James Read

BRB need to tell 12 year-old me that I'll end up making a living selling cabbage, but it's OK there's a Magic: The Gathering card about it

Breakfast of champions!

Fermentation-related hypothetical. How many overripe figs would it take to fail a breathalyser test? Context, if helpful, is over granola.

Names redacted, because I know AI is shoved at us to solve every problem lately, but please don't ask it for fermenting (or possibly any cooking) advice!

(the data tab is actually a bit more useful, if less sexy than the map)
(yes, I'm taking it as read that maps of ferment origins are sexy)

I do love me some data - here's a map of over 600 traditional ferments across the world bokulich-lab.github.io/FermDB/#map

My main concern here, though, would be keeping everything submerged below the brine. This becomes slightly less important once it's all fermented, but if you keep it for a while you'll get off-flavours from yeasts (often called 'kahm') on anything exposed (though underneath it's usually fine)

I wouldn't personally go for a perpetual ferment - the reason being that you get different microbes emerging at different stages of fermentation (the early-fermentation ones can't take the acidity of late-fermentation) and so new veg wouldn't get the full process.

Thank you very much Franz! 😁

Looks like my book is discounted at the moment (<£15) www.hotukdeals.com/deals/of-cab...

I made something silly with some juniper beer I fermented because I think the little berries look like comets (🔊)

Very happy to have made some kimchi which got complements from our South Korean houseguest.

Standing on the shoulders of @jamesreadwrites.bsky.social and his fab book.

Thanks very much Justin, and great work on your clearly impressive batch! Spreading the good word of home-made kimchi one jar at a time...

Here is a small part of said soy sauce

‘Without time, there is no flavour’: a South Korean grand master on the art of the perfect soy sauce Ki Soon-do’s soy sauce has been served to Donald Trump and gained Unesco heritage protection. It is recognition that is 370 years in the making

So pleased to see trad soy sauce getting in-depth coverage from @koryodynasty.bsky.social (coincidentally the same morning I'm filtering some soy sauce I started 3 years ago) www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Yes little mouse! Douze points.

Andy Serkis on the glockenspiel for Albania 👌

I think any application of AI should be measured against "magic 8 ball with Simpsons clips" tvsimulator.com/says/

I'm on the Fermenters Guild podcast chatting about the koji process, crap bats and the ginger beer liminal space fermentersguild.podbean.com/e/james-read...

I didn't think I'd sick in my mouth so early in the day, but here we are.

Context: taken from an AI-generated short story, which (how apt!) nicked the phrase from Nabokov.

...and that is how I named my sad lit language model.

Yup! We planted one a year ago and it's already doubled in size (and that's in our front garden, with a soil mix that I assume is 50:50 old pots & building material)

Also, other versions of kimchi are well worthwhile - radish
winter kimchi (dongchimi) made without any chilli is an absolute favourite, and I've not seen it commercially available in the UK even though it's pretty easy to make.

Thanks Nic. Yes, even if it does myself out of sales of the one I make, I'd say make your own. Here's my recipe

From the ATBGE community on Reddit: Pistachio earbud Explore this post and more from the ATBGE community

After 7 hours with a 6 month-old in A&E I like to unwind with a bowl of leftover chilli (thanks CJ) while watching a man make pistachios into earbuds v.redd.it/8wh7boll9kle1

It's a bold defence for a woman who claims her Jesus statue wept blood www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Thanks! That's a follow. Her panel talk at BL Food Season a couple of years back was great.

I've had the irn bru syrup sat in the back of the fridge for over a year, so just using was satisfying. Good drink, but getting enough bru flavour through while controlling sweetness is (perhaps unsurprisingly) tricky. Not bad tipple though!

Excellent! 👏