Fermenting Foods Workshop - Oct 2026

📅 31 October 2026 | 📍 Bandusia Country Retreat, 1056 Upper Macdonald Rd, Upper MacDonald (St Albans), NSW, Australia

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For a healthy sustainable body and lifestyle

For those that want to get healthy, preserve your garden surplus the most nutritious way and live a more self-reliant and sustainable lifestyle.

About the workshop

Just as soil needs healthy living beneficial microbes to support strong, resilient, healthy life forms up the food chain, so too our bodies need good microbes to keep us strong and healthy.

Cultured or fermented foods have been part of most ancient cultures for many centuries. In times gone by, fermenting foods was a way to preserve them, so that one would have supplies of food during the sparse cold months. Fermented foods were revered as having healing properties.

We now understand why these foods are so beneficial to us. They are packed full of vitamins and minerals, enzymes to aid digestion (particularly of proteins), beneficial bacteria (your homemade probiotic) and they have an alkalising effect on the body.

Because the friendly bacteria – the lactobacilli – actually partially digest the food, the nutrients in it are easier for our body to absorb. As a result we get many more vitamins and minerals from fermented foods than we do from raw or cooked foods.

Unfortunately with the advent of refrigeration came the end of an era for regularly consumed fermented foods in most western cultures. Our bodies no longer get a daily intake of protective nutrients, enzymes and beneficial bacteria. This is one contributing factor to the massive rise in chronic digestive and immune disorders in the last few decades. One of the most beneficial food groups to include as part of your daily diet to regain and maintain optimal health is fermented foods.

Fermentation of foods brings many health outcomes and benefits for you. The benefits of eating and making your own fermented foods include:

Controls sugar cravings

Improves digestion

Re-establishes healthy intestinal flora

Cleansing – alkaline effect on the body

Builds a strong immune system

Increases energy

Improves skin health

Improves breath

Alleviates flatulence

This workshop will provide you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to go home and make your own healthy fermented foods and drinks. It will be fun packed, informative, hands on and practical. You will discover how simple it is and how you can integrate this amazing activity into your daily life. It will help you become more self-reliant and confident to have a go and have a greater variety of food throughout the seasons whilst taking control of what you’re eating without waste.  Don’t miss it!

Workshop Program

This 1day workshop will cover the techniques and skills for fermenting. It is a very hands-on practical workshop. It will cover:

History of fermenting foods

Why it is important to have fermented food as part of your diet

How to make fermented vegetables

How to make fermented drinks and tonics

How to make Kombucha

Drying fruit and vegetables;

Pickling

Kim Chee

Sauerkraut

Vinegars

Sourdough bread

You will learn how to turn your windfall, foraged and homegrown produce into palatable delights that are well timed for Xmas gifts.   Course members will taste a range of preserved and bottled products and will be provided with recipes and learn of many useful hacks.

About the Trainer

Kathleen Gannon

Kathleen trained as a chef at the Bennelong Restaurant and has worked for many years in catering. She now works as a teacher and enjoys passing on cooking and gardening skills to the younger generation. Kathleen was awarded a NSW Premier’s Environment Scholarship and has won a sustainable garden award for her own garden. She has sold many of her preserves at market stalls and has also won prizes at local shows for her preserves and honey. Kathleen enjoys transforming her home grown organic produce into food that can be enjoyed year long. Her larder is stocked with preserves that include green tomato sauce, dried figs, preserved lemons, pickled olives, passionfruit cordial, pumpkin soup and native raspberry jam all grown in her garden. Kathleen will share her recipes and tips with you in this practical workshop.

Part LETS accepted. 10% discount for PSI members (if attended a PSI workshop in the last year)

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