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Get Cultured At L.A.'s First Fermentation Festival
Time to get pickled at the L.A. Fermentation Festival (via Facebook)
Whether you're a beer drinker, kombucha sipper, pickle lover or sourdough enthusiast, fans of all things fermented will have the chance to share their food nerd enthusiasm and love of culture(s) at L.A.'s first Fermentation Festival.
The inaugural festival, which will take place at the Venice Arts Plaza on July 12, will feature a wide range of fermented food and beverages to sample, as well as hands-on demonstrations. Kimchi, kefir and kraut? Yeah, they'll be there, along with plenty of other delicious things that are totally made from bacteria—fortunately the good kind—courtesy of local vendors and farmers. Throughout the day there will also be opportunities to learn fermentation from the experts at hilariously-named areas like the 'Pickle Pavilion' or the 'Culture Petting Zoo', where you can touch and learn about your favorite starter cultures.
At the festival, you'll also be able to show off your own fermentation skills at the 'Screamin' Pickle Contest' or stock up on your gear for home brewing and pickling at the fermentation supply shops. And let's not forget about one of our favorite fermented items: alcohol. You'll definitely want to head to the Farm-to-bar area where you can sample a variety of fermented alcoholic beverages, including wild wine, feral beer, cider, mead, jun, kvass, sake, farm-to-bar cocktails and much more.
Founded by mother and daughter team Lynn Hartman and Katie Hershfelt, the Fermentation Festival got it's start (or starter, if you will) in Santa Barbara in 2011. After hosting five successful and sold-out events in the area, the duo decided to bring the event to Los Angeles, where we really love our fermented foods and beverages. Hershfelt explains in a press release for the event:
The Santa Barbara Fermentation Festival sells out every year. With so many of our attendees making the trip from Los Angeles, it was only natural to expand the event’s reach to L.A. to bring these beneficial foods to a new audience. We couldn’t be more excited to share the wild world of ferments with Los Angelenos.
Tickets for the event can be purchased from the festival event page and you can learn more about what sort of pickled goodness will be fermenting at the festival from their Facebook page.
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