Liz Crain's Blog

Nat West and Sarah West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider. Nat ALWAYS brings something interesting and experimental to the fest. So fun. This year he brought some of his ciderkin to sample. Ciderkin is made by using the traditional cidermaking technique of re-wetting the spent pomace (what Nat is holding) after the first pressing of juice is extracted from the apple. It was a bright yummy and appley sample that most festival-goers had never tried before. Thank you Nat and Sarah for always bringing...

2017’s Headless Horseman festival poster is by the incredible Mr. Tim Root — as always. The poster is downloadable over at our festival website if you want to have it and/or share it.

The Portland Fermentation Festival aka Stinkfest is less than a month away! I’m pasting the press release that I just sent out here below. Please have a gander and save the date! Want to participate as an exhibitor or do a demo this year?! Info. on how to do so below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Eighth Annual Portland...

Party time! Less than a week away!

In 2015 and 2016 I got to write two books and edit one. It was a wild (and very busy) ride that allowed me to have one book launch party in July — True Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People, another launch party in August — Hello! My Name is Tasty and a third launch party in September — next week’s Grow Your Own: Understanding, Cultivating, and Enjoying Cannabis!

We have put together one of the most ambitious and awesome book launch parties for...

Portland Fermentation Festival attendee 2016, “I can’t get the sound of the wailing, howling pickles out of my head! Never again. Those poor pickles.”

Well, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler AND the pickles are getting longer. Wait, what?! The date for the EIGHTH Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust (as al...

Kibbe’s Tomato Pie that I made at home. YUM!!

Nearly two years ago when we set off into researching, writing and recipe testing (out August 15th!!) we went on a 10-day Southeastern states road-trip from DC down to Savannah to gather inspiration for the book and get back to chef John Gorham’s roots.

Along the way we had plenty of adventures and met all sorts of sweethearts including Kibbe (whose full name is McK...

Left to right: Rhonda Hughes, Teruo Kurosaki, Liz Crain. Right before the party started. Kanpai!

Wow. What a party. Thank you so much to everyone who came out for our Hawthorne Books + Media Surf/Bridge Lab + Reverent Nat’s Hard Cider True Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People book launch party last Thursday night. 500+ people came out and raised their glasses (filled with Nat’s delicious Magnificent 7 made with seven Japanese apple varieties from Kiyokawa Family Orchards, Culmin...

The only problem with this photo is that Sarah Taft who took it isn’t in it and neither is Sarah Ryan-Knox because she left before we took it. Well, a lot of folks aren’t in the photo who’ve participated in our cook the Toro Bravo book dinner parties throughout the years but it’s hard to get everyone together. So fun.

The time has come for us to literally and figuratively close the book on our cooking the Toro Bravo cookbook parties. Over the years, since the book came out from McSweeney’s in...

I’m so lucky!! Me and Sandor signing books after his full house book event at Powell’s for the 2nd edition of Wild Fermentation. Wild Fermentation is the book that’s had the biggest and most positive impact on my life. Photo by Dane Fredericks of Powell’s Books.

I’ve been very lucky over the years to get to be “in conversation” with all sorts of incredible food and drink people such as Mark Bittman, Dana Cowin and now Sandor Ellix Katz at my favorite bookstore on the planet — Powell’s Books....

On day two of F3 I got to speak with Yusuke Sezaki, 4th generation owner of Kaneshichi katsuobushi, for awhile (thanks to Etsuyo who translated). I ended up leaving with his handmade kezuriki (katsuobushi grater box) and two of his perfectly paired katsuobushi that are smoked, sun dried and fermented for months. I gave him a copy of my book, some Bee Local honey and I invited him to the Portland Fermentation Festival. I hope that he comes! So lucky that I got to meet Yusuke.

I had the extreme...

Perennial festival favorite — Choi’s Kimchi. Co-owner Matt Choi on the right and family and business friend Moah Son on the left. Matt’s mom Chong — co-owner of Choi’s Kimchi stopped by for a minute but she’d been up the night before until 4am making kimchi so she was a littttttle tired and headed home. Matt was on last year’s and this year’s Panel of Fermentation Experts.

Well, we did it again — another wild, stinky and super fun Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust! This year’s Sevent...