Exploring Your Local Terroir
By Don Brubaker
It’s wintertime and I woke to a fresh white covering of snow. The beautiful snow reminds me of the freshness of spring that will soon be with us. Last week I spent some time at the Pennsylvania Sustainable Agriculture Conference (PASA). And as always, I spent time looking at all the books that PASA had for sale. I saw many very interesting books with Wildcrafted Fermentation by Pascal Baudar and one landed in my basket. As I started reading, I was drawn to chapter two Exploring Your Local Terroir (tehr`waar). It is a French word meaning land. Terroir is associated with the winemaking community in France. Terroir refers to fertility, climate, lay of the land, moisture, altitude, and temperature. All the above will affect the flavor, yield, quality and even whether a given plant will grow in your area.
As the area that each of us live in begins to warm up take the time to observe your own Terroir. You maybe a crop farmer, grazer, vegetable grower, vineyard, cut flowers etc. Or maybe you like to walk in the woods, along a stream bank, a hedge row, tree line but don’t forget your yard. All these areas have wild plants that can and should be fermented and enjoyed.
I should remind everyone to learn to know your plants. Don’t eat it unless you are sure of what it is. This will require you to learn what that plant looks like in all stages of growth. A good example that we should all know is dandelion. The leaves don’t change much from young to mature other than their size. But as with all plants the flavor changes and may get stronger as they mature. With dandelion my wife and I use the roots, greens, flower buds and flowers. All are good for you whether you ferment, dry, tincture, sauté or add to a fresh salad. Other things that affect the flavor are sunlight, moisture, temperature and the first frost in the fall. Take the time to learn when a given plant tastes the best to you and enjoy it.
