Meet Franziska Wick

World Ferment Day Ambassador for Switzerland

What led you to fermentation, and when did your journey begin?

‎What led me to fermentation was my health. When my kids were really small I just felt burned out and the nutritionist told me that I should eat raw fermented foods that would help my entire body. Since in my family, fermentation wasn't a topic anymore that was being passed on to us children, I booked a sauerkraut course so I can learn it and yeah, I just went there in the morning to that course. We chopped vegetables, added salt, packed them into a jar and I took the jar home and a few hours later that jar already started working.

I could hear how the gas was leaving the jar and yeah, I could actually see and feel how the microbes were working and I was hooked from the first hour on. In fact, I was hooked so much that shortly afterwards I booked a six-month fermentation certification and then I started teaching. That was in 2018.

‎‎What motivates you to continue fermenting?

I think for myself it's both the fascination about microbes, about how they can transform both the taste and the texture of foods. It's just amazing each time. It's amazing again and, of course, also healthy. It's so easy to create fermented foods and it just helps your body each day. Professionally, I can just make people happy. So many people told me that I could open an entire new world to them and they're being grateful and also those who know how to ferment already, they always say they learn so much and can take things on a higher level now and yeah, people just always leave the cooking studio with a big smile and gratefulness and that's just really amazing. 

‎‎What was your first fermentation experience?

That was that initial sauerkraut-making jar where we put chopped cabbage and salt into a jar. I had no idea what's going to happen in the next few days but already in the evening I could hear the CO2 push out of the jar and I could see all the bubbles and it was just mesmerising really.

What is an easy way to introduce ferments to someone who has never tried them?

Well, I would say there are certainly easier and less easy ferments. So for vegetables, I would start with a vegetable in salt brine rather than sauerkraut. It's so much easier to create, especially if you take a hard vegetable, not like tomatoes or peppers or something that's soft because soft vegetables contain sugar and they can just mould a lot easier due to the sugar contents and the softness.

But let's say carrot sticks are really easy to ferment in salt brine. Almost nothing can go wrong there. Also milk kefir is super easy to make.  I find it a lot easier than kombucha or water kefir 

Also if you want to try wild yeast to make a fermented drink with wild yeast, I recommend tepache which is a ferment based on pineapples because the the yeasts on the pineapple skin, together with whatever is in the pineapple just works amazingly well each time. It's a lot easier to make tepache than let's say, for example, ginger beer.

How does fermentation fit into your life?

Fermentation has been a big part of my life for the past eight years since I teach. I teach a lot. I teach every week or every two weeks. I teach public classes. I get booked for events. I even teach now a six-month fermentation certification, myself and yeah so I ferment a lot, mainly for my courses and for the events for the tastings because I love bringing lots of fermented taste and personally I always have fermented foods in my fridge so I can consume them on a daily basis for my health. 

Which ferment or ferments did you eat/drink most recently?

What I make sure to drink almost every day is milk kefir. I usually blend the kefir with some frozen berries. That makes it nice and cold and delicious and yeah I do that for my health. I also consume a bit of fermented vegetables each day, which is mostly leftovers from my courses from the tastings like fermented carrot sticks, Curtido, which is a sauerkraut from El Salvador of fermented onions and these kinds of things.

Last week, I also drank the leftover from a strawberry soda and the ginger beer which I made for a drinks fermentation course. I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my fermentation world and I wish you a beautiful day. Hugs from Zurich, Switzerland.