Meet the Fermentation Faculty!
Dr. Garry Running, UWEC Geography Department
Some folks eat to live. Others live to eat. I’m not sure which of those fits me best. I like to eat well, that’s for sure. For as long as I can remember I’ve been what is now described as a Foodie, and not just a consumer either. I cooked “gourmet” dinners that, in hind sight were probably hideous, since 7th grade. I got kicked out of wrestling for bleeding all over the mats and had to take home economics instead. I learned to cook and to sew, skills that have served me well to this day. I have been cooking ever since, partly out of necessity, partly because I’d rather do it myself than hire it done, but mostly because it’s fun. One of my college buddies is a classically trained French chef. He taught me some things. My other college chums are all good cooks too. So is my wife and my Mom. I learned from the best. I’m still learning from them. Learning is fun. Learning how to make good healthy food with friends and family is even more fun. I also worked in the wine business for a few years and learned to appreciate wine as food. I make my own wine and beer. Have done so for years. I don’t like being dependent on others to make those items for me. Plus, how hard can it be? Regular folks have been doing it for centuries and they didn’t need big industry to do it. Wine and beer are fermented products so it seems I’m a home fermenter. I am also a hunter and an angler and here’s where it all comes together. I don’t like being dependent on others for my food. I want to know where my food comes from and how it got to my table. I’m not rabid about it but I know where the wild food I eat comes from and that it was treated with respect or harvested sustainably because I did it. I know where the produce from my gardens come from too. Wild food and garden produce tend to come at you in big bunches all at once. My family took up home canning and other preservation methods to make it so we could use our game, fish, and garden veggies and not waste anything -- save some for the off-seasons. It turns out you can also preserve foods using fermentation so I’ve been exploring that. Yeah I’m a home winemaker and a home brewer but fermentation isn’t about alcohol for me. It’s about feeding my family good, healthy food and teaching them self-reliance by being so myself. It’s easier to go to the store and buy sauerkraut but it’s so much more satisfying to grow the cabbage and to make your own. And, there are important life lessons to be learned in the doing of it. People all over the world have been home fermenters for as long as we’ve been people. It’s time to rekindle the home fermenter in all of us.
Dr. Garry Running
Some folks eat to live. Others live to eat. I’m not sure which of those fits me best. I like to eat well, that’s for sure. For as long as I can remember I’ve been what is now described as a Foodie, and not just a consumer either. I cooked “gourmet” dinners that, in hind sight were probably hideous, since 7th grade. I got kicked out of wrestling for bleeding all over the mats and had to take home economics instead. I learned to cook and to sew, skills that have served me well to this day. I have been cooking ever since, partly out of necessity, partly because I’d rather do it myself than hire it done, but mostly because it’s fun. One of my college buddies is a classically trained French chef. He taught me some things. My other college chums are all good cooks too. So is my wife and my Mom. I learned from the best. I’m still learning from them. Learning is fun. Learning how to make good healthy food with friends and family is even more fun. I also worked in the wine business for a few years and learned to appreciate wine as food. I make my own wine and beer. Have done so for years. I don’t like being dependent on others to make those items for me. Plus, how hard can it be? Regular folks have been doing it for centuries and they didn’t need big industry to do it. Wine and beer are fermented products so it seems I’m a home fermenter. I am also a hunter and an angler and here’s where it all comes together. I don’t like being dependent on others for my food. I want to know where my food comes from and how it got to my table. I’m not rabid about it but I know where the wild food I eat comes from and that it was treated with respect or harvested sustainably because I did it. I know where the produce from my gardens come from too. Wild food and garden produce tend to come at you in big bunches all at once. My family took up home canning and other preservation methods to make it so we could use our game, fish, and garden veggies and not waste anything -- save some for the off-seasons. It turns out you can also preserve foods using fermentation so I’ve been exploring that. Yeah I’m a home winemaker and a home brewer but fermentation isn’t about alcohol for me. It’s about feeding my family good, healthy food and teaching them self-reliance by being so myself. It’s easier to go to the store and buy sauerkraut but it’s so much more satisfying to grow the cabbage and to make your own. And, there are important life lessons to be learned in the doing of it. People all over the world have been home fermenters for as long as we’ve been people. It’s time to rekindle the home fermenter in all of us.
Dr. Garry Running
Dr. Scott Bailey-Hartsel, UWEC Chemistry Department
I have and undergrad degree in microbiology and I have been joyfully cooking for myself since the age of 12. So this course brings together two things I love: cooking and bacteria. Since cooked bacteria are generally unpopular with diners, the next best things are fermented foods! My background in microbiology, biochemistry and food chemistry works really well for the in-depth study of fermented foods. I have also always been interested in historical methods of food preservation and transformation and brewed my first batch of home fermented beer well over two decades ago. Bailey and I look at this opportunity as a way to learn more about fermented foods, taste and make new things and share our expertise with an exceptional group of students. Call me DBH, Dr. Bailey-Hartsel, Dr. Hartsel or just "The Bug Whisperer."
Scott Bailey-Hartsel
I have and undergrad degree in microbiology and I have been joyfully cooking for myself since the age of 12. So this course brings together two things I love: cooking and bacteria. Since cooked bacteria are generally unpopular with diners, the next best things are fermented foods! My background in microbiology, biochemistry and food chemistry works really well for the in-depth study of fermented foods. I have also always been interested in historical methods of food preservation and transformation and brewed my first batch of home fermented beer well over two decades ago. Bailey and I look at this opportunity as a way to learn more about fermented foods, taste and make new things and share our expertise with an exceptional group of students. Call me DBH, Dr. Bailey-Hartsel, Dr. Hartsel or just "The Bug Whisperer."
Scott Bailey-Hartsel
Jacq Bailey-Hartsel, UWEC English Department Lecturer
Known as "Bailey" to her students (and even her husband), Jacq Bailey-Hartsel joined up with the Fermentation Faculty because of her insatiable curiosity and life-long desire to learn anything new. Known in this course as "The Dairy Queen," Bailey brings mad English department skills to the Fermentation classroom. As a devout follower of The Wisconsin Idea, her students will learn with her as they explore The Dairy State and the diverse cultures that live in Wisconsin who have brought with them fermented food traditions from family backgrounds hailing from a multitude of far-flung places. The students will learn how to make their own milk based fermented foods like kefir, yogurt and -- but of course! -- fermented cheeses, all of which they can produce both in their dorms and at home with their families. She'll take the students on a field trip to the Holland Cheese Factory in Thorpe, WI where they will tour the facility and learn the skills required to make cheese from cow to commerce. The students will meet the Holland Cheese Factor Certified Cheesemaker who will show them the processes used in turning raw milk into an internationally acclaimed and award-winning cheeses.
Jacq Bailey-Hartsel
Known as "Bailey" to her students (and even her husband), Jacq Bailey-Hartsel joined up with the Fermentation Faculty because of her insatiable curiosity and life-long desire to learn anything new. Known in this course as "The Dairy Queen," Bailey brings mad English department skills to the Fermentation classroom. As a devout follower of The Wisconsin Idea, her students will learn with her as they explore The Dairy State and the diverse cultures that live in Wisconsin who have brought with them fermented food traditions from family backgrounds hailing from a multitude of far-flung places. The students will learn how to make their own milk based fermented foods like kefir, yogurt and -- but of course! -- fermented cheeses, all of which they can produce both in their dorms and at home with their families. She'll take the students on a field trip to the Holland Cheese Factory in Thorpe, WI where they will tour the facility and learn the skills required to make cheese from cow to commerce. The students will meet the Holland Cheese Factor Certified Cheesemaker who will show them the processes used in turning raw milk into an internationally acclaimed and award-winning cheeses.
Jacq Bailey-Hartsel