BATTLE GROUND POTTER Careen Stoll produces a line of beautiful, unglazed, porcelain fermentation pots at her converted barn home studio. Stoll’s functional pottery can be found at several Portland area shops and on her website, at www.fire-keeper.org.
BATTLE GROUND – If you’ve been scrolling through health blogs or scouring the news for the latest health trends over the past few years, chances are good that you’ve come across the phrase “gut flora” at least once.
Health researchers, doctors and natural health practitioners all seem to agree that replenishing our body’s own useful gut bacteria helps with everything from intestinal distress to preventing colon cancer. One of the easiest ways to build healthy gut flora is to eat foods rich in beneficial microbes, like yogurt and fermented foods such as sauerkraut and the Korean food staple known as kimchi.
In a 2014 article published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology, researchers even linked fermented foods, which are naturally high in the types of probiotics our bodies need, with lowered rates of anxiety and depression and conclude that “modern research is highlighting the potential value of ancestral dietary practices (fermentation, in particular) on mental health.”
“We need a diverse collection of probiotics to have good digestion, and fermented foods are high in beneficial bacteria,” says Careen Stoll, a Battle Ground potter and permaculturist.
Stoll, 38, says she first started researching the benefits of fermented foods about four years ago, after experiencing some health problems of her own.
Friends in Portland turned Stoll on to the nourishing properties of bone broth and, eventually, to the health benefits of fermented foods.
“My friends were fermenting their own foods and I said, ‘You know, I could make you a crock for that,’” Stoll recalls.
Flash forward four years and Stoll’s fermentation crocks are sold in several shops throughout Portland, including Portland Homestead Supply store in Sellwood, her friends’ Salt Fire and Time’s Broth Bar, Pistil Nursery, Mirador Kitchen and Home, and MilkGlass Market.
Stoll creates the curvy, unglazed porcelain pots on a potter’s wheel at her studio outside Battle Ground. On a recent sunny afternoon, Stoll sat with a reporter on the tiny balcony of her converted barn-studio-home, drinking lemon water out of hand made pottery and watching her landlords’ goats and ducks roam in a field below. The conversation focused on Stoll’s work as a potter and on her love of all things fermented.
Getting her line of fermentation crocks off the ground was not an overnight process, Stoll says. In fact, despite nearly two decades’ of pottery experience, designing the pots was no easy chore.
“The design process took me about four months,” Stoll says. “There was a lot of trial and error. A lot of experimenting.”
In the end, Stoll went with a curvaceous crock made from an unglazed, heavy-duty porcelain. The end result was a fermentation crock that would be sanitary, resisting mold by keeping moisture out, as well as lovely to look at and hold.
The smooth, curvaceous pots are available in a variety of sizes – from the tiny three-cup crocks to Stoll’s largest, a five-liter crock that makes about 20 cups of fermented veggies – but the most popular size is the medium sized, two-liter crock, which retails for $150. That crock is small enough to fit nicely in a kitchen, but can easily make enough fermented food for a small family, Stoll says. To clean the fermentation pots, you just use soap and water.
Stoll loves fermenting her own veggies, greens, herbs and fruits. And, she says, ever since finding the bone broth and fermentables, her own health concerns from four years ago have disappeared.
“I experiment with different flavors and combinations,” Stoll says of her own fermenting process.
Often, she ferments the veggies and greens that are in season and available in her own backyard or at a local farmer's’ market. Depending on her mood, she’ll add spices, herbs and dried fruit to make a more interesting flavor profile.
“I think about it like I’m cooking,” Stoll says. “I’ll throw some onion or garlic in … or maybe some dried fruit like raisins or prunes to help sweeten it out and make it more mellow. Sometimes, when I make Kimchi, I add dried pineapple. It’s delicious!”
The steps for fermenting your own foods are quite simple, Stoll says. First, you gather your veggies and greens. For a basic sauerkraut, this might mean chopping a couple heads of cabbage and calling it good. A basic kimchi recipe might include cabbage, red pepper, radishes, carrots, green onions and a seasoning blend of ginger, crushed red pepper, chili peppers and garlic.
Next, chop the veggies and greens, keeping in mind that larger pieces will take longer to ferment. Add some natural sea salt to the mixture, rubbing it into the veggie mixture. Many recipes also call for a starter culture such as kefir grains or whey or a commercial starter powder. Stoll doesn’t use a starter, instead relying on sea salt and the quality, organic veggies she uses to add their own natural bacteria to the fermentation process. If you’re trying to decide what to use – a salt-only fermentation, whey or other starter – check out the handy guide to fermentation at www.culturesforhealth.com/compare-salt-whey-starter-culture-ferment-vegetables-fruits-condiments.
Next, says Stoll, “get a nice, big bowl and rub with the salt, using your hands, until the veggies start to soften and their natural brine releases.” Some veggies might take a few hours to release this brine, so you may want to leave them in the bowl, covered with a cheesecloth, until the brine covers the veggie mixture.
Now it’s time to pack the mixture into your fermentation crock. Stoll packs her veggies in by hand (using other tools can damage the crock), and makes sure they’re as tightly packed as possible. You want the veggies to be packed into the crock, with a nice layer of liquid brine covering them and filling the crock to the top. If the brine does not come to the top of the crock, you can add a little bit of water to the mixture.
After the mixture is packed into the fermentation pot, use the three weights that come with the fermentation crock to weigh the mixture down. The brine will rise above the stones, while the veggies are locked below. Pour water into the waterlock, the “lip” at the top of the crock and place the lid on to form a watertight seal.
Once fermentation starts, you will hear little gurgles from your pot.
“You know that it’s ready when the ‘blurps,’ the sound of gas being released, have really slowed down,” Stoll says.
Some mixtures take a week, others take a month, it just depends on what you’re fermenting and on the size of the chunks of fermentables – for instance, a finely grated cabbage will ferment much faster than a pot full of large carrot chunks.
For those who want to experiment with fermenting before committing to the purchase of a fermentation pot, Stoll also makes small doughnut-shaped stones that fit into a wide-mouth mason jar. Those stones are sold at the Portland Homestead Supply shop in Portland’s Sellwood neighborhood, as well as through Stoll’s own website.
“I never say I’m an artist. I’ve always tried to make things that are functional,” Stoll says. “I strive to live, work and fire in ways that minimize my carbon footprint and keep my body healthy.”
To read more about Stoll’s commitment to permaculture, see a selection of her pottery work, or order a fermentation crock, visit www.fire-keeper.org.
