In a pickle: the pedagogical potentiality of fermentation

Abstract

Many people associate fermentation with provisions like kimchi, kombucha, sourdough, beer, wine, and sauerkraut. These sundries, many staples in various cultural gastronomies, have long been known to encourage various health benefits including gut probiotics, aid in digestion, and, among other wonders, nutrient accessibility. While these benefits are important, many scholars working in multispecies ethnographies have turned to non-human organisms (viruses, animals, and microbes) to continue critical conversations decentering human experience and reimagining epistemology, relationality, and ethics. This project positions fermentation – and the microbes and bacteria involved – as a site of pedagogical potentiality that resonates with notions of biophilia, relationality, and care. Using my own experiences with pickles (fermented!) and in Jewish delis as a kind of organic site of inquiry, this essay makes a case for the importance of environment for cultivating relational life.

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