What: Deep Roots Radio interview with Jim Bovino, partner at GYST. He is a fermentation specialist, urban farmer at the California Street Farm (NE Minneapolis), and cider maker at Keepsake Cidery in Dundas, Minnesota.
When: Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015, 9:00-9:30AM Central Time
Where: Broadcast and streamed live from the studios of WPCA Radio, 93.1FM and www.wpcaradio.org.
Why: Because fermented foods – wine, beer, chocolate, coffee, yogurt, kimchi, etc. – taste great and are good for you.

I’d been driving around the Twin Cities all afternoon. First there was my much needed haircut at E 42nd Street Salon in South Minneapolis. My second stop was the Mississippi Market natural foods coop in St. Paul, where I loaded up on napa cabbage, turnips, beets, and brussel sprouts. I’ll roast some and ferment others.
Ferment? you ask. Ahhh, good question. Fermenting is a way of preserving foods without the use of canning or freezing. It’s a practice that thousands of years old. Think kimchi, sauerkraut, chocolate, coffee, beer, bread, yogurt, wine, cheese and cured meats (salamis, for instance). Yup, all those foods are fermented, as are lots of pickles., and miso, and soy sauce, and… Well, you get the idea.
As it turns out, these foods are not only preserved through the fermentation process, they are often made much more nutritious.
Back to my day.
After buying those beautiful organically-grown vegetables, I browsed (and bought) at Half-Priced Books, and then headed back to Minneapolis for some wine and cheese at GYST, a brand new business in on 1st Ave and 26th Street where fine taste, value, health and environmental stewardship rule.
I was warmly greeted by Mel Guse, who with Ky Guse is on the four-person leadership team in this young venture.

I asked Jill Mott, the sommelier, to create the tasting plate for me. Because I like drier reds, and it was only 4:30 in the afternoon, she poured a glass of Poulsard Vielles Vignes Domaine Rolet from the bar’s very select assortment, wines chosen for flavor and the vineyard’s careful crafting. It was a medium-pale rose color and had a caramel-like fragrance. Jill put the same close attention to the cheeses paired with the wine: a soft cheese from Buffalo Creek Creamery (Plato, MN), a Mont Vully from Switzerland which was made with the milk of pastured cows, and a 6-month-old Verano made with raw sheep milk (Putney, VT). Shredded pickled beets, and dried cherries from Door County, Wisconsin, completed the plate.
And if this weren’t enough, because I was seated at the bar, I enjoyed the meal in the company of both Jill and Jim Bovino, the fermentation specialist.
Why the focus on fermented foods? Tune in tomorrow, and find out.
Sylvia

It seems I’m on a crowded train. Everybody’s climbing into the kitchen car and fermenting veggies on the farm.
Fermenting? you ask. Yeah, like kimchi and sauerkraut, and sourdough bread.
So what happens when a Newyorkina (New York Puertorican woman) makes Korean kimchi on her Wisconsin cattle farm? Holy fusion, Batman!
Tune in to find out.

What: Deep Roots Radio with Sylvia Burgos Toftness and Dave Corbett
When: Saturday, December 27, 9:00-9:30AM Central time
Where: Live and streamed from the studios of WPCA Radio, 93.1FM and www.wpcaradio.org

See you then.

Sylvia

A couple of the books I’m using:
– The Art of Fermentation, by Sandor Ellix Katz
– Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning, by The Gardeners & Farmers of Terre Vivante

More and more municipalities are reversing old restrictions and once again allowing home owners to raise chickens in their own backyards. This means more and more of us are enjoying fresh eggs (unlike anything you’ll find in the grocery store), and the company of hens.
Since lots of city folk have little experience with poultry, you can imagine the questions and worries that arise when snow falls, dogs threaten, birds develop a cough, or chicks arrive!
Lots of blogs and books have emerged to meet the growing demand for practical information. One of the most popular – in print and on the web – is Fresh Eggs Daily.
On Saturday, Dec. 13, we’ll chat with author/blogger Lisa Steele about managing the small – and larger – flock. A fifth-generation chicken keeper, Lisa is an amazing resource about the natural management of the home flock. I hope you’ll tune in.

What: Deep Roots Radio interview with Lisa Steele, author/blogger of Fresh Eggs Daily
When: Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014, 9:00-9:30AM Central
Where: Broadcast and streamed live from the studios of WPCA Radio, 93.1 FM and www.wpcaradio.org