The opportunity to visit a fermentarium does not present itself often. Even rarer, surely, to visit one that has scooped as many Taste Awards as the Edinburgh Fermentarium— six, since we’re counting.
It was as intriguing as you might imagine. The shelves were lined with glass jars, filled with all manner of delicately sliced vegetable, each maturing in its own carefully formulated and spiced brine. As the fridges hum in the background my host, proprietor Ruth Munro, takes time away from the busy Christmas preparations to guide me round the shelves, pop open a few jars, and give me the gossip on all things fermented…
Behind that radio is Kombucha Mustard. It’s mustard, obviously, but made with kombucha vinegar, as opposed to vinegar vinegar. It ferments for at least two months. To the left of that, we've got the Christmas Pickle— a new line this season. That's Oranges, Lemons, Limes, and Christmas spices. That's at least a two-month ferment. It's based on our Indian-style Lemon and Lime Pickle, similar but with Christmas spices. They’re both really long ferments. Under that we've got Kimchi; three of our Cracking Kimchi, and then the paler one is a Christmas Kimchi, which has fresh Cranberries instead of Red Pepper, and Cinnamon sticks, so it tastes a bit like Fireballs. The pink and red one below, that's the Braw Slaw; Beetroot, Apple, Ginger, Star Anise, Clove. I sometimes overlook it but remind myself how yummy it is when there is a bit left, and I take it home. We’ve got Gingerkraut— that’s Ginger, more Ginger, Cabbage, fresh Turmeric. There's some Figs fermenting down there. They started as another Christmas special along, with the Christmaskraut, which is Cabbage, Nutmeg and Orange peel. I just can’t stop myself! The inspirations for the recipes come from all over the place. The Kombucha Thieves’ Vinegar is an interesting one, it has a fascinating history. Ours is a modern version of a legendary Thieves’ Vinegar recipe, which is rumoured to have protected the grave robbers during the bubonic plague in France. Ours has Lavender, Sage, Ginger and Turmeric.
It’s important to experiment because in many of the recipe books the quantities are very vague— they’ll say, ‘a head of Cabbage’ and ‘a tablespoon of salt’, for example. Well, the head of Cabbage could be any size and the salt— is that fine, or big heavy chunks? Rock salt or sea salt? So, experimentation isn’t without mishap. A product we recently developed with the Mac Kimchi blended into our Fermented Tomato Ketchup was selling quite happily for a couple of months before reports of exploding lids came in. We definitely have certain times definitely have certain times of the year when things are fizzier. Sometimes you open a lid, and nothing happens. Other times, you open a jar, and the bubbles will actually rise out of the jar. People get quite concerned when that happens, but it’s just proof that the contents are alive.
Struggling to break free from fervently indulging in samples of fermented vegetables (all of which are delicious, by the way), I eventually ask Ruth what the catalyst for all this was. What started her down the path to founding her own fermentarium? I nearly lose my mouthful of sauerkraut at the jaw-dropping response: A barefoot walk up Arthur’s Seat.
It was on this walk, which I’d been hesitantly dragged along to, where I got chatting to a lady called Faith. She happened to be running a short course in the basics of food fermentation at that time. I’d had this burgeoning intrigue in fermented foods and the conversation with her enthused me enough to go along and join her course. We tried a variety of fermented foods, made kimchi, sauerkraut, and water kafir granules and we did a kombucha SCOBY and a sourdough starter. The sourdough starter was the only thing I didn't get on with. To this day, I can spend days preparing only to turn out loaves like little bricks capable of breaking teeth. Thankfully, I’m not the only one this rings true for. So, whilst sourdough fell by the wayside, all the other things stuck. The day after the course, eating all this fermented food, I honestly felt absolutely amazing. Since then, I’ve been evangelical about it, and the idea for the Fermentarium began to grow organically after that.
Maybe four to six months into experimenting with the kimchi, my partner gifted me a series of life-coaching sessions for Christmas. That’s not the kind of thing I would usually be into but hey, since it was already bought and paid for, I couldn’t really refuse. So, I went along for the first session, just for a chat… The second time I saw her, she was talking all this stuff about fermentation. I was, like “Wow! You've gone away and researched all this!” but she said, “No, I'm just repeating back to you what you said to me.” I couldn’t believe I had said all that, but it really helped me to organise my ideas. Every week, the discussion led to an order of works, or a task list and by the following week I’d done something that contributed to helping everything else fall into place; finding the first kitchen, getting in touch with the farmers’ markets... Looking back, I’m wondering how on earth I did all this. I guess it speaks for the value of life coaching, and shows that if you are passionate about something then a wee push in the right direction is all you might need to take an idea to the next level.
I’m still sampling the goods, so I’ll let Ruth continue:
Aside from the countless health benefits which have been transformative on a personal level, there are so many amazing flavours that you can create through fermentation. We ferment everything for at least a month. You can taste the flavour developing over the weeks and by the time week five rolls around, it has become something much deeper.
I manage to squeeze another question between mouthfuls: Is there a point when it stops improving?
Some say so and some say not. It’s very subjective and quite a hot topic within the fermentation community. My friend Ted, who runs Kaffee Barbuto in Berlin, gave me a Kimchi that he’d been fermenting for a full year and wow! It was still crunchy and really pungent, but in the best way. He sells a lot of jars of fermented foods and makes kombucha with interesting ingredients; CBD, Chaga and other medicinal mushrooms. We have great chats. I recommend checking them out. It’s important to have these conversations because these techniques could do with being demystified. Starting out in fermentation can be overwhelming, and people need a bit of reassurance. Yes, it's the most ancient and safest form of food preservation there is but leaving Cabbages out on the counter for a month certainly seems counterintuitive to food hygiene rules! Many of the books on the subject make it sound very complicated. While there is a complex science at play, the starting point is quite simply adding salt to vegetables and letting the microbes go to work.
I’m part of a fermentation group, that a friend of mine set up, with various people from all over the UK and America. At the moment, we ’ re mostly discussing a controversy within the kombucha industry. There are lots of ways to make and store kombucha. So, you’ll see it in the fridge as well as on the shelves. In the latter instance, what the manufacturer has done is to ferment it into kombucha vinegar so there's no sugar in it. Then they add sugar, sweeteners, fruit flavour and, after that, force-carbonate. These mass producers want a smooth face, lots of bubbles and a long shelf life, so they pasteurise— which kills off any beneficial microbes. Basically, you’re just drinking chemicals and sugar. There is a lot that consumers don't know. I think some supermarkets do sell live stuff, so— if you see it in the fridge, it's alive; not so if it's on the shelf. So many people don't realise. With all our fermented products, as soon as they’re done, we test to make sure they’re safe, portion them into their jars or bottles, and then they go into the fridge. I mean, basically, you can tell by the smell. If it smells a bit like farty vegetables, it's fine.
You can order online, find your local stockist, sign up for the newsletter and find out more about products, special events and fermentation workshops at edinburghfermentarium.co.uk.
You can even get home delivery— that’s if there’s anything left here once I’ve finished sampling. I’m wondering if I could persuade Ruth to let me just try a taste of that one before I leave….
