Heck Yeah! Pickle Obsessive

9 Comments

My fermenting obsession continues to play out at a fever pitch. The honey wine is kicking ass and I just purchased 4lbs of parsnips from the farmers’ market with a loose plan to make parsnip wine. The book, (“Country Wines” 1953) speaks very highly of this particular brew.

Thanks to Paula, who sent me a link to the video (above) featuring Alex Hozven, the proprietor of a pickling business called The Cultured Pickle Shop, in Berkeley, CA (How many more reasons do I need to get my butt out to Berkeley?). Her enthusiasm is infectious and her ideas… Let me put it this way: fermentation is a great, wild world and I am only just barely beginning to scratch its surface.

Gayla Trail
Gayla is a writer, photographer, and former graphic designer with a background in the Fine Arts, cultural criticism, and ecology. She is the author, photographer, and designer of best-selling books on gardening, cooking, and preserving.

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9 thoughts on “Heck Yeah! Pickle Obsessive”

  1. Oh my gosh what a great video. ‘Wild Fermentation’ just went to the top of my Christmas wish list. Also, their FAQ is so smart ass and bitchy hahahaha

  2. Juliet: I just read the FAQ now… I like it. I like it a lot. “Wild Fermentation” is really, really good. I’ve had it all of maybe 2 weeks or so and have already gifted a second copy.

  3. and I LOVE it, too! … somehow I get the feeling Toronto might be in for having some of it’s parts blown off the map with experiments I wake up with going on in my head anyways … (so far all my favs veer towards the boOzy) … wondering if those ceramic grolsch beer lids can hold in some of what’s going to be going on in bottles? [I’m not wanting to get anyone’s heads nicked with one of those when we’re not expecting it NOR coming home and finding my roof has a hole pierced through it.]

  4. Bre: yeah, you’re meant to take a lot of care when you open up a bottle of homemade booze! Put a tea towel over it. Also better if you can store the bottles in a cooler spot.

  5. thanks Gayla – what an amazing video. I just soaked cheese cloth in rum and covered my fruit cake with it (then wrapped it all in plastic so it doesn’t evaporate) and am injecting rum into the cake it every day now until I leave – should be ready when I return [then I want to make a brandy icing and serve it with the 2008 plums in cognac] … this’s not something one could be arrested for right?

  6. Bre: Only if you serve it to a 2 year old, which is what my mother did many years back. My brother fell promptly asleep.

    It is in my ancestry to make a rum cake. I should really try it some day. My aunt made one every year but started like 6 months ahead of time and that thing was DENSE full of Bajan rum, which is potent enough as-is.

    Exciting that you are making one!

  9. oooooh, we need a shop like “the cultured pickle” here in victoria~or i should open one myself ;) awesome inspiration, thank you

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