Trevor Ring, founder of the fermentation education organization Community Cultures, often begins workshops by looking at a map. Anywhere in the world, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone going through their day without eating at least one fermented food.
“Fermentation is all around us,” Ring said. “Even Americans who might feel separate from fermentation … they’re actually interacting with it often, whether they know it or not.”
Defined by Ring as any food that has undergone the “transformative process of microorganisms,” fermented foods encompass American mainstays like coffee, chocolate, beer, cheese and bread, which relies on yeast fermentation for its dough. Fermented foods also include baked goods made with vanilla extract (a fermented product derived from vanilla beans), as well as sauerkraut from Eastern Europe, tempeh from Indonesia, and miso, a Japanese cooking staple found in broths, marinades, glazes and dressings.
In addition to producing tasty foods, fermentation extends food’s shelf life, enhances its nutrition, reduces waste, promotes sustainability and can support gut health.
Those benefits have helped fuel a grassroots fermentation movement over the past 25 years, supported locally by practitioners like Ring. Since moving to Pittsburgh in 2017, he has sold fermented products and held hands-on fermentation workshops. Every couple of weeks, Ring can be found teaching Community Cultures classes around the region — from kombucha and wild soda making at Pittsburgh Botanic Garden to a discussion of fermentation’s health benefits at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Downtown branch to a workshop on preserving food traditions at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
“We’re talking about one of the most ancient forms of food preservation,” Ring said. “And because it’s a natural process, different cultures around the world have relied on it not only for nutrition, but simply for access to food. It helped prevent famine and preserved the harvest through difficult times.”
True to its name, Community Cultures aims to make fermentation education affordable and accessible through a mix of free and paid workshops, offering sliding scale fees and pay-what-you-can pricing. Often, fermenting food can be achieved using no special equipment. Beginners learn how to submerge vegetables in a simple saltwater brine for preservation (called lacto-fermentation), then take their creations home. Ring also shares recipes online.
“I do think that fermentation itself is a decentralized process,” he said. “It’s always been in the hands of the people.”
Until this winter, Community Cultures primarily offered single courses and one-off workshops, even as it gathered a following of experienced students. Ring also found it increasingly difficult to rely on nonprofits and higher education institutions to host classes as they faced budget cuts and other constraints.
After more than a decade, he imagined a longer immersion program that would offer a comprehensive introduction to fermentation and foster community.
In January, Community Cultures debuted a four-month winter fermentation immersion program, lovingly titled “Dancing in the World of Microbes.”
The 56-hour program, spread across four “microbe weekends” at the XFactory in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood, explored traditional and modern fermentation techniques, food preservation, flavor and food safety.
Ring believes it’s the first long-form fermentation workshop of its kind nationally, inspired by his mentor, fermentation expert Sandor Katz. Dubbed the “godfather of fermentation revival” by GQ, Katz is widely credited with helping repopularize fermentation through his 2003 book, “Wild Fermentation.” Katz also hosts a five-day fermentation residency at his off-grid homestead outside of Nashville, which Ring attended after college.
“It’s a very intensive experience, and you’re camping on his property,” Ring remembered. “What I wanted to create is something that is geared towards Pittsburghers, dedicating one full weekend a month.”
Using Katz’s book “The Art of Fermentation” as a reference, 13 class participants experimented with a wide range of fermented foods, including classic sauerkraut, hot sauce and condiments, lacto-fermented pickles and kefir, a yogurt-like cultured milk.
Jan Klein of Wexford, a retired physician, certified Master Gardener and self-described “fermentista,” had taken classes with Ring for more than a year when the immersion program launched. Initially, she’d wanted to learn techniques to preserve food from her garden that would be less labor-intensive than canning.
“I’m not a prepper, but I do think it’s good to be self-sustaining,” Klein said.
Last winter, she joined a virtual Community Cultures class through Stanford Continuing Studies focused on Asian ferments.
Though informative, “everybody was on different time zones except (Ring) and me,” Klein remembered. “I was really intrigued, but I was intimidated to try some of it on my own.”
She applied to be in the first cohort of winter immersion students. Ring solicited applications to the program, hoping to recruit a class with different backgrounds and experience levels. Ultimately, participants included tech and nonprofit workers, educators and farmers from Braddock Youth Farm, who attended for professional training. Others joined through work trade arrangements. The program also maintained Community Cultures’ sliding-scale pricing and offered scholarships.
“I think they really curated a great class and everybody brought different things to the table,” Klein said. “It was a very chill community.”
Ring invited four guest instructors to cover fermented foods from around the world. Jayashree Iyengar, owner of Popping Mustard Seeds, a culinary business specializing in Indian vegetarian cooking, led a session featuring dosa, a fermented South Indian bread, and idli, a rice cake. Sunni Park of Manduhandu, a Korean vegan and gluten-free food company, hosted a kimchi-making workshop.
Potlucks were also built into the class experience, giving participants the chance to share more fermented foods and eat meals together.
Today, the group keeps in touch through WhatsApp, where they share pictures of their ferments, troubleshoot problems and discuss supplies.
“I’m a shopper, so I ran into a big sale of Ball jars, and I was like, ‘Go get them!’ ” Klein said with a laugh. “It’s definitely a community that’s developed, which I think is reflective of (Ring’s) whole concept of Community Cultures — the microbe community that’s responsible for what he does and his success.”
Running a seasonal business at farmers markets, Ring hopes the winter program will help sustain Community Cultures and stretch fermentation education year-round and even pave the way for a shorter summer harvest immersion program. He believes that as more people learn fermentation and food preservation skills, the benefits ripple outward — building local food resilience and reducing reliance on traditional supply chains.
“I really do think it’s a one-of-a-kind experience, and I’m hoping that it grows,” Ring said of the immersion program. “I think it’s something that could be profound for Pittsburgh and the food system.”