Episode 24 – Tara Whitsitt of Fermentation on Wheels The Fermentation Podcast » Podcast Feed

Today I have on the show an interesting girl named Tara Whitsitt, whose mission it is to teach people across the country about fermentation and how she does that is she travels in a bus she’s called Fermentation on Wheels.
She has a mobile fermentation lab that drives across the country and gives workshops on how to ferment, make wine, sauerkraut, pickles and any other number of tasty treats that she comes across. She also hosts a culture swap and truly spreads the culture as she travels and meets people from place to place.
She recently had a great article in the New York Times about her calling her The Johnny Appleseed of Pickling.
I enjoyed hearing the highway “on the road” type of feel that was recorded in her background noise and hope you enjoy our conversation.
TOPICS INCLUDED IN TODAY’S FERMENTATION PODCAST:

Tara explains what the Fermentation on Wheels project is about and what she’s trying to accomplish with it
She talks about how she’s been traveling since 2013 and the many places her fermentation bus has visited and where she’s taught workshops at
How communities of people are similar to the communities on the microscale of bacteria and microorganisms that we work with in fermentation and our cultures
She goes into the challenges of traveling on the road with different ferments and how some don’t like the agitation like vinegary kombucha and others like wines and water kefir seem to enjoy it
After her recent publicity being in the New York Times and being called “The Johnny Appleseed of Pickling” she talks about some of the notoriety has been very positive and helpful in her goals and gives her a credibility that makes it much easier to find places to host her
Along with the notoriety comes more work which can be a balancing act with life
Tara talks about how she has such a passion and desire to learn and how it drives her to keep reaching out to people
She goes back in time to 2011 when she first got into fermenting and what some of her first ferments were that she made being sauerkraut and pickles
One of things she tells people is that with fermentation, one of the main things is that you just keep trying and keep experimenting with the raw ingredients that you love
She goes into what her workshops are like and how she makes a community out of the event and ties each workshop to the last and the next workshop and people get to taste the previous batches and make new batches for the upcoming community
Tara talks about the makings of how the Fermentation on Wheels bus came to be and how and opportunity presented itself for a change of life and how a couple travelers inspired her with their adventures in a converted bus
She talks about how a dream turned into reality and from then on created a mission and went school bus shopping which led her to a woman that was so interested in her dream she wanted to help get it off the ground
She goes over how residing in a bus over the long term, especially in colder climates requires modifications like a wood burner stove and some other interesting projects relating to fermentation like her 3-tier fermentation station
Another one of Tara’s fermentations early on was wine making and she goes into that with types of wine she’s made from fruit, the type of yeast she likes the best, and also some on different types of cyser she enjoys making which is an apple honey wine
Not only does she ferment but she visits farmers on the road where she can ferment a variety of different organic produce to make tasty ferments
From a picture of blueberries on her website, she describes a beer that she made into a blueberry mint lemon balm ale
Having a kegerator on the bus and making beer and wine proves to be nice barter items that she can trade for things on her travels
Since she’s travels all over while fermenting, she talks about how temperature can be a challenge while fermenting and how the bus[...]