Let's get stinky, in praise of sauerkraut and Sandorkraut.

Sauerkraut, I've made a few batches, I will make more. Especially when the local live kind costs about $11 for a teeny jar, if preciousness like seaweed is tossed in. Thirty some years ago, I dabbled with dandelion wine, candied the violets, and stalked the wild strawberry. Then I moved to California and became too stuck up and swept away. But Sandor Ellix Katx, professed fermenation fetishist and live-culture cuisinist, has revived my interest. His book, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Food (Chelsea Green, White River Junction, Vermont) leads you through a briny wealth of fermented and cultured stuff and how to try it yourself: sour pickles. Nasturtium capers. Tibetan pancakes. Fruit kimchi. Cherokee sour corn drink. Pumpernickel. Shrub, yah. Choucroute fromage roulades. Cheeses, meads, and more. His web site is http://www.wildfermentation.com/. He has "no formulaic plan to offer for resisting the insidiuous process of globalization, commodifcation, and culture homogenization." But, as he notes, one teeny "but tangible way to resist the homogeniszation of culture is to involve yourself in the harnessing and gentle manipulation of wild microbial cultures." Let us go forth and ferment.