“These foods are alive, they’re dynamic, but they’re extremely effective strategies for preserving food through a few seasons, which is really the point.”

If you (like me) sometimes have a problem eating all your fresh food before it goes bad, your answer might be fermentation, which is vividly described by Sandor Katz, the author of a new book about fermentation, as “the flavorful space between fresh and rotten.” Yum!

Katz says you can make sauerkraut by chopping up some cabbage or whatever vegetables you have lying around, squeezing out their juices so they have a liquid to sit in, and then putting them in a jar with a little bit of salt.

What I’d like really like to know is how long you can keep store-bought bread full of preservatives in your fridge before you have to throw it away (I have half of a five-week-old loaf still sitting in my fridge that might be a little stale, but still looks like it’d be fine to eat). The answer to this question varies wildly!

Photo: Flickr/NourishingCook