Here’s a beautiful short film in which Sandor Katz talks about processes of fermentation. He is funny and compelling– and I will always be grateful to him for Wild Fermentation which has been such an influential, important book in my life.  Using Wild Fermentation I taught myself basic skills that now serve me constantly in the kitchen, but the book also presents a wonderful vision in which personal, political and microbial transformation serve as metaphors for each other.  Wild Fermentation is a guide to practical alchemy (and for this reason, if you have to make a choice, buy it before the also wonderful The Art of Fermentation).

This film captures some of the magic.

I love the scene in the film in which he shovels the compost.

I love so much of the pottery in his kitchen, and all the jars filled with ingredients and ferments.

I love when he discusses what doesn’t scare him – and what does – about death.

This is another film about him if you are in a watching mood:

Sandor is a teacher and sharer.  And by the way, his book The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved is another classic, looking at food politics in the USA from above and below with people power and DIY activism as happy and delicious fermenters of change.