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Denver Post : Woot! Ozuké’s nomination for The Good Foods Award.

October 29, 2014/in Press /by Ozuke

Denver Post mentions Ozuké’s nomination for The Good Foods Award Read more here

Ozuké: Old World Fermented Food to new level

October 9, 2014/in Press /by Willow

On the cusp of a comeback: Lafayette company brings old world fermented food to new level By Pam MellskogFor the Times-Call Posted: 09/30/2014 06:21:23 PM MDT | Updated: about 21 hours ago Mara King, left, and Willow King, co-owners of Esoteric Food Company in Lafayette, chat while checking cabbages from Front Range […]

Denver Post : Woot! Ozuké’s nomination for The Good Foods Award.

October 29, 2014/in Press /by Ozuke

Denver Post mentions Ozuké’s nomination for The Good Foods Award Read more here

Ozuké: Old World Fermented Food to new level

October 9, 2014/in Press /by Willow

On the cusp of a comeback: Lafayette company brings old world fermented food to new level

By Pam MellskogFor the Times-Call

Posted: 09/30/2014 06:21:23 PM MDT | Updated: about 21 hours ago

Mara King, left, and Willow King, co-owners of Esoteric Food Company in Lafayette, chat while checking cabbages from Front Range Organic. Some of the cabbages will be made into kimchi on Friday. For more photos please go to www.timescall.com. (David R. Jennings / Daily Camera)

The occasional bubbling sound in the factory’s dark back room hints at the work happening there.

A bacterial war within dozens of blue 55-gallon drums creates gases that escape through valves while food ferments.

Apple, fennel, parsley kraut

Ingredients:

2 medium cabbage heads

2 tart and firm apples

1 small fennel bulb

1 parsley bunch, chopped

Salt to taste (Note: Salt is optional. However, it does help the fermentation process. Definitely use a starter in the absence of salt.)

1/4 cup starter (This optional starter could be whey water, sauerkraut juice from previous batch or from jar of ozuke, kombucha, etc.)

Directions:

Wash produce. Slice cabbage, fennel, and apples into narrow strips. (Alternatively, use a processor or mandolin.) Chop parsley. Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Salt to taste, and mix thoroughly. Use a mallet or meat tenderizer to pound produce for approximately 15 minutes. This releases natural juices. Pack kraut mix into quart jars (between 3 and 4 jars) and tighten lids. Juice must cover kraut mixture completely. If temperatures are warm, store approximately 3 days on counter. If temperatures are cooler, store for as long as a week or until desired taste is reached. Check fermenting jars every day to release gasses and to press kraut back down below level of liquid. Refrigerate up to 12 months.

Source: Mara King, Ozuke

Yield: 3 to 4 quarts

If you go

What: Food preservation class taught by Ozuké’s Mara King

When: McCauley Family Farm, 9421 N. 63rd St., Longmont

Where: 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday

Cost: $30

More info: Contact Elizabeth Uhrich, of The Living Arts School, at info@livingartsschool.com or 720-383-4406.

If you go

What: Food preservation class

When: County Colorado State University’s Boulder County Extension Office, 9595 Nelson Road, Longmont

Where: 9:30 a.m. to noon, Saturday

Cost: $27

To register: Visit eventbrite.com/e/fermenting-foods-longmont-tickets-11780546933 by 3 p.m. Thursday.

“Think of this as a party,” Mara King, co-owner of Esoteric Food Company in Lafayette, said. “We invite everyone into the jar — the good bacteria and the bad bacteria. But we create an environment where the good guys win.”

Fermenting has preserved food safely for millennia by creating a high acid, low ph environment, she continued.

“This is not rocket science. This is grandma science,” King said.

Lacto-fermenting, the process she and partner Willow King, no relation, use to produce their Ozuké (Japanese for “the best pickled things”) brand of sauerkraut, pickles and kimchi — a spicy Korean condiment made with softer napa cabbage— only requires salt, lack of oxygen and a cool temperature.

That style of fermenting kills harmful microorganisms such as molds, yeasts, and aforementioned bacteria.

Meanwhile, the lactobacillus — a bacterium “friendly” to the human body — survives.

From there, those organisms start converting sugars, starches, and carbohydrates into lactic acid. Apart from naturally preserving food, fermentation is considered probiotic — nourishing to the healthy flora in the digestive, urinary, and genital systems, according the National Institutes of Health website.

Mara King also credits fermented foods rich in lactobacillus as increasing vitamin levels and act as anti-inflammatory agent, among other benefits.

But that’s not all.

Fermenting food also kills the one bacterium — botulism — that can survive the high heat related to canning preservation methods, she added.

For all these reasons, their fermenting business has taken off.

The women, both 40, once made all sorts of from-scratch food together for their families in their respective kitchens including cheeses, butter, nut butter, sausages and more.

But their fermented foods always won the rave reviews from family and friends, they said.

So, with an undisclosed amount of seed money from a Boulder Angel Investor, the two in 2011 went into business.

Both remember hand-cutting Ozuké labels and pressing them on every jar then.

Now, they process a literal ton of vegetables daily from five organic farms in Colorado. Their 4,000-square foot space buzzes with seven full time employees, and Ozuké jars now line refrigerator cases at natural grocers such as Whole Foods Market, Lucky’s, and Vitamin cottage in about a dozen states.

Mara King, a former sushi chef, oversees kitchen operations.

Willow King taught English as an adjunct professor at Front Range Community College in Longmont. Now, she manages the company’s marketing and sales.

Both feel that however old world, fermented food is on the cusp of a comeback.

“You sort of get the fire and the fizz in your belly when you eat it, and it comes with a great combination of health benefits and fringe culture,” Willow King said.

For more information, visit ozuke.com.

Pam Mellskog can be reached at p.mellskog@gmail.com or 303-746-0942.

A pallet of Napa cabbages wait to be processed into Kimchi at Esoteric Food Company in Lafayette. (David R. Jennings / Daily Camera)

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Denver Post : Woot! Ozuké’s nomination for The Good Foods Award.

Ozuké: Old World Fermented Food to new level

Denver Post : Woot! Ozuké’s nomination for The Good Foods Award.

Ozuké: Old World Fermented Food to new level

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Denver Post : Woot! Ozuké’s nomination for The Good Foods Award.

Denver Post mentions Ozuké’s nomination for The Good Foods Award

Ozuké: Old World Fermented Food to new level

On the cusp of a comeback: Lafayette company brings old world fermented food to new level

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