The Urban Permaculture Farm Magazine

What is Kimchi? It is probably Korea's best known food. Koreans serve it at almost every meal, a staple dish that easy to make and deliciously sustainable. The first annual Greater Boston Kimchi Festival was held on March 21, 2010, at the Theodore Parker Unitarian Church in West Roxbury, MA (a neighborhood of Boston). Proceeds benefited the church, which needed money fairly urgently for repairs.

Sustainable, Traditional, Fermented

Why did we choose this as the tag line for the event? Sustainable, because kimchi is peculiarly suited to the ingredients plausibly available locally in Boston at the end of winter: Cabbage. Root vegetables. Onions and garlic. Dried peppers. Ginger. Furthermore, home-made kimchi is an artisinal product. It is made by people, by hand, in small batches, and not in factories. It is "slow food". Traditional, because kimchi's history traces back thousands of years in Asia. And cultures all over the world have traditions of similar fermented cabbage and root vegetables. For instance, many people in the US are familiar with a Central European vegetable dish commonly called "sauerkraut". 

Fermented, because vegetable fermentation is the one of best ways to preserve vegetables through the winter, and is one of the easiest. Fermentation not only preserves food, but also improves digestibility, increases nutrient content, and creates new and interesting flavors and textures. Kimchi is a great example of all of these things.

Kimchi

What makes a good kimchi?

In our role as judges, Phil and I discussed this. If I could choose just one word, it would be "balance". In a few more words: Kimchi should be crunchy enough. It should not be too salty. It should be sour, but not too sour. And it may include new, interesting, or unusual flavors, but it doesn't have to. These may sound like very subjective criteria, but in practice, Phil and I agreed on our choices.

The Event

The event program included:

• an introductory speech
• sales of kimchi-making kits and equipment
• a kimchi contest and awards ceremony
• a tae kwon do demonstration
• kimchi-themed music

Cora Roelofs and I were the event coordinators. Phil Paik and I were the contest judges. Cora and Steve G Green masterminded operations, and put together a fantastic team of volunteers. We all promoted the event, and got some great sponsors.

We expected between 50 and 200 attendees. We got 300! Beyond that, we had 24 kimchis entered in our contest, which was fantastic. And we got great press coverage, both before and after the event.

Details of the press, sponsorship, and contest can be found here in my blog: http://feedmelikeyoumeanit.blogspot.com/2010/03/greater-boston-kimchi-festival-2010.html

The Future

We are looking forward to doing it again next year! Email kimchi-info@lactoferment.com to be added to our mailing list.