All You Ever Wanted to Know About Fermentation: Tonight at the Archive

The Archive, a new used bookstore that advertises itself as "somewhere between Paris and Berkeley" but is actually at 3213-15 Cherokee Street, will host its first author reading tonight at 7 p.m. The august guest? Sandor Ellix Katz, also known as Sandorkraut, a self-described fermentation fetishist.

Sandorkraut is the author of two books, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements, which make the bold claim that "Hundreds of medical and scientific studies confirm what folklore has always known: Fermented foods help people stay healthy."

At the Archive tonight, Sandorkraut will be preaching the fermentation gospel and maybe giving a demonstration of basic fermentation techniques. (Apparently this is more complicated than dumping some food in a jar and letting it decompose for a while?) It's not clear whether some of the more celebrated products of fermentation will be served.

If you can't make it to the Archive tonight, fear not: Sandorkraut will also be appearing tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. at Cheryl's Herbs in Maplewood.