a yoghurt-making and collective reading gathering with Mercedes Villalba and Eva Parra-

This workshop will take place on zoom, tickets are free with optional donation*

Register on eventbrite HERE to be sent the link

make sauerkraut/ make kimchi/ make miso/ eat together/ recover from industrial amnesia/ make mead/ make hard cider/ make kombucha/ tell stories/ recover from industrial amnesia/ make vinegar/ make tempeh/ make kefir/ collaborate with bacteria/ recover from industrial amnesia

Leila Nadir & Cary Peppermint

Let’s make yoghurt together and start recovering from industrial amnesia. Fermentation is a process that challenges the industrial production of food like no other. While canning relies on creating a time capsule to preserve food, fermentation creates an ecosystem ruled by yeast and bacteria, where time happens differently.

In this session we will sit at the table (from each of our kitchens) with Mercedes Villalba (in California) and Eva Parra (in Cali). We’ll read, we’ll ferment, we’ll share ideas and learn how to make yoghurt the old way.

What you need:

Milk
Yoghurt (a spoonful of commercial yoghurt containing live cultures -check the label!)
A saucepan, wooden spoon and heat for boiling the milk
Funnel (optional)
A small bottle or jar with a lid

For a vegan version:*

Vegetable milk (coconut, oat, tigermilk ...)
Live culture (starter): it can be purchased online. In many cases this is made from whey, so if you want to make a vegan version you need to make sure that it is of plant origin
A saucepan, wooden spoon and heat for boiling the milk
Funnel (optional)
A small bottle or jar with a lid

* Vegan yoghurt usually has a more liquid consistency, you can use a thickener such as tapioca starch or agar agar if you want a thick consistency.

Mercedes Villalba is an Argentinian writer and anthropologist who currently resides in California, USA, where she researches about the commodification of geothermal landscapes. She has published in magazines such as Too Much, Compost and The Plant. For the latter she wrote Fervent Manifesto, a text that has been translated and published in Spanish by Calipso Press, and in Portuguese by No Libros. She teaches at UCDAVIS with a module called “Mushrooms are weird”.

Eva Parra co-founded Calipso Press in 2015, a small risograph printing studio, publishing label and artistic collective based in Cali, Colombia. Her editorial focus is artists’ books and her work ranges from art and fermentation processes to visual culture, illustration and design. She is currently the editor of A Sketch for the Future, a collection tribute to Muriel Cooper that gathers different books with one thing in common, addressing urgent issues to think about today in order to inhabit our future.

* la Sala is currently an unfunded organisation. Your donation contributes to our running costs (don’t worry, our speakers are paid regardless!)

throw inertia at us, we will grow rock gardens