Why I Wrote This Book
I wrote this book because I felt compelled to share what I have learned from years of working with the land and feeding people. I did not study health, but I have watched it decline. I have seen the rise of prepackaged and convenience foods and I have listened to people who question organic food while trusting a system that does not have our best interest at heart.
I knew about the soil, about the gardens, about fermenting, and about gut health. I have seen what the last fifty years have done to our society and I worry about what the next fifty will bring if we keep eating this way. When the soil loses life, food loses nutrients, and our bodies lose their rhythm. Big Agriculture now makes most of the decisions about what is grown, what is processed, and what is sold to us as nourishment. Somewhere along the way we stopped trusting our senses and started trusting the system instead.
As a caterer I have watched people forget what real food tastes like. My customers were always blown away by the flavors of my dishes but my food was simple. I started with real ingredients and did not cover them up with sauces full of added salt or processed fillers.
Even at home I saw how unusual that had become. My son used to come home and ask why I made everything from scratch, saying none of his friends’ parents cooked that way. Now he tells me I am an anomaly. Most of his friends eat meals pulled from freezers or cans and he is grateful his food is not processed or frozen. He tells me my food makes him feel good. That small shift in him says everything about what we have lost and what we can rebuild.
We are living in the most overfed yet undernourished era in history. Rates of chronic illness, anxiety, digestive distress, and fatigue are soaring even as the aisles are packed with “fortified” and “functional” foods. It is no accident. Our food has become an industry instead of a relationship.
I wrote The Guts of Fermentation because I was tired of watching people lose flavor on their plates and in their lives. Somewhere between the drive-thru and the diet aisle we forgot what real food tastes like and what it feels like to be fully alive inside our own bodies.
Inside the book I share the frameworks that helped me and can help you get back into rhythm: The Gutsy Rebuild™, The Gut-Satisfying Seven™, and The Root & Rhythm Method™. I call out how we have slipped into an industrial food era and show how we can reclaim our food again, one simple method and meal at a time.
Fermentation found me during a season of unraveling. I was catering, farming, managing a household, and searching for a way to heal that did not come in a pill or a label claim. When I started fermenting, really fermenting, not just following a recipe, I began listening. To my gut. To the soil. To the quiet intelligence of microbes that have been here since the beginning of life.
This book is my offering, part story, part science, and part rebellion. It is for anyone who has ever felt disconnected from their food, their body, or their sense of belonging. It is a reminder that healing does not come from control, it comes from relationship. With soil. With microbes. With each other.
Fermentation changed everything for me, my health, my work, my sense of purpose. And I believe it can change the world, one bubbling jar at a time.