These fermented carrots are a favorite around here. They are easy to add to meals and snacks. I have included below one of the first SHINE emails with information about the health benefits of eating fermented foods. Recipe follows.
SHINE email 2018
This week we have an easy and nourishing recipe to go with a discussion about fermented foods. One way that SHINE is intended to bolster wellness is by offering concepts for you to study and contemplate. When we see new wellness concepts we can't just accept their value and integrate them. We need to investigate and contemplate. We need to ask questions and we need to play with solutions. Fermentation has long been used as a way to preserve foods. Our anscetors were creative and learned many ways to take the products available to them and process them to save for later. They used baking, drying, stewing, fermenting and combinations of these to make calories and nutrients available longterm. This creativity led to regional cuisine and regional diets. As modern people, removed from the food chain, we only focused on the flavors of our foods and the growling in our tummies. We became less interested in the process. Here, we encountered an underlying and hidden dilemma. While our ancestors were creating traditional flavors and recipes, our bodies were evolving to eat those foods. Maybe we don't notice the difference between industrial sourdough bread and wild-caught and risen local starter, but our bodies do. These modern foods do not nourish us as deeply as we need or as our bodies have evolved to expect.
Traditional diets are relevant to the regions they were developed. Not only are the specific foods important, but the process ( bake, ferment, dry), and the way these foods fit in with other daily practices ( work, weather, sleep, social expectations). Recently, we have begun to notice this correlation. The study of these Blue Zones has expanded as we try to understand why some cultures age more gently than others.
When we make food relevant to our lives, it becomes easier to prepare and easier to enjoy and nourish ourselves as well. Below is a recipe for fermented carrot sticks. I like to keep these around for myself. They are easy and quick to prepare and then I have them to add to sandwiches, salads, or eat as a snack. Fermented foods have wonderous health benefits and we are only beginning to understand how deeply these foods are connected with our overall health and wellbeing. Fermented foods provide probiotics but that is only the beginning! We are now learning that the overall health of our bellies is connected with our physical, mental, emotional and even social health.
This paper provides a review of research about fermented foods and their beneficial connection with brain and cognitive health. If you don't need to know all the details, just remember this: You are a magnificent and complex ecosystem. The food you eat is processed in your stomach and either nutrients or signals about that food are then sent to the rest of your body. We give our bodies valuable and relevant information in the form of food. When we eat without concern for the process, then our body's ability to communicate with itself and heal itself will be diminished. One simple way we can provide the information our bodies need is by eating local and handmade foods whenever possible. When we eat local foods, they possess information about the environment and they become relevant to our region and our lives.
Ingredients:
Carrots
Salt
3 cloves of Garlic
Water
Process:
Choose some pretty carrots.
Make a 2% salt-water brine. 2TBS of sea salt/2 cups of water. You will need 4TBS of salt to 4 cups of water for this recipe. Add salt and water to the jar and give it a shake until it is dissolved.
Slice 3 cloves of garlic and place in the bottom of a quart size jar.
Chop all the carrots to about the same size ( the height of your jar), and then slice into sticks. Pack tightly into the jar on top of the garlic.
Pour the salt water brine over the carrots and garlic, leave about an inch of space at the top of the jar.
If you have a glass weight or small saucer you can weight down the carrots, but they will be packed pretty tightly. You want to keep the carrots below the brine so they ferment. If they are stick out above the brine level they will mold instead.
Now close the jar with a lid. You will need to "burp" the carrots daily. Soon, when you loosen the lid there will be some fizzing and they may even leak over. Just tighten the lid and dry off the jar. It will take about 3-4 days for these carrots to be the way I like. I like them tangy but still firm. You can taste them around day 3 and decide if they need a little more time.