Anyone who has wondered about the variety of foods and beverages that benefit from fermentation should pull up a chair. Southern Oregon’s Fermentopia festival offers three dining events along with its popular marketplace Jan. 24-25 brimming with cultured, bubbly and flavorful fermented food in the Rogue Valley city of Phoenix.
The block-party-style weekend festival kicks off Friday, Jan. 23, with a Raclette Cheese Social offered by the Oregon Cheese Cave at 312 N. Main St. People can order curated tastings of the semi-soft cow’s milk cheese along with local wines.
On Saturday and Sunday, ticket holders ($7) can meet more than 35 artisan makers offering samples, from Rogue Creamery cheeses to pickled vegetables and artisan chocolates, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at the festival hub, the Phoenix Plaza Civic Center at 220 N. Main St.
People can learn more about the ancient fermentation method at the U Ferment Supply Store booth. The process uses naturally occurring yeast and bacteria to preserve food and enhance flavors, as in sourdough breads, and create alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.
Other vendors will be selling made-from-scratch products, including zesty Garliki vegan culinary paste and Tortuga Gordo’s Funk Monster hot sauce.
Farmer Krista Vegter Trujillo of nearby La Fuente Market, a retail food hub, butchery and heritage carnicería, will be outside the Phoenix Plaza Civic Center serving from her Eat Pistola’s food cart.
She will have a 12-ounce bowl of pozole rojo with fermented garlic ($10), carnitas taco plate with fermented tatemate salsa ($12) and a brisket sandwich with Moxie Brew jalapeño sauce ($15).
1/13
Moxie Brew Tap House
On Saturday evening, Lisa and Alyssa Brown, the mother-and-daughter owners of Moxie Brew Tap House at 106 E. First St., are hosting their second annual Ferments Dinner paired with wine and nonalcoholic cocktails ($75) from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
The five courses created by Chef Brandon Highstone showcase Moxie Brew’s tasty fermented ingredients.
Five years ago, the Browns started offering kombucha as a nonalcoholic beverage for its probiotic health benefits and low sugar content. Moxie Brew is now on tap at more than 40 locations in the Rogue Valley and in Bend.
At the brewery and tap house, the culinary team makes bread with the kombucha yeast starter and uses kombucha byproducts for vinegars, sauces and pickled beets and other vegetables.
“There are so many directions you can go with fermented, preserved, cured food, even pickled meats and fish,” said Alyssa Brown.
The Ferments Dinner menu includes:
- Amuse bouche: Rogue Creamery lavender cheddar in phyllo dough with strawberry vanilla glaze
- First course: Ginger-cured salmon with pickled beets, chèvre, orange turmeric foam paired with gin, beet orange and ginger kombucha and triple sec
- Second course: Tomato kefir panna cotta with shrimp, Parmesan and basil paired with barrel-aged Blossom Barn Cider
- Third course: Roasted mushrooms with dark rye bread, edible moss, fermented leek and truffle oil paired with RoxyAnn Winery’s cab franc
- Fourth course: Fermented pork belly with yam purée, asparagus and blackberry kombucha demi-glaze paired with Caldera Brewery Huckleberry Hazy IPA
- Fifth course: Fermented cashew cheesecake with cranberry, and chocolate paired with vodka, fermented cranberry, white crème de cacao and vanilla bitters
1/3
Side Yard Farm & Kitchen
On Sunday, Chef Stacey Givens of Side Yard Farm & Kitchen with two locations is offering a Seed to Plate Ferments brunch at her Phoenix location. Tickets are $65 for a 9:30 a.m. or noon seating.
Givens is the owner of Side Yard Farm & Kitchen, a one-acre urban farm in Northeast Portland and the communal dining table, event space and farm shop at 180 N. Main St. in Phoenix.
Givens learned to grow, forage and preserve food from their mother and Yiayia (grandmother), skills used to create delicious, nutritious meals.
At the Side Yard Farm & Kitchen in Northeast Portland, Givens has offered a chef residency this year to Mona Johnson of Tournant, who will host open-fire cooking for private events and community farm-to-table dinners and workshops.
Givens is best known for seed-to-plate dining that combines regenerative farming with culinary creativity, and a whole plant cooking philosophy that uses stems to the blossoms, seeds and leaves.
The family-style Seed to Plate Ferments brunch includes:
- Lil’ Sweet cream biscuits with cultured “Frenchy” butter
- Sourdough donuts
- Fermented quince pastry cream with cardamom and pistachio
- Porky Pastrami Benedict made with cured and smoked pork belly, kimchi crumpet, daikon radish pickles and poached egg with nasturtium caper hollandaise
- Smashed and fried potatoes with herbage and sea salt
- Breaky salad with winter greens, beets, Hakurei turnips and radishes and pickled Magnolia Farmer’s cheese
- Sunchoke crisps preserved in Meyer lemon dressing
Drinks available include Spicy Bloody with Farmy pickles and Lovage salt; mimosas, fresh juice; and Cerberus coffee.
The Fermentopia festival also features artisan products that support fermentation culture, including handcrafted pottery crocks, chopping boards, cookbooks and finishing salts.
“Discover a symphony of bold flavors and endless nutritional benefits perfect for winter wellness,” said festival founder Karolina Lavagnino of Wild Thyme Productions, who is producing her third Fermentopia event in Phoenix.
“This is your chance to taste, sip, shop and learn directly from the makers themselves while exploring the ancient tradition of fermentation that has sustained communities through winter for centuries,” she said in a news release.
If you go: Southern Oregon’s Fermentopia festival is Jan. 23-25 in the Rogue Valley city of Phoenix. The main festival hub is the Phoenix Plaza Civic Center at 220 N. Main St. Parking is free.
Culinary experiences are next door at the Oregon Cheese Cave (312 N. Main St.), Side Yard Farm & Kitchen (180 N. Main St.) and Moxie Tap House (106 E. First St.).
Tickets to the marketplace, open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 24-25, are $7 per day at theFermentopia.com; kids 12 and under free.