Fermentation: A Natural History — Sandor Ellix Katz in conversation with Yarrow Koning & Julia Skinner

This event takes place on Crowdcast, Charis’ virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required. Register here – https://www.crowdcast.io/c/fermentation
Charis welcomes Sandor Ellix Katz in conversation with Yarrow Koning & Julia Skinner for a celebration of Fermentation: A Natural History.
A thoughtful introduction to the wonders of fermentation from the James Beard Award and a New York Times bestselling author of Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation.
Fermentation is a magical collaboration between people and bacteria. This book illuminates the natural history of fermentation as a process and concept, covering practices used in cultures around the world with many practical benefits, as well as scientific and mythological understandings, and cutting-edge experimentation.
The Studies in Nature series offers close observations, passionate research, and natural obsessions on a variety of nature-related topics. Featuring illustrations by Stacy Hsu and black and white photography, they offer big ideas in a small, giftable, and collectible package.
About the Author
Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, he is the author of many books. His bestseller, The Art of Fermentation, received a James Beard award, has been widely translated, and was selected by the New York Times as one of “The 25 Most Influential Cookbooks From the Last 100 Years.” Sandor’s books, along with the hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts. For more information, check out his website www.wildfermentation.com
About the Conversation Partners
Yarrow Koning (they/them) is a queer, trans, and non-binary environmental educator, climate justice organizer, multimedia storyteller, and bookseller based in Decatur, GA. Yarrow holds a Master of Education in Environmental Education from Florida Atlantic University and specializes in education that centers equity, justice, queer ecologies, and multispecies liberation. Alongside their work as a full-time bookseller at Charis Books and More, Yarrow is the Co-Director and Impact Campaign Coordinator for the Queers 4 Climate Justice documentary Can’t Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines. In their free time, Yarrow enjoys hosting queer ecologies outings, workshops, and events, including the monthly Queer Ecologies Book Club at Charis Books and More.
Dr. Julia Skinner is a food writer whose work includes the award-winning book Our Fermented Lives, and The Fermentation Oracle. Her next book, Essential Food Preserving, will be published by Storey publishing in May 2026. She is the founder of The Culinary Curiosity School, and also runs Root, a food-focused community and consulting organization offering classes, consulting on creative projects, a weekly newsletter, and more. She’s also the founder of Roots and Branches, where she coaches other writers to help them find their voice and share their most important work with the world.
She is also a nature lover, a teacher, and a traveler who firmly believes in finding, and sharing, the magic of everyday life. She has a PhD in Library & Information Science, and lives between Atlanta, GA and Cork, Ireland. You can follow her work in her newsletter or find her on socials.
The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate.
Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions: Instructions here. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don’t hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org.
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