Forget orthomyxovirus, the microbial fiend behind your winter flu problems, and get to know lactobacillus, saccharomyces carlsbergensis and candida colliculosa instead — bacterial fermenting friends behind food favorites yogurt, Kombucha, wine and cheese and featured guests of the Willamette Valley Sustainable Foods Alliance’s Fun with Fermentation Festival, held Jan. 11.
Benefiting Food for Lane County, the event featured a macro-colony of local, fermented food businesses and professional bio-organisms in the field, demonstrating the processes by which a multitude of different everyday foods become the sometimes stinky and sour, but always healthful and tasty, fermented foods we know and love — beer samples included.
At one table, University of Oregon biology student Brenna Murphy aided in a Kombucha-making demonstration. From a four-day-old jar, she pulls a slimy, brownish blob — a SCOBY or symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, which thrives and grows in the brewing tea.
“Don’t let it gross you out,” she said with a smile, especially in the direction of some aghast children. “There are bad kinds of bacteria and good kinds, and this is full of a whole lot of the good kinds.”
The colony of “the good kinds” transforms the jar of sugar-sweetened black tea into Kombucha — the carbonated, health-hyped ancient Chinese elixir sweeping through health stores across the country. Drinking the brew on a regular basis has been alleged to benefit digestive health and boost the immune system.
The probiotic powers of fermentation hit home with something a little more familiar to all — yogurt. Jennifer Wen of Springfield’s Nancy’s Yogurt explains the benefits that the treat’s lactobacillus colonies provide.
“The body is meant to have a natural balance of different microorganisms — called microflora — and the ‘live and active cultures’ found in yogurt, which grow through fermentation, help it and thus your body’s overall digestive health,” Wen said.
The fermentation process is perhaps best known for its involvement in making beer. Here, over a few weeks’ time, growing yeast transforms the glucose found in hops, barley and other grains into both ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide gas, which provides carbonation. According to Carl Ticks, a Eugene home brewer, beer has been consumed in small amounts for its health benefits through history, similar to those that Kombucha provides.
“I only brew in small amounts — enough for me and some friends here and there,” Ticks said, hanging around the local brewery booths. “And I make it in a way to achieve maximum health benefits.”
Other festival-featured foods included sauerkraut and kimchi (a traditional Korean vegetable dish), cheese, tempeh and creme fraiche — all delicacies which, through the fermentation process, achieve distinctive tastes, textures and, often, health benefits.