The dust is settling on Sauerkrautathon; the sauerkraut we made weighed in on 26th October at a stonking 359.6kgs and every last shred was given away by the end of the following week. Jo and I are sorting through photos and documents to provide Guinness with the info they require to prove our claim to have made the largest recorded amount of bacterially fermented cabbage. There are pictures on our Sauerkrautathon.com website of the day itself and the weigh in, but I think one of my favourites is this one.
Jo met Mara when she attended Sandor Katz’s fermentation residential in Tennessee in April. Mara runs her own fermentation business in Denver and was sufficiently intrigued by our idea to join us for the week. She cooked us some amazing food, briefed our fermenting facilitators and encouraged our choppers. She stayed calm, thoughtful and good humoured throughout and then sealed the vats at the end of the day. Next to her is Pao who runs her own fermenting business PaoPickles - they had only met a few days before when Mara taught a fermenting class in Hackney. We all share a fascination with fermentation and love to share our enthusiasm. This spirit of collaboration, and with other fermenters who came and helped on the day - made Sauerkrautathon so much more than a race for a record. We were all the richer for taking part.