Sisters of the Sauce

The Santa Barbara Fermentation Festival doesn’t just brew up bacteria for our health and taste buds. It’s also the breeding ground for new businesses, one of which will have a very splashy debut at the fourth annual event on July 19, serving as the fest’s official condiment station while also enhancing the dishes of both Sama Sama and Nimita’s that day. Welcome to Cultured & Saucy, the long-brewing idea of sisters Lauren Temkin and Simone Temkin-Wilcox.

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Ferment Revolution

I’m tasting fermented raw coconut sap, and I like it. Co-organizers of the 3rd Annual Santa Barbara Fermentation Festival Katie Falbo, daughter, and Lynn Hartman, mom, are offering me a variety of foods that have been naturally “processed” by yeast or bacteria, the stars of their event. That ginger beer is refreshing and zippy; that sauerkraut is crunchy, salty, sour, and yummy; and as for that coconut sap — well, imagine the depth of soy sauce mixed with coconut milk, yet not as heavy as either, and there you go. Even better, it’s quite low on the glycemic index (not too many blood sugars), and it’s good for your microbiome — all the species that live inside you and help keep you a happy you. If it’s interesting enough for Michael Pollan to get excited, as he does in the fermentation section of his recent bestseller Cooked, we should all pay attention.

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