Fermentation has always been about transformation. With the help of microbes, humans learned to turn milk into cheese, grains into beer, and cabbage into kimchi. It preserved food, created nutrition, and unlocked flavors that raw ingredients could never carry on their own.<\/p>\n
At Fermenthings, we take this ancient tool and give it a new role. We call it circular fermentation<\/strong>: using fermentation to close loops, to prevent waste, and to make sure that every ingredient gets a second, third, or even fourth life. In other words: why waste it, when you can taste it.<\/p>\n This is part of the RotFest presentation given on September 29 2025<\/em><\/p>\n If you look at food traditions, the idea isn\u2019t new.<\/p>\n Brewers gave their spent grain to bakers and farmers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Korean kitchens fermented every leaf and root into kimchi.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Vinegars were born from wines that had \u201cgone bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n What we do today is simply make this logic visible again. Circular fermentation is about treating \u201cwaste\u201d as the starting point for the next taste.<\/p>\n Microbes are our partners.<\/p>\n Lactic acid bacteria<\/strong> turn sugars into lactic acid \u2192 the backbone of pickles and kimchi.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Acetic acid bacteria<\/strong> convert alcohol into vinegar \u2192 wines, beers, teas become bright and sharp.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Koji molds<\/strong> unlock enzymes that break down starches and proteins \u2192 creating miso, shoyu, and garums.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Yeasts<\/strong> ferment sugars into alcohol and CO\u2082 \u2192 bread, beer, kombucha.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n When you combine these pathways with side-streams, you don\u2019t just reduce waste \u2014 you open doors to whole new taste worlds.<\/p>\n What seems like an \u201cend\u201d can actually keep evolving. Flat beers, overripe fruits, or herbal stems become the foundation for complex vinegars. What\u2019s left behind after pressing shoyu or garum? Dense fibers full of umami. Dry them, blend them, and you have a seasoning powder, perfect for caramelizing onions, enriching stocks, or sprinkling into sauces. It\u2019s a spice born directly from fermentation\u2019s leftovers.<\/p>\n Koji is the engine of transformation. With it, bread crusts, beer grains, or even nori can become deeply savory sauces.<\/p>\n Nori Garum<\/strong> with seaweed from a Cantillon Zwanze experiment.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Beer Sludge Shoyu<\/strong> using yeast from La Source brewery, inspired by La Pa\u00efss\u00e9e in Switzerland.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Fruitpap Garum<\/strong> turning jam residues into fruity umami.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Each sauce is proof that nothing is fixed: waste becomes seasoning, side-streams become signature flavors.<\/p>\n This is where vegetables find new lives. At Fermenthings, we don\u2019t just use the \u201cperfect\u201d cabbage \u2014 we ferment carrot tops, outer leaves, radish greens, and seasonal odd bits. Together, they create kimchi scraps that are collective, surprising, and never the same twice. Circular fermentation is not an idea in a book; it\u2019s jars, bottles, and powders on our shelves. Right now, members can take home six experiments fresh from the Ferment Lab:<\/p>\n Nori Garum<\/strong> with nori from @brasseriecantillonofficiel\u2019s Zwanze experiment.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Beer Sludge Shoyu<\/strong> with yeast from @la_source_beer_co, inspired by @lapaisee.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Shiso Vinegar<\/strong> from @courjette_csa harvest.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Fruitpap Garum<\/strong> from jam leftovers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Hot Sauce<\/strong> blending this year\u2019s full pepper harvest.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Strawberry Habanero Jam<\/strong> for those who like sweet heat.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Each product is a story of collaboration, surplus, and microbial creativity.<\/p>\n Circular fermentation is bigger than flavor. It\u2019s a way to think differently about food systems:<\/p>\n No linear chains, only loops.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n No \u201cwaste,\u201d only starting points.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n No separation between tradition and innovation \u2014 microbes make both possible.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n It\u2019s also a metaphor. Just as bacteria, molds, and yeasts collaborate to transform food, humans can collaborate to transform the way we eat, produce, and share resources.<\/p>\n Why waste it, when you can taste it.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction Fermentation has always been about transformation. With the help of microbes, humans learned to turn milk into cheese, grains into beer, and cabbage into kimchi. It preserved food, created nutrition, and unlocked flavors that raw ingredients could never carry on their own. At Fermenthings, we take this ancient tool and give it a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-circular-fermentation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-1-okt-2025-10_20_22.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9WlzC-dr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiki.fermenthings.be\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA Short History of Circular Thinking<\/h2>\n
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\nHow It Works (Science Made Simple)<\/h2>\n
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\nFour Paths of Circular Fermentation<\/h2>\n
Vinegars<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Example:<\/em> Shiso Vinegar<\/strong> made with surplus shiso leaves from Courjette CSA \u2014 preserving seasonal freshness long after harvest.<\/p>\n
\nPowders<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nKoji Family (Miso, Shoyu, Garum)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\nLactofermentation<\/strong><\/h3>\n
As we wrote in our Ferment Lab notes: it\u2019s about honoring every leaf, root, and stem, and letting the microbes weave them into something greater than the sum of its scraps.<\/p>\n
\nCurrent Experiments on the Shelves<\/h2>\n
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\nWhy It Matters<\/h2>\n
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\nMotto<\/h2>\n