Wildcrafted Fermentation: Exploring, Transforming, and Preserving the Wild Flavors of Your Local Terroir

by Pascal Baudar

“I am in awe of this book”―Sandor Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation

Wild krauts and kimchis, fermented forest brews, seawater brines, plant-based cheeses, and more with over 100 easy-to-follow recipes! 

Featured in The Independent’s (UK) "7 Best Fermentation Books of 2020"

One of the most influential tastemakers of our time invites you on an extraordinary culinary journey into the lacto-fermentation universe of common wild edibles. Used for thousands of years by different cultures all around the world, lacto-fermentation is the easiest, safest, and most delicious way to preserve food. And nature provides all the necessary plants, salt, and the beneficial lactic acid bacteria found everywhere.

In Wildcrafted Fermentation, Pascal Baudar describes in detail and through step-by-step color photos how to create rich flavorful

At homeFrom the wild plants in your local landscapeFrom the cultivated plants in your gardenFrom sauerkrauts and kimchis to savory pastes, hot sauces, and dehydrated spice blends, Baudar includes more than 100 easy-to-follow, plant-based recipes to inspire even the most jaded palate. The step-by-step photos illustrate foraging, preparation, and fermentation techniques for both wild and cultivated plants that will change your relationship to the edible landscape and give you the confidence to succeed like a pro.

So much more than a cookbook, Wildcrafted Fermentation offers a deeply rewarding way to reconnect with nature through the greens, stems, roots, berries, fruits, and seeds of your local terroir. Adventurous and creative, this cookbook will help you rewild your probiotic palate and “create a cuisine unique to you and your environment.”

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Science, Food and Drink, Health

291 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2020

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Pascal Baudar and have been enthusiastically awaiting this book for over a year. I am in some Facebook groups with Pascal and follow him on social media, so I've seen some of the photos and read updates about the wild non-dairy cheeses he was making and other projects he was undertaking for this book. I was so excited to get to preview a digital ARC and read it.

I still love Pascal but I didn't get as much from the book as I expected, despite it being a nearly 300 page book. I can't use most of the recipes for several reasons. Firstly, he forages in California and the wild plants available to him are very different from those I generally forage in Minnesota. With the exception of a few wild plants that you can find just about anywhere like acorns and garlic mustard, there are so many recipes that just call for vastly different ingredients than those that I can forage. Secondly, his recipes tend to be more ideas than specific recipes. He is good at telling you the general way he made something and then you are supposed to experiment and do something similar on your own. Thirdly, we just have quite different tastes in food. As beautiful as a non-dairy cheese is when it's wrapped in "forest floor" dried leaves and sticks, I don't really want to make the crust of my cheeses out of dried plant material that tastes like a forest floor. Likewise, his taste in fermented foods is just quite a bit more funky, shall we say. He likes potent, bitter, spicy, strong flavors. I am more of a fermented elderberry honey or lactofermented wild asparagus kind of person and he is a spicy garlic mustard kimchi kind of person. Lastly, there weren't actually that many recipes in the book and most of the wild foods that I would love to ferment were never mentioned at all.

I still love the book and love Baudar. I don't know that I'll buy this one (I own and love his wild brewing book), but it's one that I'm so glad that I read and that I definitely learned from and loved reading. Baudar remains my favorite living foraging author (Euell Gibbons is my favorite ever), and I will continue to marvel at his creativity and applaud his foraging spirit.

All of Baudar's books are pretty much must-reads for anyone who loves foraging. There's nobody like him and his passion and knowledge are fantastic. Just keep in mind that you need a pretty good skill set to implement a lot of his recipes. Also note that this book does not contain ID information.

Highly recommended for those who love foraging or fermenting or those who really want to learn more about wild fermentation.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

[OjoAusana · Rating 5 out of 5]

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This is a bit advanced for the most part since ive never tried fermentation before but wow this has some wild (lol) recipes! really want to buy a copy and try some of these recipes on a long trip up north! also love the photos!

[Jacqui Huntley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book by an enthusiast of the first order and should be read as such. Fundamentally it's about fermenting a wide variety of plant foods safely and, for the practicalities of this, it's great. The author does like his wild plants, let's face it - he's a devoted eccentric - but equally happy to give options for supermarket purchases for the less adventurous or those away from "terroirs". I like the use of Latin names (with the English as well) making sure we know what plants he's talking about, but then, I'm a botanist by training. He deals with safety and ethics - what and where you might forage - in a practical way too. The basics are well illustrated as are many of his jars of ferments. I like the stories attached to the chapters which make this a book to read as well as use in the kitchen. He's happy to say what didn't quite work - too many nettles or dandelions - and talks about the various pitfalls on the way to the plate. The mushroom achar recipe works well although, naturally, I didn't "quite" follow his recipe - I used some oriental greens I had in the tunnel, omitted the curry powder and used some water kefir culture as the starter - but he encourages experimentation and variation! Pity I didn't get this book earlier as the wild radish pods in barbecue spice blend sounds really good; sadly the not wild radish pods went on the compost heap a few weeks ago! I'm early on in my fermentation journey but this book will certainly help me move along that road via a mixture of common sense and enthusiasm. Thanks to NetGalley and Chelsea Green Publishing for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Carissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of my absolutely new favorite authors. Not only is Pascal incredibly knowledgeable, very familiar with food science and safety, but he finds ways to make you appreciate where you live, and THAT is what I want to see more. Making brews, breads, beers, or whatever, is great and all, but we are surrounded by not just under utilized foods, but flavors as well. And what better way to appreciate it than to find ways to fascinating foods you'd never find in your store, and possibly not even the farmer's market? I just adore this so much and how accessible it is and how much it sparks inspiration.

[Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as a book to read, this is not your best choice. As far as a book to change the way you think about fermenting, forging, and/or how home cooks can combine the two, this is a great resource. I executed exactly zero (0) of the recipes, but I've got lots of ideas percolating, or dare I say fermenting, from reading through.

[Cobramor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sandor is still the king

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference guide!

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book on fermenting. Creative and inspiring.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Wildcrafted Fermentation is a tutorial guide with encyclopedic coverage of the technical process of lactofermentation of edibles with an emphasis on foraged foods. Due out 12th March 2020 from Chelsea Green Publishing, it's 304 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats (paperback available now).

Author Pascal Baudar has written several solid books on wildcrafting along with fermentation previously and this one is a good addition to the library for both wildcrafters/self-sufficiency fans as well as explorers of diets based on natural foods and probiotics. The author's writing style is authentic, authoritative, science based, and accessible.

The introduction covers a little bit of history and cultural backgrounds for fermentation of foodstuffs as well as a capsule history of the author's personal fermentation journey, and segues nicely into the following technique and recipe chapters. The rest of the book follows a logical format, starting with basic techniques and a little biochemistry (layman accessible, not too technical), exploring and figuring out local terroir (unique characteristics of climate and ecology which impart a unique 'flavor stamp' on foods and produce from that area). There are chapters covering local ingredients, sourcing and utilizing them, as well as specific recipe tutorials for soups, pastes, spreads, sauces, cheeses and more.

The recipes themselves are clear, concise, and easy to follow. The ingredients are (mostly) easily sourced in any relatively well stocked grocery store. Most of the more difficult to find items have specific easy-to-find substitutes mentioned in the recipes. The ingredients are listed bullet style in a sidebar with both American standard measures and metric in parentheses - yay!). The photography throughout the book is clear, plentiful, and well done. Most all of the recipes and some of the process instructions are accompanied by photos.

The book also contains a cross referenced index and resource links list for further reading.

A competently written and useful niche book which would make a good selection for wildcrafters, homesteaders, natural foods enthusiasts, preppers, adventurous cooks and foodies.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

[Brandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been doing wildcrafting for a few years now but have never tried anything with fermentation so when I saw this book I was intrigued. I want to start by saying this books has a great introduction that really gives you insight into how the author came to begin wildcrafted fermentation and eventually write this book. One of my absolute most favorite parts about this book is that is touches on sustainability issues and on us being part of the solution. So often you find books on wildcrafting or plants and herbs and the issue of sustainability is never touched on, so the fact that the author included that was really wonderful.

Chapter one gives you all the basics you'll need to begin with basic fermentation and talks about food safety. It also goes into the different kinds of ferments you can do of which there are five; Basic Fermentation, Brine-based Ferments, Liquid Ferments, Fermented Pastes, and "Loose Ingredient" Ferments. This chapter explains in great detail how to do each of these, it also includes high quality colored photos that really add to the overall quality of the guides. The information on checking Ph levels and on "breaking the rules" and supervising or "working with" your ferment were extremely helpful.

Chapter two goes on to talk about exploring nature in your area and on being educated in plant identification. This is also where you get into the "recipes" and continue with them through the rest of the book. I really enjoyed the Wild Food Salsa and the Fermented Cattail Shoot Hearts in Spicy Sauce (They are still fermenting so I don't know how they will turn out but I enjoyed the process). The process of Fermenting in Forest Floor was something I had never heard of before and I found it incredibly interesting, it's the process of infusing forest flavors into regular ingredients such as radish. Another process in the book that I would love to try (but unfortunately only live near bodies of fresh water) is Fermenting with Sea Water.

There was so much new information in this book and it was delivered in a clear and concise manner. The instructions are detailed yet easy to follow and the book is full of so many different fermentations. I am looking forward to trying more of them soon.

I will definitely be buying a hard copy of this book for my kitchen as I can't wait to work into trying some of the more difficult fermentations.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wildcrafted Fermentation" is a book on how to ferment plants that you have foraged locally. He doesn't include a plant ID guide, but he tells you how to look up this information online for your local area. The plants that he mentions in his recipes are ones that should be available throughout the United States and parts of Europe. However, he's mostly teaching what he's learned about fermenting different types of plants so that you can use that knowledge on what you find locally.

The author started off by explaining the basics of fermentation and talked about several different methods of fermentation, including your basic cabbage ferment and brine ferment. He also talked about how to make fermented sauces, soups, spreads, pastes, drinks, and plant-based cheeses. He described what he's learned about fermenting roots, leaves, leafy vegetables, stems, bark, berries, and fruit.

Some of the recipes had pictures showing step-by-step what to do so that you can understand the basic method. He included basic instructions for a type of fermentation (like fermenting mushrooms) and then included several recipes using those ingredients and different seasonings. These are recipes that he has developed that he enjoys. Since his focus was on taste rather than health benefits, sometimes he did a shorter ferment because he prefers the taste at that point. As someone who has done basic fermenting before, his instructions seem very doable and understandable. Overall, I think this would be a good book even for beginners to fermenting, but especially for people who want to expand the range of what they ferment.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[LittleRead · Rating 4 out of 5]

There seems to be a huge resurgence in fermentation and I’m glad for it! A local restaurant here in Oklahoma City caught my attention with their use of their own wildcrafted fermented goodies and I wanted to learn more, which is how I found this book.

Most of us are familiar with sauerkraut, but there are so many other options and the author presents these to you. I’m going to be a wild rafter fermentation machine in 2020! The plant based cheese chapter really intrigued me. While I am not a vegan and I love milk cheeses, I have friends who won’t touch milk cheeses.

This is going to be fun to try out some new recipes and see where they take me!

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fermentation process has been used for food preservation for many generations. This generation has "discovered" this process in a quest to improve our diets and therefore our lives. After 50 years of preserving my garden using many differing types of fermentation, I was unsure if I'd find anything new in this book, but I did. Pascal Baudar has obviously spent considerable time and effort to be as inclusive as possible. This book would be a great resource for any home gardener or naturalist looking to preserve and improve their overall diets.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book, for free, in exchange for an honest review.

This book is perfect for its audience the only problem is I think its audience is a bit smaller than it needs to be. Regular foragers will find plentiful information and resources from an author who seems to both know his stuff and care deeply about it. On the other hand, someone who is only interested in weird native vegetables or fermentation might not find the recipes too exciting and would be better off sticking to a normal fermentation book.

[k2148 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wildcrafted Fermentation: Exploring, Transforming, and Preserving the Wild Flavors of Your Local Terroir. By Pascal Baudar. 2020. Chelsea Green Publishing (ARC eBook).

A colorful and informative foray into fermentation. I was looking forward to learning recipes beyond kombucha and traditional sauerkraut and boy does this book deliver.

*Chelsea Green Publishing ARC via NetGalley

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about fermentation and using what can be found in nature. I think this one could probably work best in the US, as some of the things mentioned in this book can't be found in Norway. I like the concept though.

[Ro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the nature and fermenting foods like pickles and cabbage. This was a very good learning experience.