Fermentation & Foraging: Capturing Spring's Brief Brilliance
This is your sign to start foraging (or at least softening butter)
Hello!
I’ve been back in the mountains for nearly a week, and it’s taken me longer than expected to settle in. Perhaps I need to think of traveling between the Bay Area and the mountains as going to another country. Jet lag and culture shock are part of the deal, even when where you are going is home.
Fermentation has been a big theme this week- so has foraging.
Before I left the Bay Area, I made one last loop through some of my favorite spots for three-cornered leeks, nasturtiums, and edible blossoms. I came home with a forager’s treasure chest and made:
White kimchi with three-cornered leeks
Cherry blossoms
Daikon with nasturtium and three-cornered leek flowers
Sauerkraut with three-cornered leeks
Purple kraut with beets
Cherry Blossoms
So much of what I incorporated into these ferments is fleeting. By harvesting and preserving just a bit of it, I get to enjoy the season for longer—and in more delicious ways.
I am kicking myself for not adding cherry blossoms to a batch of sauerkraut. Oh well. Something to try next spring, unless I find another tree very soon.
The day before I left the Bay, I visited my friend Keneuoe for tea. She served me fermented cherry blossom tea—something I’d never had before. I’ve tasted cherry blossoms in green tea, but never like this.
It was uncanny timing: earlier in March I’d read Chef Sam’s recent Substack post, 5 Ways to Preserve and Eat Blossoms, and had cherry blossoms on the brain. If you're interested in preserving edible flowers, I highly recommend his piece (and his newsletter in general).
As luck would have it, I had a call scheduled with my Japanese friend, Fumiko, the same day. I told her about the tea, and she directed me to several Japanese websites with recipes. She even translated the process for me.
How to Make Preserved Cherry Blossoms (a simplified version from Fumiko):
Pick and gently wash blossoms (a salad spinner helps!)
Toss with 1g salt per 5g of blossoms
Weigh down in a sterilized jar for 3 days
Add ume vinegar (for color, apparently) and refrigerate (3 Tbsp per 200g)
Strain and dry the blossoms, reserving the liquid (use for dressings!)
Dehydrate or air-dry with a touch of salt
Cross your fingers and hope that your stash lasts until next spring
Ferments, always.
As many of you know, vegetable ferments almost always make an appearance in my breakfast. My formula is simple and solid:
Avocado miso toast
Egg
Leftover veggies or salad
1–4 vegetable ferments
#breakfastofchampions
My breakfasts are amazing, and I never get tired of them. My friend Jonathan frequently comments on them in my Instagram stories—he’s even earned the title of “#1 Breakfast Fan.”
Since my move, I’ve scaled back a little (and so have Jonathan’s comments) —just one or two ferments for now. But I’m looking forward to amping things back up once these new batches hit their prime.
New Recipe: Radishes with Nasturtium Miso Butter
Spring has a way of rushing in and vanishing before we’re ready. The flowers bloom, the wild greens pop up, and then—just like that—it’s too hot, too dry, too late. This butter is my way of saying: Pause. Notice. Taste it while it lasts. And this recipe makes it last just a wee bit longer.
It’s easy to forget that something beautiful can also be practical. That something quick can still feel special. But this recipe is both. It’s a reminder that with just a little effort (soften the butter!), you can take something as everyday as a radish and turn it into a celebration of the season.
When I first heard about the French pairing of radishes with butter, I was skeptical. Butter? On radishes? It sounded weird. Turns out, it’s very much not weird. Particularly when it is this butter. The fat of the butter takes the edge off the radish’s bite, and grounds it. Fold in extra goodies like miso and nasturtiums and you get culinary alchemy.
Why do I want you to make this recipe this week?
Seasonal Exclusivity: This recipe captures spring's fleeting gifts in a form you can enjoy for weeks. It’s like the season got remixed by your coolest friend.
Five-Minute Flex – Softened butter, a few ingredients, and suddenly you're the kind of person who serves snacks with flowers in them.
Choose Your Own Adventure – No nasturtiums? Sub in chives, green garlic, mustard greens, or whatever you just foraged (or found wilting in the crisper).
Where to Use It? On Everything - Beyond bread and radishes, this compound butter melts beautifully over roasted vegetables or stirred into warm grains.
Edible Art – Looks fancy, tastes fancy but with virtually zero effort. Your guests will assume you have a personal chef. Let them.
It’s the kind of recipe that makes you feel like you know a secret. And now—you do.
Become a paid subscriber to get the full recipe, support this newsletter, and unlock the entire (growing!) archive of past recipes, from sweet and savory galettes to punchy soups to all sorts of miso magic.
And if you do make it, I’d love to see. Tag me on Instagram or reply to this email—I always want to know what’s happening in your kitchen.
XO,
Marie
UPCOMING CLASSES
You can find the full list of upcoming classes HERE
Magnificent Miso: Featuring Shared Cultures!
Thursday, June 5th at 6-9:30pm
My friends at Shared Cultures and I are teaming up to bring you the ultimate class on miso! You’ll learn from Eleana about how she and Kevin craft their small-batch artisan misos using local ingredients and traditional fermentation techniques. I will lead the cooking component and I’m excited to shared recipes that I’ve specifically developed using their products.
And did I mention taste testing miso!? You don’t want to miss this one.
Radishes with Nasturtium Miso Butter
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