A Busload of Fermentation

Tara Whitsitt, formerly of Oregon and now a nomadic educational entrepreneur, has put wheels on her dream. Ms Whitsitt is all about things fermentable (dear to our own hearts here at "On Ferm Ground!") and speaks the languages of fermentation well beyond the conventional speech of mere beer and wine. She is fluent in kraut, kimchi, kombucha, and keifer, not to mention sourdough, vinegar, pickles, and even more esoteric fermentations like tibicos and tempeh.

Tara's dream was to literally build a "Fermentation On Wheels"– what would become a traveling educational exhibit of living fermentation cultures. A 27 year old school bus was obtained and converted into a mobile fermentation lab and center for workshops that would be open to the public. Now in its second year of operation the educational and knowledge-exchange center travels the length and breadth of the country, spreading the good news of fermentation along the way.

Tara's idea dredges up memories from my childhood. Growing up in a small midwest community in the 1950s, our neighborhood stood at quite a distance from the nearest metropolitan area. Cultural opportunities were uncommon then and there– no internet existed, no plethora of special-interest television channels, no amazon.com for easy access to the world's literature, art and music. But weekly, a ray of stimulating sunlight would roll into our neighborhood in the form of a big navy-blue bus, with the words "BOOKMOBILE" emblazoned on the side in large gold letters.

After parking, the mobile-librarian would take off her bus-driver "hat" and put on her librarian one. She would then usher us into the inner sanctum of the rolling library. Its book shelves, which entirely lined both walls of the bus, were dimly lit by the sunlight entering only through the large windshield in the front of the bus. The dimness of the scene, the earthy aroma of the old books, and the literary excitement that awaited us automatically thrust us into the appropriate hush of a "real" library. The librarian helped us select books, and made suggestions after quizzing us about our interests. After books we had obtained from the previous week's visit were returned, we piled out of the bus and started on the several block walk back home, our reading-treasures clutched in our arms.

At each stop, Tara holds workshops to introduce people to the wide spectrum of fermentation possibilities. Like our old book-mobile-librarian, Tara ushers local fermentation newbies (and veterans, on occasion) into the wonders of microbe-farming and foodstuff modification. She also exchanges starter cultures with the locals to expand her own palette of microbes as well as theirs. And her website is a treasure of interesting fermentation recipes, complete with detailed, proven processes.

It's great to know that someone has such a passion for things seething with microbiological life. Take your own passion and dreams and add to them "wheels" like Tara has!