The Fermentary

Enjoying a couple of very fresh and cleansing ales by our friends from after a sold out festival …. The most life affirming thing - to watch people tasting and gathering together - work mates, families, parents with grown kids and their kids - tasting yummy food, sitting down to eat it - seeing and hearing reactions to our ferments and sharing that together. Ah we love it. Also chatting and reuniting with the talented dedicated and inspiring makers - cheese & wine makers, brewers, distillers and all kinds of food preservers: putting down what’s fresh and abundant to be enjoyed later. What’s not to love about this festival! See you in Perth. X (and Brisbane and back up to Sydney again in Nov.) x

Ok SYDNEY - it’s Mould time again. We are here at Carriageworks all weekend - with Lulu and our fabulous intern Mia from serving it up. Come and say hi!! 🧀🥬🥒

I met Tess Masters when she came to a workshop a year or so ago - and when she’s in town she pops in for kimchi, krauts or water kefir … and obviously a chat and usually a hug. I think maybe the second time we met - we realised we had each others books! How fun is that???! Tess had moved back to Melbs for a bit from the US, so we had a lot of things in common - oh how I love her work and her drive (please check her out particularly if peri- menopausal etc at the moment she has a lot of good things going on there for that - anyway - i was honoured to record this interview for her podcast. Check it out and learn more about who she has interviewed and listen to this little one with me! ❤️

We’ll have a stand and I’ll also be presenting at this market - hope to see you there.

Staying back later to get some Koji on….I guess due to demand, a sold out class and our month of Hakkō - I have my Koji mojo back. It’s been a while. Whats not to love about this gorgeous national fungus of Japan? X

Feels so good to see these three in action. We have new flavours at - come and try white kimchi , turmeric, black pepper & ginger and the wakame and ginger! X

You heard right! is taking over the back bench to pour coffee today and tomorrow. Come and say hi! As usual we are outing xx serving little snacks by and

We’ve been going along fairly quietly… shop was only meant for a survival period fresh out of darj times… for workshops, packing mail orders, events, officey stuff and then we opened a few days a week for pick ups and browsers. But as it turns out…it’s nearly the end of our third year in this little shop - so I guess we are decidedly and a little more loudly here! And serving up things that’ll warm you and nourish your gut & soul - coffee and and tea as well as some of sake kasu related nibbles, our own drinks and treats as well depending on the day.

Thursday & Friday 9-6 and Saturday 9-5. ❤️✨🎂 and whenever the broom or sign is out … hahah we have t changed that much.

This mornings breakfast using rice left over from last night - with natto & shoyu - and an egg with a drizzle of shio-koji. Rice was a bit crunchy at the bottom. Perfect. 👌 we have a little natto and koji demonstration, tasting and discussion coming up. x

Water kefir batch made ✔️
The first ferment is 48 hours - yes it loves the light. And also - importantly I think - I love seeing the little volcanoes pop and burst and the spontaneous little fizz bursts happen throughout the day. Hello magic💫✨
The second ferment - the straining - making again - bottling of this batch and flavouring it will happen Tuesday. X

Beautiful miso class today x it’s why we’re here - to share techniques and recipes handed down to us like this - story telling, making and creating something to nurture and feeds us in more ways than one. Not just in the belly. X

Autumn is my favourite 🍂 🍁 Last trip to Kyoto on a stroll down the Philosophers walk we slid open the doors to a little bookstore because the sign on the door said ‘coffee’ . She had pour over coffee and toast on the menu. We sat in this little spot browsing and waiting - Jeff had the cinnamon and butter. I tried the pizza. The coffees were perfect. And we were a bit inspired to do this too. And so we have started to. We don’t have toast yet. Sometimes there’s a little piece of Sakè kasu cake - or a black fig in chocolate, maybe some chocolate coated pumpkin seeds. X grateful for that walk and the inspiration to do something without lots of fuss, to do it well and mindfully xx

We are pouring over - and so can you! This Saturday morning Rieko is back with the low down on how to really hone in on the perfect pour over brew - and yes - filtered coffee like this really is gentler on your gut! x good coffee mini-workshops come with lots of coffee tastes and cups and a little treat too -plus lots of information and a recipe card to take home. There is also a Community Cupping on April 27th that’ll be well worth coming to which includes a bag of coffee ❤️🙌.

While you sip - you can pour over our ferment and food related books 📚 and magazines - and slow down. A relaxed gut works better and we are here for that. There’s only one leather floppy chair though. Sorry. X

Coffee et al begins this Saturday at 7:30am and will continue with our usual opening hours Thurs - Sat. ❤️

Cartoon credit: Megan Herbert

Go here for tips to deal with Environmental Guilt Syndrome (EGS): https://zerowastechef.com/2019/02/14/how-to-cope-with-environmental-guilt-syndrome-egs/

A few doors down from us - highly recommended !

Now Open: The Tuck Shop Team Reopens Sundae School, Their American Ice-Cream Shop

This month we begin celebrating the official 10 years of The Fermentary!!! 🥳🎉. I want to invite you to join us next Saturday evening 16/3 from 7:30 at a very special premier event.

In March 2014 I got an ABN, & a business bank account. We already had quite a few customers by this time come to mind as being early adapters and encouragers - but it took me a couple of years to believe it really was a business. Before that it was all IOUs, chits, and cash on delivery, an honour box in fridges in my garage.

I reflect on this a bit in a short film that was made recently - by the amazing Jamie Engels (and commissioned by William Angliss) which he shot early last year when we were all still very much sore and tender from the s**t show of the 2 years before.

The short film will be followed by a gorgeous classical composition set to my words (!!!) by Australian treasure Linda Kouvaras and curated and accompanied by Coady Green - called ‘Things that grow in the wild are stronger’ and sung by my daughter - soprano Lily Flynn.
The premiers and celebration will be held at the gorgeous gallery in Flinders Lane - Fortyfive downstairs .

I would love you to come. It’s just an hour(ish) 7:30-8:30 March 16th. There’ll be fermenty drinks & snacks too. Tickets in bio. X

-incredible composer
curator and genius
- soprano (my middle daughter)
- story teller and film maker
.chamber
Photo by and

Whey soda! The whey we we catch from making our milk kefir labneh makes a gorgeous fizzy drink that is super easy to flavour. Add about 50mls to a bottle - add some seasonal fruits and herbs, make sure there are some available sugars there - and let it sit on the bench until it gets fizzy.

You can freeze your whey in ice cube trays for later, into soups or dressings, even add some whey to a bottle of juice and leave that out on your bench for a few days while it gets fizzy....so delicious. (You can find recipes and flavour suggestions on page 112 in Wild Drinks!)

We have just added the milk kefir workshops for this year to our calendar - but also have a fabulous workshop available online, with all of these - butter (& buttermilk), labneh, whey soda and all about feeding and taking care of your milk kefir SCOBY. x A great present for someone who can't make it in person - or to people you share your SCOBY to. Check it out here and add SCOBY23 to get $50- off. https://www.sharonflynn.com.au/

(These are pictures taken by back in 2019 when we were touring - at beautiful old space north of Sydney. That was a milk kefir focused and red kraut focused workshop with a delicious lunch. We also invited Holly Davis and Kristen Allan to do some workshops that day.... just sitting here name dropping heheh.)

The table got a workout this month. Another sold out Rieko dinner on Saturday night - (so so lovely ) - oh gosh and that big one (also sold out !)- the 4K/ FFS workshop yesterday (kimchi, kraut, kefir and kvass), the kombucha, Jun and Kefir workshop had sold out too - and before that a very special guest teacher cheese workshop with . It’s been busy! We are just getting ready to post the next quarters workshop list so get ready. The little shop that could - says it CAN. :)

If you’ve heard a bit about gut health here and there, but want to know more - let’s go down a little rabbit hole together …

What To Know About the Gut-Brain Connection Find out what your brain and gut talk about all day, and how this friendship could affect your health.

Last workshop of the year was so so good. Wild drinks! Mead, Kombucha, Jun, Water Kefir, Beet kvass - and lots of tasting. So fun. We have next years up - could make a nice present for the curious fermenter! X

I’m back from Japan just in time to have this gorgeous gem of a book in my hands. And to prepare for a very special book launch /demonstration/ hands on/feast with Emiko herself. In the store!! There are a few tickets left so if you’ve always wanted to meet Emiko - or have more insight into comfy Japanese home cooking - now is the time. Head to the link in bio. The focus will be on how to make a very good dashi - and miso soup - and mastering the egg roll. Oh and Furikake! And then some then onigiri making And I have just popped some natto on - and we’ll enjoy those together.

Also - I am seriously loving this book so much! These are pretty much the recipes I’ve used in my home - and I think this book will make a few appearances under trees this December - perfect for my special friends who’ve wanted these recipes…. that were kind of only in my head x !

Just a little reflect on the weekends workshop - look how fabulously foamy that Celtic sea salt gets! Our hands got pink and tasted like we were swimming in the ocean.

It was a full class - the last ‘Ferment Four Staples’ of the year and I’m about to send out the reminder email of ‘what might be happening with your ferments’- what we made and how long each ferment usually takes. It’s a big workshop we did milk kefir - labneh - captured that whey into a strawberry whey soda, shook kefir cultured cream into butter, and flavoured milk kefir to drink - milk kefir has so many beautiful extensions.

We made kraut, kimchi, and beet kvass as well as are and drank loads of fermenty things.

We will have the same class up as an online workshop this week which would make a great present if you can’t make it IRL to one of these days. Or - have a look now to get into one of these next year. X

More beautiful fermentation inspiration from