Such traditional foods include sauerkraut in Northern Europe, kimchi in Korea, fish sauce in Southeast Asia and its ancient Roman equivalent, garum. There’s also soy sauce, tempeh, miso, yoghurt and other milk products including cheese, wine, beer, kombucha, sourdough bread, olives and fermented sausage. Maori also used mara kai, a traditional fermentation process in slow running water, to preserve crayfish and fish, and after European arrival, also corn, according to Charles Royal and Jenny Kaka-Scott in Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
However, apart from a few remnants, we have largely given up fermentation and other old ways of preservation such as salting and drying in favour of modern methods such as pasteurisation, freezing or adding preservatives.
We’ve also been persuaded to kill all bacteria, both beneficial and otherwise, with antibiotics, disinfectants and other bactericides.
But now, with growing emphasis on the benefits of a healthy microbiome in our guts and elsewhere in our body, we are coming to realise the importance of good bacteria which are not only beneficial to health but also protect us from harmful varieties. We can even buy probiotics, live micro-organisms claimed to provide health benefits and restore beneficial gut flora.
According to the Heart Foundation, fermentation can preserve foods, improve flavours and eliminate food toxins.
It also says many health benefits have been associated with fermented foods, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and inflammation. They have also been linked to better weight management, better mood and brain activity and increased bone health.
It’s no wonder there’s a revival of traditionally fermented foods with live cultures to help keep our gut flora healthy.
Marie-Jose Chauvin’s traditionally fermented, plant-based foods are alive, still containing the beneficial bacteria that fermented them, unlike some commercial brands that have been pasteurised, she says.
Originally from France, she used to make a popular French stew of carrot, onion, garlic and sauerkraut cooked with potatoes, meat and a bit of wine or beer. However, cooking sauerkraut meant you lost the beneficial bacteria, she said.
Her passion for fermenting her own food started with a glut of vegetables from her big garden and deciding to preserve them by fermentation.
"I started to ferment broccoli and other surplus vegetables. I really liked it and started to eat them, then really began to get into it."
She is fascinated by the history of fermented foods and the different types of bacteria, some of which were handed down from generation to generation. They were used for thousands of years and only discarded in the last century or so, she said.
"The new industrial era brought fridges and freezers and pasteurisation and preservatives and all those things so we don’t think we need [traditional fermented food] so we lost it. But with recent science and people getting sick they discovered these bacteria are really useful for us."
Soon she had a surplus of fermented vegetables and needed to sell some. At first the Oamaru Organics stall at the Saturday morning Otago Farmers Market sold them for her as she used their organic vegetables.
She and her partner Christophe were already running La Crepe stall at the market, but nearly three years ago she started her own stall, Marie’s Plant Based Foods.
She has worked with and learned from other people who produce artisanal fermented foods, one in Blenheim and another near Christchurch, she said.
Although she inoculates her vegetable ferments with a starter from an earlier batch, vegetables contain all the bacteria needed to start the ferment. For tempeh and her vegan cheese she uses specialised commercial cultures, she said.
Fermentation time depends on temperature and weather, and varies from one month to sometimes as long as six months.
"That is the trick with fermentation. You always have to be ahead, especially in the winter because it’s cooler so it takes longer."
The best temperature is around 18degC. If it’s too hot the result can be soft and mushy, she said.
All her products are packed in recycled jars. Plain but informative labels which she prints herself cover the original labels.
"It was quite a mission to put that into a sustainable business cycle. It’s a commitment, a lot of work to sort out the lids and jars — they all have different size screws. Now I know and select which product I put in which jars but it’s been a mission to work out the organisation, and asking people to bring back the jar. I always need more jars, but so far it’s been sustainable."
