Kimchi and sauerkraut fanatics wanted for inaugural Ferment festival in Long Beach

These days restaurant chefs are pickling everything they can get their hands on. That clearly signals that pickling and fermenting are a trend. But fermenting also hearkens back to the old days and the old ways.

And the Institute of Domestic Technology is leading the way with classes — and now events. This weekend, director Joseph Shuldiner will be on hand at the inaugural “Ferment: A Celebration of Visual and Cultural Arts.”

The event is the culmination of a six-month collaboration between Long Beach Museum of Art and the Long Beach State ceramics, anthropology and hospitality management departments.

It all started when Shuldiner led Long Beach State’s ceramics department students through a discussion of fermented food traditions and techniques, introducing them to traditional crocks and jars and other fermentation vessels. Then he left them to design and create their own vessels for that purpose.

In September, he came back to see what the students had made and to lead a hands-on class in making sauerkraut, kimchi and fermented “ginger-bug” soda. And that’s what they’ll be serving at Saturday’s event.

So sauerkraut and kimchi fanatics, get your tickets now.

Everyone who attends the event will receive a commemorative fermenting crock and plate made by the students and recipes for fermenting your own food. The glaze — get this — incorporates wood ash sourced from the wood-burning pizza oven at P3 Artisan Pasta restaurant in Long Beach. Plus, you’ll get to taste everything the students fermented with Shuldiner coaching.

The event is Saturday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 each, $35 for museum members. Reservations are required. Visit the LBMA website or contact Lisa Marsh, (562) 439-2119, Ext. 255

Long Beach Museum of Art, 2300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach (562) 439-2119.

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