that interest seems to have evolved to fermentation. While both are popular, there is a bit of confusion about the difference between fermentation and pickling. Not all fermented foods are pickled and not all pickles are fermented.

Pickling preserves food by suspending them in an acidic solution, such as vinegar. Vegetables pickled in vinegar are not fermented (even though the vinegar itself is a product of fermentation). Pickling is a great way to preserve the harvest, but you don’t get the probiotic boost you do from fermented foods.

When you ferment foods, salt and filtered water cause the vegetables to create their own lactic acid as a result of the fermentation process. You don’t use heat or pressure, so you’ll retain beneficial Lactobacilli in the mix. The lactic acid and bacteria are good for digestion. Through fermentation, you can enhance the foods vitamin and enzyme content, nutrient availability and digestibility. So while traditional means of canning and pickling are great ways to preserve the harvest, fermentation scores big points when it comes to boosting health and wellness. Not to mention, fermentation can also make certain foods taste better. Essentially, fermentation allows you to create your own superfoods.
 

Backyard is best

I asked Payne if working with local or homegrown produce was an important part of her process. “We grow a portion of edibles and rely on farmers’ markets and local farms for the remainder of the things we consume,” says Payne. “For preserving, I work exclusively with locally grown food, with the exception of things like spices, aromatics and flavors like garlic or ginger in times when they’re not available locally. Fermenting food that was grown locally incorporates more of our local microbial community in the ferments and in turn supports a symbiotic relationship between us and our local surroundings.”

Gardening is a natural gateway to getting into fermentation, says Payne.

“Some of my students also grow some portion if not most of the produce they cook and preserve at home,” she says. “Bumper crops and excess harvest are an inspiration for most gardeners to launch into food preservation methods like fermenting or canning.”
 

A natural niche

While Payne has seen some large companies jump on the fermentation bandwagon, she feels its foundation is firmly rooted at the individual level. “The DIY community is stronger than ever surrounding fermentation and for good reason. Fermentation and other forms of food preservation lends to community and culture, literally.”

Who better to take advantage of the growing fermentation movement than independent garden centers? From seed to final ferment, IGCs are really the only type of retail outlet that can get the job done from start to finish. If you’re already focused on selling edibles, produce and hosting CSAs at your garden center, adding fermentation to your repertoire seems a natural fit.

“Independent garden centers that focus on sharing knowledge for preserving the harvest are wise to do so,” Payne says. “Grow-your-own only goes as far as the kitchen and the ability to use it all either in a timely fashion or being able to preserve what you won’t use up. We need a more full-circle approach to growing our own food.”

Already carry canning supplies? Then you’re already set to serve your fermenting gardeners. Step up your style and average sale a notch by offering attractive ceramic fermenting crocks.
 

Fermentation fears

Fermentation can be a bit of a mystery to many first-timers. As with any project, you want your customers to be successful at, you’ll need to invest in education. Teaching your customers how to ferment what they’ve grown helps you ensure their gardening success. In turn, they’ll be back to see you for more of their garden needs.

There are some particular projects and concerns amongst Payne’s students. “Fermented pickles and fermented slaws like kimchi and sauerkraut are some of the more popular projects,” she says. Yet, fermenting foods can cause first-timers to sweat a bit. “Students are initially afraid of killing their friends and family with home-fermented goods. I love how the content of the class allows them to gain an understanding of the safety behind this age-old tradition of fermentation as a means of preserving food and making health-promoting and tasty foods. I love helping them dispel their fears and really embrace the simple science that empowers them to feel safe when consuming or sharing these foods with others.”

Leslie (CPH) owns Halleck Horticultural, LLC, through which she provides horticultural consulting, digital content marketing, branding design, advertising and social media support for green industry companies. www.lesliehalleck.com