Considering that I have been brewing kombucha for quite some time now, you could call me a bit of a fermented foods addict, so it was fun to get to do a fermented foods guide for Refinery29 and get to interview the fermented foods extraordinaire Sandor Ellix Katz.

“Almost all the fermented foods and beverages we know of are so ancient that they predate recorded history. Humans could never have settled many regions of the world without the benefit of fermentation, and agriculture would not be possible without it.” Ellix Katz explains, “How could people ever begin to invest their energy in crops that are ready at particular times of the year if they didn’t have techniques for preserving the harvest to get them through the rest of the year?”

It’s true: In a world before refrigerators, people had to preserve their food somehow, and often fermentation was it. Those preservation techniques are still used in cultures around the world today, from miso in Japan to cheese in France, and while fermented foods might sound like a fad, you’re probably already eating them. Coffee? Fermented food. Chocolate? Fermented. Wine? Also fermented. In fact, as Ellix Katz points out, “most people in most parts of the world eat or drink products of fermentation every day.”

Read the full article here.