A Year of Fermentation

Forage, harvest, and ferment nature’s bounty for year-round enjoyment

A Year of Fermentation is a comprehensive seasonal guide that explores the fascinating world of fermentation, showcasing a wide range of authentic techniques using seasonal ingredients.

This book aims to bridge the gap between foraging, growing, and cooking, providing what's-in-season calendars and recipes for ferments to unlock incredible flavors, enhance nutrition, and foster a deeper connection with food and nature all year round.

Broadly speaking, we think of the year as four seasons. In finer detail, we break it down into twelve months. In the world of food, we can see the year as a shifting, overlapping mass of twenty or more micro-seasons, each offering its own set of delicious ingredients. In this book, we follow ingredients (and the relevant fermentation techniques) through these micro-seasons to enjoy the best flavor possible and align with nature.

With step-by-step instructions, illustration, and photography this deep dive into the calendar year of an expert fermenter teaches you how to harness the best of each season ensuring that your cupboards are stocked all year round along with recipes for your everyday cooking.

Sam Cooper is a professional chef but has since left the kitchens for the garden, now working full-time with Huw Richards as a co-director for Regenerative Media. His fascination with seasonal and homegrown produce has grown along with his Instagram – @chef.sam.black has amassed 600K followers – where he posts delicious ferment recipes using homegrown produce. Sam wrote the In the Kitchen chapter of The Self-Sufficiency Garden (March 2024) and The Fermentation Kitchen (November 2024). He is also a photographer and illustrator.